Hi friends! So, for the month of August, there's been a bit more excitement than usual around our house. Okay, with a new house and school starting, a lot more--BUT there's also been preparing for David's birthday. During the Christmas season, I do an advent "calendar" for him. I use some twine or string, decorate 25 paper bags, and make up 25 fun things to do or small gifts. I include things like small candies, cookie decorating night, Christmas movie night, board game night, etc. It's for him but I always find it a really fun way to celebrate the season. This year I decided to do the same thing for his birthday. Here are some of the things that made the list. . . Homemade milkshakes! I used the hot fudge recipe from Date Night In, strawberries, ice cream, milk, whipped cream, toasted marshmallow, and birthday sprinkles (DUH!). Olympics viewing party! Did you watch the Olympics? Are you a fan? We're like, what do we watch now that it's over? This one was SO FUN for me too even though it was a lot of work ( yay summer! ). Celebrating National S'mores Day with s'mores waffles! HECK YES. Taco Tuesday! Hiking / Adventuring--I had to keep you from thinking they were ALL about food! Peanut butter cookies--his favorite. In order to keep costs down, I also did a lot of "I'll do the annoying things so you don't have to" days--like that time we got that terrible valance in our living room taken down but then had to re-paint, after SO MUCH PAINTING. So, his advent that day was me doing the painting. Plus, things like doing the chores or dishes are always nice. One of the days that it was in the 90's, I wrote him a note with some clothes and his share of balloons that said I was lying in wait with my water balloons and to get ready. Water balloon fight on a hot day -- summer fun right there. I lost, obviously, but it was great. Since we live in Maine, about a day after our heat wave, we had a few cool days so I did a back yard fire & s'mores party. Choices are important so we had almond butter, milk chocolate caramel, dark chocolate with almonds, and white chocolate with strawberries--and the square marshmallows, obviously! If you haven't tried them, they are a game changer. Sometimes week nights can get boring so during advent I like to make them special by doing a themed night ( like the Olympics night or movie night ). David loves board games so we did that one night too. I don't love board games but I DO love snacks--we had salt & vinegar almonds, more of the patriotic gummy bears, the caramel cashew Target trail mix, and Chicago mix popcorn--YUM. We also did a burger night, which David admittedly cooked a lot of, but burgers are something we don't have often. I skipped the bun but had my burger with balsamic onions, goat & blue cheese, crispy prosciutto, and tomato. It was awesome. In the past I've also done gift cards to places like Dunkin, Tim Hortons, and / or Starbucks but since he isn't drinking coffee right now those options were out. I got creative and did things like David day ( he's king for a day, basically. What have I done? ha! ), tech free night, free hour of video games with drink service, and a total remote control coupon. The BEST advent day was when he opened Bantam Bagels. If you're a fan of Shark Tank then you know what I'm talking about. If not, they are like a bagel donut hole or a cream cheese stuffed bagel hole. It sounds weird and I wasn't sure what to expect but they were amazing. They're pretty pricey so this was definitely a treat and one of his gifts, but I want to have them in our freezer for ever and ever. The hot pretzel was our favorite--no surprise there! Like I said, I did birthday advent for David as a way to celebrate his birthday all month long BUT it was super fun for me, too. Since I had the time off, it was totally do-able and I think birthday advent made for a great birthday gift, don't you?
Happy birthday, David!
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