31 Years to Celebrate!

We celebrated Robby's 31st birthday ALL weekend long in multiple ways. Following the big 3-0 birthday week celebration last year, we toned it down to a few fun filled days.

Friday was his actual birthday so we started out the morning with a homemade breakfast of biscuits, sausage, eggs & fruit then sent the birthday boy off to work for a bit. He finished up the day early & we loaded the girls into the car with their overnight bags & headed to Dave & Emily Buck's house. This amazing couple took the girls in for the night & half of the next day so we could enjoy some time alone.  We left there around 4 & Emily snapped a picture of us on our way out....

First stop- We went to Lowes & wandered around for awhile dreaming about a patio makeover and sharing all my Pinterest ideas for home decor that I need a handyman's assistance with.  Pretty sure he loved that for his birthday ; ) Second stop- I had originally planned to take Robby to a steakhouse for dinner but it just so happened that Fogo de Chao just opened in Orlando last week! 

We LOVED this place in Dallas & got to go with our good friends Andrew & Renata. It is a Brazilian steakhouse & Renata happens to be Brazilian & she along with her family happen to have the hook up with much of the staff at the Dallas location : ) I have been mourning the loss of pao de queijo (a Brazilian cheese bread) since we left Dallas. Renata & her mom Keila made the MOST amazing pao de queijo....it is better than what they serve at Fogo! So to say dinner was absolutely delicious would be an understatement. The best part was that just a few days before his birthday, we received a letter in the mail entitling us to a free dinner for two.  Our original bill was just under $100, after our sweet little letter was given to our waiter, it came down to $10 for the two caipirinhas we ordered.  What a deal!

Once we were home it was still only about 8:30, we dragged our super comfy camping chairs out into the grass behind our house, had some David Gray playing from the back porch and enjoyed some cigars. Just kidding....no cigars for me although Robby was trying to figure out how much he could pay me to take just one puff. Conclusion of that discussion, he could never afford it ; ) We sat out there for a couple hours catching up on life with lots of uninterrupted conversation.

Then my loving & selfless husband pretended like it was my birthday and brought me inside, hooked up the Super Nintendo so we could play some original Mario Bros. Oh yeah, and there were two mugs full of Blue Bell Cookies & Cream. We laughed hard as we pulled out all the old tricks, joked about how we wish we had the cheat book & still continued to push all the buttons while the other person was playing.

We slept soundly until 9am....unheard of these days at the Valentine Nest! We felt recharged & ready to see the girlie pies around lunch time when I picked them up. It was Char's first official sleepover outside of sleeping in a pack n play. She & her pal Olivia who is 6 slept on a pallet on the game room floor. Char loves each person in that family & did great! Thanks Dave & Emily for loving on our girls! 

Saturday consisted of Rob getting some reading done, me getting some cleaning done & celebrating the 1st birthday of one of our neighbors.  We spent the last couple hours of the evening in the camping chairs again. Soooo relaxing!

Here is Rob sporting his birthday gift from his entourage of ladies (me, Char & Elo)....

I sent him the 2003 version of this rain jacket when he was in Australia. He has worn that thing more times than we could count & it pretty much doesn't keep rain out anymore....it was time for a replacement!

Today, we went to church, he took a nap in the afternoon & then we had dinner & cake with the fam. 

Baby Isaac will be a month old in a couple days....he was there to join in the festivities. 

Uncle Chris & Charlee who was delighted to have someone else to read her books.

 

Pretty much the cutest niece in the whole wide world.
 The parents of these two adorable kiddos were there but not photographed. 

 

Char made Daddy a "cake" & came up to him saying "Happy Birthday for you Daddy!"

The four of us with the Valentine family tradition -Triple Chocolate Cake. 

All the helpers to blow out the lone candle which represented the "1" of "31."

Elo all decked out in her beads. 

Char in full princess/Rambo garb ready to dig in with her own fork.

That is pretty much what we all looked like shoveling it in  ....well minus the head pieces ; ) 

Robby said that it was pretty much his favorite birthday ever....he is a simple man, one of the MANY reasons I love him : ) 

We will close with a pic of the birthday cowboy & his sidekick, baby brother Steve-O back in the mid 80s.