Jay's Birthday

This weekend was Jay's birthday celebration... the kids and I started on Friday by decorating the front door for Daddy, and wrapping all his presents. His big gift this year was an upgrade to digital cable - which gives us about 100 more channels (mostly in German), but one key English channel - the North American Sports Network, which broadcasts major sporting events in English. Jay has been wanting it since we moved here - and with March Madness quickly approaching, I decided this would be a good time to surprise him.

On Friday night, we had our friends Andy and Kelsey Davis over for dinner. Kelsey is expecting their first baby in April, so it was fun to see them - and to hear how they are doing.

Then on Saturday, Jay took the kids to Starbie for their weekly outing. Afterwards, the kids and I made Jay's birthday cake - his theme was the "Rescue Family," which is the kids' favorite made-up story that we tell them... in the car, on the airplane, before bed, in the morning, nearly all the time. In the story, all of us have special rescue family costumes - and rescue family transportation mechanisms (Jack - flies like Superman, Kate - flies like a fairy, and Daddy and Mommy usually get to use a helicopter). So as you can imagine, the cake had to be quite detailed!

That night, Jay and I went to Mass (in German - something we are trying to do every once in awhile), and then to a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Seidenspinner. It was a very fun, romantic evening.

On Sunday (Jay's actual birthday), we headed out to the mountains on what was possibly the nicest winter day we had all January. The sun was out - it was warm, and absolutely gorgeous. We went skiing in Flumserberg, which is about 90 minutes from here. Jack and Jay had fun skiing on a "real hill" - using the t-bar - and proudly graduating from the bunny slope. And Kate and I had fun exploring the little village. Afterwards, we had lunch at Burger King on the way home (this was Jay's birthday, after all), and both kids told us this was the best lunch they'd ever had. We made it home in time to talk to all our family members - and for Jay to open up his presents, and eat his birthday cake.

All in all, it was a perfect birthday weekend - and we were so grateful for the beautiful weather, and the quiet time together.