Let the birthday extravaganza begin…

Starting with Aaron’s birthday in July, we have 5 birthdays in very quick succession (and this does not include members in our extended family). Apparently we did not plan well when having our children, since Katie and Bridget have birthdays five days apart and Averi and Paul’s birthday’s are 9 days apart. It get’s pretty crazy around here in August and September. Now that we’ve finished the last birthday (until my big three-oh in February), I feel like I can finally sit down and catch up with our life.

Aaron requested black forest cake for his 32nd birthday. Good choice, my love.

 

 

I’m quite impressed with what I gave him for his birthday. (Is it okay to say that?) This year, his gift was a “Passport to Love.” I planned dates for every month of the year, with a different country as each month’s theme. I made boarding passes for each country, detailing the date and time of our date, with information of what we’ll be doing on the back. I also purchased a few gifts to go along with the theme of some of the months. I packed everything in a suitcase and he got to unwrap his presents and his dates. We’ve had so much fun so far with our dates, and there are several that I’m really looking forward to.

Here’s our itinerary (with some editing, so that I don’t embarrass anyone. **Wink, wink** And I embarrassed Aaron just by writing that.):

July—United Kingdom

Fish and chips at Two Fools Tavern

“A Winter's Tale” at The Vortex

Eat banoffe pie for dessert

August—Central America

Visit the Albuquerque Museum Of Art And History to view “Exploring Art Of The Ancient Americas”

Dinner at Pasion Latin Fusion

Watch Jurassic Park

September—Mexico

Salsa Festival in Old Town

Dinner at El Norteño

Watch Rango

Make homemade fried ice cream

October—Greece

Greek Festival at St George Greek Orthodox Church

Dine at the festival—gyros and baklava!!

Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding

November—Morocco

Serve kabobs, a tagine, couscous, dates, nuts, and oranges

Watch Casablanca

Learn to belly dance

December—France

Dinner at Chez Axel

Go to the opening night of Les Miserables

Learn phrases from the language of love

January—China

Eat Chinese food with chopsticks

Paint the Chinese characters for “I love you” and frame them

Play Chinese Checkers and mahjong

Light a Chinese Flying Lantern

February--Africa

See if there are any events going on for Black History Month

Dinner at Talking Drums restaurant

Visit the Zenith African Caribbean Market

Watch Out of Africa

March—Italy

Create food that would make an Italian mama proud

Go to “Madama Butterfly” at the Journal Theater

Enjoy some gelato

April—India

Give each other henna tattoos

Make delicious Indian food

Eat sitting on cushions while listening to Indian music

May—Germany

Make schnitzel, dumplings, and other hearty fare

Game night! Play German board games

Strudel (or another dessert!) from Dagmar's for dessert

June—Caribbean

Make delicious Caribbean-style food

Watch The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Piña coladas

Spa night

Here’s a sample boarding pass:

This present was extremely well received. So much so that I’m worried I won’t be able to top this in the future. But I’ll give it the old college try.