Troy celebrated his birthday by picking up his mother-in-law at the airport
February 23rd, 2009
We had a busy, fun weekend! So busy and fun that I never had the chance to blog about what we were doing like I wanted to. I had a post all planned out for Troy’s birthday on Saturday but never had the chance to sit down and write it. Relaxing weekends where we do nothing much but sit around in in our pj’s, reading and watching TV and eating, are nice once in a while but I think I really like busy weekends the best. I always feel better when we’ve accomplished something with our free time. Even though with us “started to accomplish” is probably more accurate. We’re all about the works-in-progress around here.
On Friday we all had stuff to do at the mall. Annalie got a haircut at the kids’ salon complete with sparkles in her hair and a purple-and-blue bow to match her dress. Troy had to pick up some light-switch plates and other assorted home-improvement odds and ends. And Annalie and I needed to buy Troy’s birthday presents.
When we got home, I worked on wrapping and hiding the presents while Annalie and Troy put together our new bookcases! We’ve been pondering a solution to our living room clutter for a while. We have this big living room and not a lot of furniture in it, so not a lot of places for storage. Annalie brings toys up there and they tend to get gathered into a big pile in the corner where the toys seem to reproduce while we’re sleeping. I have my own problem (visible in this photo) with baskets full of yarn and half-completed crochet projects.
Enter these two EXPEDIT bookcases. I was complaining to Brenda that we couldn’t figure out a good solution to the Living Room Clutter Problem (a dresser? a toybox? baskets?) and she immediately said, “You know what you could do, get those long low bookcases and place them against the window. Then you’d have baskets to put all your stuff in, and the cats would get a window seat!” We thought that was a great idea.
Katy seems to approve as well. Lily has yet to make a comment for the record.
Now all we have to do is decide what stuff goes in what baskets. We’re going to buy the baskets gradually because they cost $15 apiece and if you know where to buy them for less please let me know. I’ve searched online pretty thoroughly and looked at a half-dozen brick-and-mortar stores and that size and shape of basket seems to cost $15 minimum unless it’s made out of fabric, and even then they’re not the right size and I worry fabric wouldn’t be sturdy enough. We’re okay with buying them gradually though. That will give us more time to procrastinate plan.
Annalie and I spent part of the evening making a birthday banner for Troy, which was fun. She needed a bit of help with coming up with words or phrases starting with specific letters, but not as much as I thought she would! She came up with most of them herself:
Hilarious
Annalie’s daddy
Perfect Dad!
Popcorn eater
Young at heart
Bubble blower
Intelligent
Really polite
Terrific
Helpful
Drives us around San Diego
Always by our side
Yes! We love him!
Totally amazing!
Racing fan
Outstanding!
You could never find a better guy than Daddy.
Saturday was Troy’s 39th birthday! He and Annalie got up early and made pancakes, which is something they do together often while I sleep in. As I twittered today, I have a love/hate relationship with sleeping in. One the one hand, I’m a night owl and I love staying up late so I love sleeping in. On the other hand, when I sleep in past 9 I feel lazy and like I’m missing out on the fun. In this case I felt especially bad because it was Troy’s birthday, yet I somehow still couldn’t drag myself out of bed. I was having a weird dream about penguins and puffins and pancakes. (Yes, really.)
Once I finally rolled out of bed things got busy. Troy had a bunch of re-wiring he wanted to tackle, to see if he could fix the fact that in order to turn on the light on our upstairs deck we have to walk all the way into our bedroom, into the library, and flip a switch on the inside wall.
And Annalie and I baked! When I asked Troy what kind of birthday cake he wanted he said, “Well, I like cheesecake, but I know you don’t really like cheesecake so…carrot cake would be good!” Of course I had to go all Betty Crocker and make both. But I didn’t want to have two full-size cakes for the four of us to eat, so I found a recipe for mini-cheesecakes and tinkered with it till I liked it. Maybe I’ll post that recipe later if anyone wants it.
For the carrot cake, I halved the recipe and used my 6-inch round pans to make a mini layer cake. I kind of love making those. They’re the perfect size for four or five people to each have a generous serving, plus a little leftover.
Annalie helped a lot with the carrot cake. She’s getting really good with a whisk and a spatula! I should try to find one of those kids’ recipes that she could do mainly on her own. I bet she’d get a kick out of that.
Once the cakes were made and in the fridge and I took a quick shower, we headed to the airport to pick up my mom! Yes, for Troy’s birthday his mother-in-law came to visit. Sounds like part of a bad mother-in-law joke or the plot of a sitcom, right? Well fortunately my mom is awesome and so is my husband, and they get along just great. In fact, I have teased my mom for years that her favorite kid isn’t me or my brother, it’s Troy.
But I think her one and only grandchild has eclipsed even Troy. When we pulled up to the curb at the airport where my mom was waiting on a bench, Annalie had her seatbelt off and was waiting to open the door the instant we were stopped. She jumped out of the minivan with a huge grin on her face, raced over to my mom, and flung her arms around her while shouting, “Gramaw! I’m so happy to see you!” They spent a minute or so assuring each other of their undying devotion while Troy hoisted the luggage into the trunk and I waited till it was my turn to say hello and give my mom a hug.
My mom laughed sheepishly as we hugged, saying, “I really am glad to see you too!”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I don’t greet you as enthusiastically as Annalie does. I probably never have greeted you that enthusiastically.”
