Birthday Surprise

Last Sunday was my birthday.  One of the great things about having a winter birthday is I can go skiing on my special day.  Which is exactly what I did.  My friend Kim and I headed up to the mountain to enjoy the snow. 

My beautiful cake

Meadows was all decked out for Valentine's Day.  They even had one of their chairlifts designated for speed dating (one of their slowest lifts so you got lots of time to get to know each other).  I swear half of the Portland metro area was at Meadows, so the lines at all the other lifts were incredible.  There wasn't a line at the "chairway to heaven" so Kim and I rode that lift (Kim joked that we were going to pretend to be a couple).

Denise frosting my cake

Even with the hordes of people, it was still a fun day.  Kim's kids stayed home, so it was like a vacation for her.  We had lunch in the nice restaurant, instead of the cafeteria.  Kim bought me lunch for my B-day.  Thanks Kim!

Bear cleans up the floor

About mid-afternoon, the snow got sticky and we both were tired.  Kim and I decided to call it a day, and get a jump on the evening ski traffic down the mountain.  So we packed up and headed for home.

Adding decorations

I got a "happy birthday" phone call from my sister, but no text messages or phone calls from my kids all day.  Usually they're really good about remembering my birthday, so I thought it was strange I hadn't heard from them.  I hoped my kids didn't forget!

Cody made homemade bread!

When I arrived home, both Cody and Denise's cars were parked in front of the house. I came inside to find my kids busy in the kitchen. Cody was making dinner, and Denise was baking me a cake. What a wonderful surprise!

Cody getting dinner ready

Cody was working on a chicken Alfredo dish with fresh steamed veggies and homemade bread.  It looked and smelled wonderful.  Roger, who was in on the surprise, had cleaned the entire house in anticipation of the kid's arrival.

My kids got creative with the candles

Denise was busy baking a red velvet layer cake.  She made it from scratch.  Once the cake was done, she whipped up some yummy cream cheese icing.  Denise finished the cake off with a coating of crushed pecans on the sides, and "happy birthday" lettering on the top.

Lighting the candles

We sat down to dinner, and was it ever good!  Cody has always been a good cook, and this meal was no exception.  I tried not to overeat, as I really wanted to save room for a piece of Denise's cake.

Well, it's better than 48 candles!

I keep a box of used birthday candles in my kitchen cupboard.  Over the years, it's accumulated quite a large number of candles.  When it was time to put candles on my cake, the kids dug out the box and began counting.  They wanted to put 48 candles on my cake.  I protested, saying they all wouldn't fit, and it would take forever to get them lit (remember your Dad's birthday?)

So Cody and Denise got really creative.  They found a number four, five and three in the candle box.  Fourty-five plus three makes fourty-eight!  Cody took two candles and melted them together to make a plus sign.  So I got my wish and didn't have to endure a large amount of birthday candles on my cake.

I'm very proud of my kids

After blowing out the candles, we dug into the cake.  It was wonderful! 

My kids were such good sports, they even let me take a bunch of photos of them.  That, and they cleaned up my kitchen and did all of the dishes. 

Mmmmm, cake!

It was great to have my kids home.  I haven't had them both home for my birthday since Cody went off to college, almost six years ago.  Having them cook me dinner was better than going out to any restaurant.  And Denise's cake was the best!  I liked it way more than any store-bought cake.  What a wonderful birthday present!  I'm a lucky mom to have such great kids!

And no, I don't feel a year older....


:)