Happy Birthday, Richie!

Richie kept saying that his birthday (August 23) was just another day, no big deal, he didn't want to do anything. Well, obviously, we could n0t let that happen. I mean, Number 4-0 is a big deal. How could we let such a milestone pass?

Since Richie's birthday fell on a Saturday, we celebrated at Pirateland. Richie and I met Richard, Cathy and Cathryn at China Buffet and did some serious damage to their culinary offerings. Then, when Richie took the dogs out for a walk, Cathy and I started setting things up:

Cathy picked this cake up from the grocery store on the fly, and had one of the ladies from the bakery decorate it in black frosting. The inside was yellow cake, and for a grocery store cake, it was incredibly moist and delicious. Ice cream on the side didn't hurt, either. I had wanted to have Paula from Cupcake Betty's do a cake, but Richie shot down my ideas, saying he didn't want to celebrate. Next time, I'll have to be clandestine with my birthday plans.

We let Cathryn put the candles on the cake, hence the, um, "creative" styling.

Here's the cake all lit up. Richard made the joke that we needed to call the fire department, so they'd be on standby to put out the flames.

The birthday table. I've noticed that as you get older, the presents get smaller in size, but better in quality.

When Richie came in from walking the dogs, he was quite surprised. See Ashe there at his left hand? It looks almost like she's got her head thrown back, laughing with him that we put this little surprise shindig together. "Ha ha ha, Daddy...we really got you!"

Richie blew out his candles after we sang "Happy Birthday". It took him two blows.

Richie was thanking his dad for the gift, so I took advantage of my opportunity and took a nice picture of them together.

Cathy doesn't like taking pictures, but Richie and I convinced her to let me snap one of them together.

I should have more pictures. Like, of me and Richie together. And Cathryn with her Daddy. Maybe some photos of us at the restaurant, or Richie at the man mall, aka Bass Pro Shops. But, I don't.

I am lame. I am a poor excuse for a blogger. I was so busy taking pictures, that I forgot to have someone take pictures of my husband with his wife and daughter. Go ahead, throw tomatoes. I'll stand here and take it, because I totally deserve it.

Toodles!