My Birthday

As Jen correctly pointed out in the comments section, there was a lot of good family time on my birthday. We started by heading out early to The Egg and I...our favorite local breakfast joint. It was a nice little breakfast as it usually is...with the additional bonus that Kade sat in his seat the entire time and didn't knock over the water pitcher.

Then we headed home and before putting Payton down for her nap, decided to open the gifts. The kiddos got me a bike helmet, some bike pedal clips and a bike computer (for measuring time/distance/temp/etc). Jen also bought Kade a new bike helmet (see picture to left) since Payton will be needing the little helmet now. Jen got me a second hiking backpack which we will desperately need in Costa Rica for all our outings into the rain forests. We already have one Kelty Ridgeline backpack but that is the one that we currently lug Kade around in. So I got on Ebay and found a second Kelty backpack...this time a Trek backpack. You can really pick them up fairly cheaply on Ebay...as well as some of those kid stores like "Once Upon A Child" and "Harmony Kids". Anyway, it was what I really wanted so we could all enjoy CR a little more later this year. Then we had a light afternoon heading into the evening festivities.

Jen and I decided to finally try and host one of those murder mystery dinner parties. It was a lot of fun for the most part. It did take us a little while to understand what was going on and how to really play the parts. By the time we started to figure it out, Joe and were pretty tanked so our participation was probably less than desired by some...but hey, it was my birthday. I played the role of a world class tennis player (Hi K. Lesteral)...thus the goofy yellow sweater-vest thing. Jen was a business woman named Cherrie Ghubellee ;-) Mark was a business man (Ray Zhor Sharp) and as you can tell from the picture he looked like most of us do during our work staff meetings ;-) Jill played an incompetent TV producer (Tilly V. Isone). Chris was a chef (Marin Nate) and Amy was a homemaker (N. Vee Ausse). Finally, Joe was a handman (Toto Lee Smytten) and Ellen was a homemaker (Borissa "Bor" D. Stiphe - married to Reilly Stiphe). Everyone came in costume and gave it a great go...most of the men heavily aided by the bar.

Finally, Jen baked me a super good strawberry-rhubarb pie...one of my all time favorites. She cut "32" into the top of the pie which turned out pretty good for freehand. So in the end...it was a relaxing day with the family and a fun evening with our friends!