Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Today we celebrated Daniel's 29th birthday! Since it was his birthday, he took the liberty of giving himself the afternoon off. He's on an anesthesia rotation, and he basically just follows a resident around since he hasn't been trained in anesthesia yet. So, no one missed him, or cared that he left. We spent the afternoon working in the yard; trimming bushes, pulling weeds, etc. We managed to make quite the stack of weeds and branches in our firepit, so when the kids came home we had a little late afternoon bon fire. Daniel's also been working hard on getting our garden ready for another season. We're going to try the plastic and mulch technique this year. We had a terrible time with weeds last year, so hopefully this will help minimize that problem.

As tradition goes, I cooked Daniel a fabulous birthday dinner per his request of BBQ brisquet, brussel sprouts (which he learned to love on his mission in Australia...the kids hate them), and mashed potatoes. I also whipped up a Betty Crocker hot fudge chocolate cake, which was also Daniel's request. He got a few t-shirts, a new mug (from Adelaide and Alicia), a Crocodile Hunter movie (from Tristan), Peter Pan (the movie), and socks. His big present, a new camera (since I broke his other one over Christmas), hasn't come in the mail yet, so he's anxiously awaiting its arrival. After dinner, presents, and cake, Daniel told us that it was "the best birthday ever!"