Birthday Bouquet

This week I celebrated my 34th birthday. In the days before the big day, Firstborn and Sunshine were sneaking away at every possible moment to work on a secret project and three year old Rosebud kept slipping castaway envelopes into my hands, encouraging me to open them. I resisted any temptation to even guess what was going on behind the closed door of Firstborn's bedroom or what the mysterious contents of those envelopes might be.

At last, Tuesday night arrived. I picked up dinner for us at Austin's most popular restaurant, Chuy's, and a Boston Cream Pie from the local grocer. We enjoyed the Tex-Mex fare and especially savored the mid-Lent indulgence of chocolate frosting atop a smooth cake with a rich pudding filling.

The smiles on the children's faces as they handed me the gifts made with their loving hands, however, were the best part of the day. Firstborn and Sunshine had assembled a little album of pressed Spring flowers from the herb bed, wildflowers in the yard and even from the bouquet the Professor had brought me earlier that day. Most of the flowers had little labels and were tucked into the pages of a lovely little album. Rosebud could hardly contain her excitement as I opened the first of her carefully collected envelopes. It contained a folded paper with some primitive letters. When I asked her what it said, she beamed so that she was barely able to say it, "Mommy." The second envelope turned out to be a series of three or four envelopes which at long last contained a handful of carefully cut out shapes. Perhaps her idea of confetti?

The Professor surprised me with two books, Outside the Not So Big House, to inspire my weekend landscaping plans and Crunchy Cons with the loving inscription: "You were crunchy con before crunchy con was cool." What a man!

What a day. What a lovely day.