zeke’s birthday
it was zeke’s birthday last weekend, and he got lots of cards and calls from family (thanks everyone!) but the highlight may just have been the package he got from Mark and Leslie that had lots of little gifts wrapped up.
Ah yes, the card really spoke to Zeke personally…
He actually got it about a week and a half before his birthday, so he decided to open one present a day leading up to his birthday.so, as a way of saying thanks to Mark and Leslie, to the tune of “12 Days of Christmas”…
For the twelve days of my birthday, Mark and Leslie gave to me…
12) Some good-smelling lotion stuff…
11) A box of almond nut-thins
10) Peanut butter Clif bars…
9) Trio nutty snack bars…
8) Blueberry and strawberry Soyjoys…
7) Organic chocolate snack bars…
6) A pack of TLC Trail Mix…
5) WIREDDDDDD MAAAA-GAAA-ZIIIIIIIINE…..
4) More Soyjoy bars…
3) Almond nut-thins…
2) Mango-coconut Soyjoy bars…
1) And a giant bag of Southwest in-flight nuts and pretzellllllllls!!!! (Wait, what??? Leslie, I still need to get the explanation from you on that one)
So obviously, with as much as zeke loves opening presents, it made for a fun couple of minutes every morning opening the fun little gifts. (Not to mention the enjoyment of eating a lot of them).
For the actual birthday weekend, the weather was gorgeous, so we decided to spend as much time as we could outside. Platt Park again had a few fun activities going on as part of its 100th Anniversary, so we walked there and enjoyed some foods that reminded us of summer back at home: soda, fries, and a burger
We followed that up with some ice cream, where Zeke decided to go with an apple cider popsicle, and Wendy ended up getting a chocolate bar with packaging that looked like… well…. you decide.
We wandered down to Shakespeare’s garden and just had a nice couple of hours relaxing and reading books… a great birthday, if you ask me.
And finally, had to give my wonderful wife a shoutout, not only for getting me the early birthday present of tickets to see Malcolm Gladwell (see earlier post) but for making me a couple of my favorite meals over the weekend - fried chicken with mac & cheese and corn pudding, and baked ziti. What more can a guy ask for?
(One final note to Leslie: you’ll notice that while the baked ziti was in the oven, snacks accompanying my nightcap gin and tonic were provided by… yes, Southwest Airlines).
Thanks friends and family for all the birthday wishes! Love you all.
