Parents have birthdays too, ya know

Sometimes I get so caught up in thinking about and writing about and taking pictures of and celebrating my kids that I forget that Brian and I exist, too.  And that we need a little celebrating every once in a while.  Even though our own birthday celebrations smell largely like a kids' celebration, what with a party tablecloth and a tacky banner displayed in the background and all, we both find little ways to grow it up a bit.  This year, for Brian's birthday, it was in the chocolate.  Well, okay... not really real chocolate, but chocolate that he loves and adores just the same.  For the kids, you see, I would have made the cake out of the much less expensive skittles, hard candy, and gum, with a few pixie sticks for flare.

But for Brian?  Chocolate.

This man deserves a gold sticker star for the way he carried us through the last year.  The whole story will be explored in its own post, but the important thing is that he has been so wonderful as this Adjusting To The Desert event kinda knocked me down.  So I was happy to celebrate him for an entire day.  We did the whole birthday thing, you know?  Presents, (candy-bar) cake, a popular song that has a whopping total of five different words... you know the drill.

And then we finished out the evening with a wild and awesome performance of The Newsies with the two oldest kids.  

The next week, it was my turn to celebrate my time of birth.  I took a nice, long walk in the morning with my favorite podcasts and my favorite walking companion.

Then we had fruit cake with some more of my favorite people.

That night, Brian showed me up and took me to a real grown up dinner in a stunning restaurant that sits at the top of one of the hotels downtown.  Looking out the windows, you could see all the impressive lights of Vegas... and the food.  Oh.  The food.  I don't think I've ever had food so flavorful and delicious.  All of it.  No chicken nuggets....  No cheap plastic toys...

It was fantastic.

But the best part about it was the company.  Don't be jealous, but I got to stare at that handsome face for the whole night.  Turns out growing up is a pretty sweet deal after all.