Mike's Birthday

Mike's birthday was last Friday.  Emily was on vacation out of town, Suzanne lives in another state and Laura works so getting our usual birthday party attendees together was a problem.  I finally decided to celebrate Mike's birthday on Saturday instead of on Friday so that not only could Laura join us but she would be available to help also.

Mike was pretty bummed his party was not on Friday because he wanted his Texas sheet cake.  So when Laura arrived late Friday night she agreed to bake him birthday cowboy cookies to help hold him until his Saturday birthday cake and party.

For Mike's birthday party on Saturday, we invited his parents and ordered Joe's pizza.  Our theme was Mike's 'real' garden which right now has an abundance of red potatoes and sunflower plants (and some corn plants).  He got many presents.  

The first present Mike opened was the new plush Khaki tan bath towels that Laura gave him.  He immediately hung them in the bathroom and they were the first present that he used.  Mike had been using towels left over from our previous house that color coordinated with our new bathroom but did not meet his standards of plushness.   Mike was very happy to receive Laura's gift.  

Suzanne gave Mike an authenticated Chicago Cubs plaque about Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta that contained a packet of Wrigley Field dirt from an actual game.  Heath gave him a replica of the Wrigley Field marquee.  Both items will be hung in Mike's office which is beginning to look like more of a shrine to the Cubs than an office.   

I gave Mike some practical items (a knife sharpener and a ratchet set which he had picked out) as well as a fun surprise item.  I got him what is currently trending in bass fishing (according to our resident expert Scott Sautman) - wacky jig hooks.  Of course when I went to purchase these online I found that the hooks come in different sizes and they supposedly work best with certain type of worms, etc, etc, etc.  I had to get Heath to help me make my purchase.  Mike managed to restrain himself from actually fishing with the new lures until after Laura left on Sunday afternoon whereupon he went fishing for three hours.  He caught 73 fish pretty much on 73 casts and used up all of the worms and 2 out of 3 of his new hooks.  We called Scott to ask him if it was normal to lose so many worms and he said yes that is the drawback to the wacky jig hooks.  Still, Mike was pretty pleased with his afternoon of fishing.  He said that about 50% of his catches were fish over 2 pounds.  I'm glad he enjoyed himself as he may not be fishing with wacky jig hooks anytime soon.  I don't think I can afford the worm attrition rate.  

All in all, Mike had a good birthday despite that fact that we celebrated it a day late.