::in which Wayne gets a year older::

It's Wayne's 31st birthday. He never likes a big deal made out of his birthday. Which is lame because I love doing fun things for people. But being on a budget, and it not being a huge milestone, I used my daughter as an excuse to not come across as a lazy wife a way to buy him SOMETHING to unwrap. 

The idea began with an extra large water bottle, which he'd mentioned he has needed at work for a while. We picked that up at Canadian Tire the other day and I thought, "We can't get him a $5 water bottle and just say, 'Happy Birthday! Here ya go'..." So I decided to add to it.

Off to Dollarama we went. Heidi even sat in the shopping cart like a big girl and pointed out things she'd like to buy for her daddy's birthday. The pink polyester lei didn't make the cut (nor did the saran wrap, or clothes pins!), but as I "monitored" the contents of the Daddy loot bag, I think we came up with some cool presents for a first time gift-giver (that being Heidi, of course). 

Gift list included:

• Long-armed, two-pronged picker-upper (the tool you'd use to pick up garbage)
• water bottle
• "Greatest Dad" hat
• 2 packs Bubblicious gum
• 1 box Kraft Dinner
• 1 bag Lays salt & vinegar chips
• Silly Putty
• Giant bouncy ball
• three-film DVD, featuring an old Army movie starring Ronald Reagan
• a bug house/terrarium for all the disgusting vermin neat insects Manitoba has to offer
• ...and, of course, a 15-pack of Alexander Keith's (NOT a Dollarama find!)

The man

The cake

The loot

I also spent the morning making a chocolate cake with blue buttercream icing. Because it looked a tad like a giant blob of toothpaste on its own, I decided to sprinkle it with coconut and add the blueberries hanging around the fridge from Sobey's $1 days. Voi-frickin'-la! It didn't taste all that bad, either.

***

Before dinner, Wayne decided to put some Miracle Grow on our sad tomatoes, and Grace, our next door neighbour (5), wandered over to see what we were up to. I caught Wayne on film letting her "help" water the tomatoes. Grace and her little sis, Lily (3), are super cool kids.

After supper, there was a GIANT storm! So much rain fell that our neighbours two blocks over actually had their canoe out on the road. I have never seen anything like it.

Happy birthday, my hero. Here's to another year closer to 40. May you always be ahead of me! xo