Birthday Week

To begin Maria’s birthday week, we held a small family party.  But before everyone came over, we decided to give Maria a few of her presents…a little early.

Yes, a basketball hoop and a slide!  Maria had so much fun with the hoop that cousin Alex had, we thought she’d enjoy having her own.  And every time Maria sees a slide, she wants to run to it…so we thought it might be better to have a small something in our backyard.  She almost didn’t know what to do with these new toys…I think she’s still trying to figure out the whole concept of gifts.

Anyways…back to our party, it was nothing fancy…my parents and Kristine & Jake were the only ones that were able to make it…but it was nice to have an afternoon to hang out and relax together.  Appetizers (a few cheeses, crackers, strawberries and a mushroom tart from Trader Joe’s) as well as wine, beer & soda started things off.  It was a nice day today so we all were outside which made Maria happy because she was then able to show off her new toys and her bubble gun to the family.

Dinner was grilled flat iron steak and chicken, both glazed in a teriyaki BBQ sauce, brown rice, steamed broccoli and pineapple spears…all of Maria’s favorites…actually, all of MY favorites too…that’s my girl!

For dessert Maria requested a chocolate cake with pink frosting…we asked her many times during the week what she wanted and she kept coming up with the same thing…so that’s what she got.  OF COURSE today she changed her mind and said she wanted yellow frosting…too late.  Amazingly, instead of going for the frosting like she usually does, she ate all the cake and left the pink butter cream alone.  Go figure…

Both Sarah and I are taking Wednesday, Maria’s actual birthday, off from work to have a family day.  It was a fun day last year so we thought we’d do it again and make it a tradition.  The weather reports are all over the place…from sunny to a chance of snow.  (Whaaa?)  We’ll see.  Ending with a few pictures of our day…