Joyeux anniversaire, Tony

Yesterday was Tony's birthday, but in a way, it seemed like we spent the whole weekend celebrating. Saturday morning, Ari helped me make Tony's cake--red velvet, of course. (I had found the mix at Target the night before and since it's hard to find, I stocked up and bought 4.) I arranged for my friend Dawn to watch Ari on Saturday afternoon so that Tony and I could go out to lunch alone--he picked Carrabba's Italian Grill. We had a gift card too, which made it even better.

After that, we went to Kohl's, and came away with a new bedding set--comforter, 2 shams and a bedskirt. It was originally $240 but with the sale price plus my coupon, it came to only $70. You have to love a good deal like that. And we desperately needed a new comforter.

Our next stop was Coldstone so Tony could redeem his coupon for free ice cream (and of course, I got some too). Then it was time to pick up Ari. Tony had already made plans with the guys to go see "Watchmen" in the evening, so Ari and I headed to my parents' house for dinner. Dave, Jess and Micah were there, and Ari was thrilled to get to hang out with her newest cousin.

Yesterday was Tony's actual birthday--Pastor made everyone sing to him in the church service. After church, we went out to a Chinese buffet with the teens and their parents. When we were done there, we went to one of the teen's homes to play board games and hang out. We did adults vs. teens in Pictionary, and us adults killed the teens. And of course I rubbed it in like the notoriously sore winner that I am. Then they surprised Tony with a little cake--they had even written "Happy Birthday, Tony" on it.

When we got home, I gave Tony a hard time about how he hadn't even touched the red velvet cake (complete with homemade frosting) that I made for him. (Of course, it's not like he had really had a chance, but that's beside the point.) He harassed me right back, saying he didn't know it was for him because it didn't have his name on it. "Oh, I'll write on it for you," I said, with an evil glint in my eye.

When I was done, I announced, "Hey, I wrote on your cake."

"Yeh? What did you write? Something mean?"

"I was going to. But I just wrote your real name was because it was shorter."



See, we balance out our sappiness with routine harassment and name-calling.

So as you can see, it was a busy weekend. I'll just end with a couple pictures of Ari. I took these before church yesterday, and no, those pigtails did not stay in. She had one yanked out before we even got to church... *sigh*