“That’s true,” my mom said as she got settled in her seat and put her seatbelt on. “In fact, even when you were as little as two years old I never got more than a, ‘Hi, Mom,” out of you.’”
After dinner at In-N-Out, we headed home so Troy could open his presents. Then it was cake time!
Speaking of cake, there are some of those mini-cheesecakes left in the fridge. I think I’ll go have one or two right now.
I hope you had a happy birthday, Troy! Enjoy being six years older than me for the next couple of weeks.
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awwwwwwww….. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROY!
I dig the bookcases. They are higher than I imagined but I think they work! I’m already daydreaming up how pretty some coffee table books might look stacked randomly. Of course I would have to buy you those books since I know you don’t own any. Hahahahahahah!
I better shut up before someone accuses me of cluttering up your house.
xo
Bethany says…We do too have coffee table books! We have one about cats, one about Norman Rockwell, one about Canada, one about…uh…I know we have a half-dozen or so of them, anyway. I’ll have to find them for you next time you’re here! They’re on our bookcases in the library somewhere.
Your mum *is* awesome. I really loved meeting your mum.
And I love seeing her always smiling face in your photos.
A huge happy birthday from across the pacific for Troy.
I don’t know what size baskets you’re looking for and I don’t know if you have a World Market store near you (I know they’re online though) but I just stopped there last night and found some decently priced baskets like that (especially if you wait till they go on sale, which they do often). You may want to check them out. Just stay away from the jewelry, that’s my weakness there. Although yours might be the (adorable) kitchen stuff they have. :-)
Happy birthday Troy! And welcome back Mom!
My first trip to your blogsite (is that what they’re called? I’m an analog guy trapped in a digital world, so have patience with this old blister).
It’s soooo cool. Great pics and post, B.
Uh, er…HAPPY B-DAY TROY!!
G. aka Uncle George.
I had mini-cheesecakes at my wedding reception. They looked similar to the ones you made!
Love the bookcases… people always seem to post pictures of great looking IKEA stuff, but since there isn’t an IKEA near me I have only been to the store 2 times. And each time it was while traveling and I didn’t have any goal purchases in mind, thus I wandered around feeling awed and overwhelmed by how much there was in the store.
I really like your messages to Troy made from the letters of ‘Happy Birthday Troy’. That’s a great idea.
I’d love to have the recipe for the mini-cheesecakes! So cute, and the cake looks delicious. I love Annalie’s expression in the picture of her with her slice of cake. She is growing up way too fast.
Oh, and the birthday banner idea is the cutest.
Bethany says…Okay then, I’ll post the mini-cheesecake recipe one day soon. And thanks!
Happy Birthday Troy!
Love the bookcases and the banner! What a neat idea. :)
Happy Birthday Troy! I always get my baskets at Ross… I have to scrounge for them, but they’re way cheaper. The most I’ve ever paid is $8. Our Ross is the best stocked/most organized one I’ve ever seen tho.
My favorite part of that was “popcorn eater” =) Kids are so cool!
Happy birthday to your husband! I’m glad he enjoyed it and I’m glad you all enjoyed your busy weekend.
Happy, happy birthday, Troy! Looks like you were spoiled with love :)
One of the reasons your mom is smiling is because she left the rest of us in the cold and is back in her home state with some of her favorite relatives. Happy Birthday Troy one more year till you know what!!!! They don’t call me Aunt B for nothing.
Penguins and puffins and pancakes… Oh my! :-)
Happy birthday, Troy!!!
Happy Birthday to your hubby! (My hubby is 6 years older than me too, almost to the day.)
I’m with you in feeling like my hubby is more popular with my mom than me at times too. When we were dating, there were conversations between, well the two of them, that I could not get a word in edgewise! That’s a big blessing though, isn’t it?
Looks like lots of fun, and nice bookcase!
Troy is actually five years older than me, almost to the day. I’ll be 34 on March 11th. So he’s only six years older than me for a couple of weeks. :-)
A very happy birthday to Troy! I love those EXPEDIT bookcases – I’m planning to get the 5 by 5 size for my craft room when I have some extra money – so that means it’ll be later rather than sooner ;-) ! Sounds like it was a great weekend!
awww I miss IN N OUT! I’m a native Californian, living in North Carolina. Ive been teased with IN N OUT all week. For some reason it keeps showing up on the tv shows i watch. YUM I miss that place.
I can’t believe my baby brother is 39!!! You know that makes me feel really old :)
I’m glad I wasn’t there in person for Troy’s birthday because you would have had to fight me off from eating all those mini cheesecakes!
Say Hi to your mom for me.
Wonderful post (as always). Kick A$$ book cases too, so jealous of your closeness to an Ikea.
That carrot cake looks stunning – and served up on Annalie’s painted plate too, perfect!
A belated happy birthday to Troy :)
Sounds like you’ve all had a lovely few days. I think I read on Twitter your giving up sugar? Good luck to you. It’s hard I Know as a few years ago I had to do for health reasons, pesky sugar is in almost everything. Although some brands of cereal are sugar free. I am debating if I should to give up coffee for lent? Does de-caf count? what do you think?
I like your new bookcases too. I have a thing for boxes and baskets my motto for Spring is “lle i bob peth a bob beth yn ei lle” which translates into a place for everything and everything in it’s place. Have a great week.
[...] one person (Hi, Jennie!) said they’d like the recipe for the mini-cheesecakes I made for Troy’s birthday. And since I’m sitting here in my parents’ house all by myself while Troy and my dad [...]