Birthday Cake!
Apparently, April showers bring—lots of babies. Everyone is having a birthday this month! Nieces, fiancés of nieces, brothers-in-law. Was everyone I know born in April? The upside: I get to eat lots of cake!
I’m all about celebrating a birthday. My birthday is in November, and I celebrate the entire month. My motto is anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Why limit yourself to just one day? I mean, it’s your day so have lots of them! One of my favorite birthdays was celebrated in Napa with great friends. Good times! For years, it seemed I was always traveling for work on my birthday, which allowed me to celebrate birthdays all over the country—San Francisco, Boulder, Seattle, New York.
I love calling people on their birthday and singing Happy Birthday to them. It’s a comical rendition of the song. It’s kinda Marilyn Monroe meets a Carol Burnett skit. Be glad I don’t have your phone number!
April’s birthdays started with my oldest niece, Amy. Well, almost. Her birthday is 31 March. She missed being an April Fool’s baby by mere hours. This year, Amy’s birthday was Easter weekend, and we celebrated by coloring eggs and eating lots of yummy food—most of which she prepared. Thanks, Amy!
Next up on 10 April, was my niece Morgan’s birthday and a family dinner at Ye Olde Steak House. With twenty people, our dinners would best be described as a family banquet (why are there so many of us?). However, for this birthday celebration, we had a more manageable thirteen people. After dinner, we went to see A Quiet Place. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for all of us to be quiet at the same time? Such an intense movie!
Alexis celebrated her birthday 21 April. Actually, we had an entire weekend of celebrating for this one. We started the day before her birthday with dinner and an escape from Breakout Games Knoxville. This was so much harder than it should’ve been. Or maybe we should have had the pizza and beer before the breakout?? Either way, you need a game plan before you go in. Clearly, we did not.
On Alexis’ actual birthday (Saturday), we started out with lunch and the Dogwood Arts Chalk Walk on Market Square. It was a perfect day, and the Chalk Walk included some amazing artists. We departed Market Square and made our way to the Bearden Beer Market, where we sat outside in the sunshine and had a pint or two. It felt good to be outside with the sun on my face, 'cause . . . I ain’t see the sunshine since I don’t know when . . . sorry, I break into song at the slightest reference.
Later that night, our gang grew to ten people and we had dinner at Wasabi’s, followed up by karaoke at Marie’s Old Tavern in Happy Holler. And—yes, there's more—we wrapped this one up with a family breakfast the following morning with those who couldn't make it to dinner the night before. Needless to say, we’re still recovering from this birthday celebration.
Tuesday the 24th was Bryant’s birthday (he is Alexis’ fiancé; aka Luke or BB). At the time of this writing I’m not sure what the shenanigans . . . uhhhh celebration will entail, but I’m pretty sure I need to rest up and consume more Starbucks beverages.
The 26th is my brother-in-law Thomas’ birthday (aka Tomas or T). Thomas is pretty low-key, but I’m certain there will be dinner. And cake. So much cake.
Crammed in the middle of all these human birthdays, my sweet babies had birthdays also. Moose (aka Moose-er-ama, King of Everything) and Deuce (aka Jelly Bean, The Bean—too many names to list) were born 12 and 15 April. My sweet Moose has been gone for a couple of years now. Deuce celebrated his 15th birthday this year.
I certainly hope Joshua (Morgan’s husband; aka José) and I get this much love for our birthdays in November!
Happy birthday to all you April babies!
KC
The outtakes: