Happy Birthday, Mike

Tuesday the 21st was Mike's birthday. It's the first time I've had the opportunity to go all out and pamper someone on their birthday, and I was ready to take full advantage of the situation. Growing up in my family, it was a tradition for Mom and/or Dad to get up early and make the birthday person breakfast in bed. Then everyone would be called quietly to the bedroom door of the Birthday Person to barge in and sing "Happy Birthday" while they wiped the sleep from their eyes and ate their breakfast with everyone watching.

I've always had mixed feelings about this tradition. On the one hand, I love starting the birthday celebration with my entire family first thing in the morning. Plus, the breakfasts have always been way yummy. On the other hand, it's more than a little embarrassing to have everyone see you in your booger-eyed, morning-matted-hair glory. And I'm not exactly a fan of having that look preserved for posterity as Dad takes an album's worth of Bad Hair Day pictures. (Once I even set my alarm to get up 2 hours early, did my hair and make up, and went back to bed. That year, Dad forgot the camera.)

That being said, I was willing to preserve this tradition if Mike wanted to, so I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. The answer? His birthday cheesecake. So we lit candles at 6:30 in the morning, sang "Happy Birthday," and had a slice of cheesecake in the kitchen. It may not have been traditional, but it was fun...and no pictures. Except of the cake.

After I got home from work, we went 3D Glow-in-the-Dark adventure mini golfing. I'd wanted to do something that Mike wouldn't expect, and I think I succeeded. He was a good sport about it, especially since he won by an embarrassing amount. I won't tell you the score. And you have to admit, the dinosaurs are pretty cool.