Real Life: Mike's Birthday!!!

We celebrated a birthday yesterday!!! Mike turned 36!

The more I live with this man, the more I love who he is. Not that I ever loved him less! Not at all! Love grows and with twelve years of marriage with him ... it is still growing and growing and getting better and better. I have no idea how that works!?! It's a God thing! Definitely a God thing!!!

Anyway, back to Mike ... he's amazing. He follows his dreams! He follows his heart. He is checking things off his bucket list slowly. It will take a life time of travels and adventures to be able to cross off all his dreams ... but he's following his dreams! I love that about him! Why just last night, I was looking at all his dream world travels that he would love to do sometime. He's got places marked in China, in the USA, and in many other countries. I am not a very adventurous traveler myself (well, just not yet) and so I am glad to give it a few more years before we travel the world together. Small trips at a time. :)

He loves being a dad! You can see that through and through. Day after day. After those many long days at work, he walks in the house ready for family time! He keeps making comments like, "I want to do this dad thing right!" That's a statement that you may hear from a lot of other dads. Mike really means it. He wants to be open minded and walk through each stage of life with the children. Each one of them. I really love seeing this desire in him!

Yesterday, he planned to take the day off and go golfing and enjoy some 'me' time. When he realized that today he would need to leave work early to help play some softball, he chose to take today off instead. He is right now finishing up some time on the golf course and then plans to relax with the kids and then play ball tonight! What a lovely idea!!!

This was last night. We thought we were going to have to have a quick supper and go racing off to Matthew's games, but because of the rains, the games were canceled. Perfect!!! Normally, we celebrate birthdays with going out to eat and then some kind of date/event. We hope to get our date night some other time soon and we celebrated at home last night!

Mike walked through the doors after work and we were jamming on a birthday song I found on you tube. It set the mood!!! :) We sat contently around the supper table eating cheese steak sandwiches and veggies. We topped it off with little "Lava Chocolate Cakes". Originally, I was going to grab some tiramisu at Costco, but I forgot. I decided to try the lava cakes and I was so pleased with how they turned out! Gooey and yummy! Mike really liked it! That's what really counted!!!

(Here's the fun song we played again and again!)

Mike sat down at his usual supper table spot. The kids had balloons blown up and decorated the dining room!

Mike loves Coke ... so it only made sense to buy bottled Coke made with real sugar cane! He was happy, happy, happy!

Thanks Costco!!! :)

The cheese steaks were delicious! Fresh beef cooked and stirred with 'Merv's steak sauce' and topped with American cheese! Can't get much better!!!

Mike needs a new pair of sandals and so when he kept walking around with his brother Ritchie's sandals at the cabin, I knew this would be a good buy! The only problem is that I bought women's!!! Now I need to return them and get the right ones!!! Sigh.

Hadassah made this card for Mike. You don't have to guess what the kids are enjoying watching right now. Don't you just love the different seasons of life?!! Wasn't it just yesterday that they watched Blue's Clues and Wonder Pets?

Here are the lovely Lava Cakes!!!

A warm chocolate cake with warm gooey syrup flowing out of it when you cut and bite into it is heavenly! Add some ice cream and whipped cream and then some fresh blackberries ... Oh yes!!! It's called dessert! (Thanks Mim for the berries!!! I was texting you to come over for a cake when I remembered your 'no sweet's' deal. Bummer. Come around when you can eat chocolate again!!! :) )

Lava Chocolate Cakes:

4 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup powered sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 tsp. instant coffee granules

3/4 tsp. vanilla

6 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

whipped cream, optional

Grease the bottom and sides of 4 (6 oz.) ramekins; sprinkle each with 1 tsp. sugar. Place ramekins on a baking sheet; set aside. Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave; stir until smooth. Stir in powered sugar until smooth. Whisk in the egg, egg yolks, instant coffee and vanilla, stir in flour and salt; spoon batter into prepared ramekins. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. The cake sides should be set and centers are soft. Remove ramekins to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Carefully, run a small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert warm cakes onto serving plates. Lift ramekins off cakes. Serve warm with whipped cream and ice cream!

Yield: 4 servings. (From: Simply Divine Cookbook)