Old men are the cutest

So two weeks ago was Brandon's big 3-0! We had several mini-celebrations over a week and a half, and I think it added up to a fun birthday for him. Of course, I took too long to document it, so I've forgotten a lot of the details... Honey, feel free to fill in the gaps in the comments.

There was a small celebration at our house, involving a teeny-tiny ice cream cake and two necktie-shaped bookmarks, coated with many layers of colored pencil and marker illustrations and gobs of stickers.

I'm pretty sure one night we had dinner out somewhere and called it his birthday dinner. (We ate out about a hundred times the last few weeks, so it's all a blur.) And he got himself his gift for me one night when we were out with the kids. At least I picked it out. Wait. At least I decided which thing he'd recently told me he wanted I'd get for him.

Most exciting of all, we went to the Monster Jam with the boys and Dawn and Matt. It was "for the boys", but I distinctly remember being told it could count as his birthday present last month when I was being convinced to splurge on the tickets. It was really great fun, and I think we all discovered a new passion. Unfortunately, we didn't prepare the boys well enough for the very cold evening, so there was plenty of guilt involved. I took over 600 pictures, so I'll have to set up an entire post devoted to that outing.

Say what?!?!

We ate out with my family another night. It was funny because the staff had to sing happy birthday to at least 8 tables while we were there. Apparently once it happens a couple times people start getting silly and claiming birthdays left and right. Ours was real, yay! (Dimly lit, so I have no good pictures, boo.)

Finally (I think), we had dinner at his family's house. I kinda ruined it by being really sick and droopy, but the food was good, and I'm told the cake was yummy. The boys "helped" daddy blow out his trick candles. There was an entire layer of boy-spit covering the whole thing by the time the last candle gave up. It was hilarious.

I am so proud of the man that my man is becoming. So manly. :) For a few minutes, this celebration sent me into another tailspin of panic about being 30 myself. It wasn't as real when I was still married to a 20-something-year-old stud. Thanks for being my stud, you sweet geezer.