My Husband's Birthday

First off I have to say that I have the most wonderful husband. Ever. He is smart (working on his MS in hydrogeology), funny (no specific examples, but he really is), friendly (everyone loves him. if you don't, something is wrong), creative (he does awesome paintings that people pay actual money for), manly (he goes caving and takes out the trash without being asked), he is kind and compassionate (again no specifics, but its true), and is an amazing father to our son. And today is his birthday. I am so thankful to my in-laws for making and raising such a handsome and intelligent man.

He is in grad school and spent the day working on his thesis and teaching undergrads environmental geology things. He was coming home too late and tired for us to really go do anything today in honor of his birthday and he is never too big into having a party for his day, so instead, I fed him good food. And I have to say, it was seriously good. Plus, every single bit of it was from scratch. The beans were dried and the cake batter was *not* from a box, so it was a real labor of love in my 8.5 months pregnant mind.

Elijah helped quite a bit (it really is all relative I suppose, haha) and insisted on giving Mike his gifts first.

Then we moved on to dinner.

Besides the cucumber slices in vinegar with dill they were all new recipes for me and they will all be repeated. The spicy beans were per his request and definitely lived up to being called "spicy". For some reason I was under the impression that the mashed cauliflower would feel like mashed potatoes. They didn't. But it is still something I will make again, especially since our son ate a bunch of it. I also did a baked fried chicken that was REALLY good.

Then we moved on to dessert.

The chocolate raspberry ganache double layer cake was everything it should be. And the peach cobbler was... a good peach cobbler. It has never been my favorite, but I do like it. Elijah helped me pick out and make both desserts. Having the rich chocolate cake and the warm fruity dessert was kind of like the best of both worlds. It definitely satisfied my sugary cravings.

Tomorrow we have a couple of friends coming over to watch our son so we can go out on our own (hoorah!) and they will hopefully help us finish these sweets off so I don't make this baby any more giant than he already feels!

Also, sorry about all the random "frames" around the pictures. It is really starting to bug my OCD-ness and I am not sure how I didn't realize how much they dont match each other...

Happy Birthday Mike, I love, love, love you!