Since our Mexico trip morphed into our anniversary, Mother's Day/Father's Day, and Beau's birthday present all-in-one this year, we pared down our celebrating at home and kept things simple and centered around the kids. We had missed them and I was ready to get started with our summer break together. The Thursday after we returned home was our anniversary. We were craving the nigiri we had at the resort, so we decided to take the kids to Soho for a little family date night. It was a pretty typical dinner out with the kids! Beau and I had the best of intentions, ordering martinis and dark brews and sushi, but spent most of our time playing damage control. Cruz accidentally spilled Beau's beer all over the table, with tears to follow because he felt bad, Mila visited the potty four times (before our food came), they sucked down their chocolate milk within ten seconds of receiving their cups, and spent the rest of the time fighting over the one intact crayon in the cup. Our sushi reminded us how good the food was in Mexico, the kids hardly touched their grilled cheese paninis, and an hour later, Beau and I were ready to hop back on a plane. :)
Afterwards, we freed ourselves from the adult restaurant world and grabbed some wedding day cupcakes to go. We spread a blanket in the middle of the Hearst Center's lawn, took a few snaps of our crazy train, and headed home, sticky fingers, cupcake faces, and smile lines abounding. It wasn't a long walk on the beach or a romantic five-course gourmet dinner for two, but it was us, in this messy, but all too temporary stage of raising little people, and I'm not sure I would have had it any other way.
Beau's birthday followed two days later. My man is 35, officially on the downhill slide to forty which sounds pretty old to the both of us. This birthday didn't involve banners and homemade cakes as it had in years' past, but the kids and I did rekindle one of my favorite traditions. We visited the Dollar Tree, Cruz and Mila each clenching a five dollar bill to spend on anything they would like to gift their daddy. I let them wander as long as they like and make it a point to not steer them any which way as they ponder and choose their gift. We've been doing this for years now and it is so neat to see how Cruz has grown in maturity and thoughtfulness. On the way there he said, "If I can't find him anything he likes at the store, I will buy him some Pablos instead!" No Pablos was needed, though, as Cruz found a small toolbox and a dart board to purchase. Mila, well, she reminded me of Cruz a few years ago, choosing pink bubbles, a Finding Dory cup, and a dinosaur hat that she thought Daddy would love. We giggled uncontrollably when she picked out a card of a man with a six-pack, and paid for all of our loot for a grand total of $8.46!
We spent Beau's birthday at home. With many of our friends out of town or busy this first official weekend of summer, we soaked up this rare weekend of nothing to prepare and nowhere to be and RELAXED. I kept asking Beau what he wanted to do and was a little thrown off when he kept saying nothing! We chilled at the Farmer's Market for a long time, took naps, spent some time with Chris and Julie on the deck over Moscow mules and cheese, and ended the night with Pablos, a Menchies cake, and presents, party of four. Guys, if you haven't tried Menchies yet, here is my official plug. :) The ice cream cake with the edible photo paper was a huge hit! The kids had fun "eating each others' faces" and the reese's peanut butter cups in the middle of the ice cream layers was so good.
Mila pouting because she ate all of Cruz's cookie and we went to buy him another...story of our life lately!
The cake wasn't the only hit as we closed out Beau's 34th year. When we couldn't find a way to hang the dart board Cruz gifted to Beau, we improvised and made up a "drop the dart" game standing on our window bench. What started as a simple solution to appease our sensitive boy, soon turned into a competitive little game we could all play together. We ended the night with cheers, books before bed, and a hopeful movie night on the couch for two. I think we made it ten minutes in!
Another anniversary, another birthday in the books. A fitting way to celebrate the start of summer sunshine and fun and this family of four.
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