Happy Birthday, Kris!

Happy Birthday, Kris!!! Yesterday was my day with grand kids and they wanted to surprise 'mom' with dinner and cake. We invited Auntie Dawn and Uncle Jeff too (but grandpa was out golfing so he missed out!).
The kids were SO excited about the day. We took off early to get to the grocery store to pick up some items then off to Hallmark store. Darrin had left $$'s for the kids to shop as Amber had it set in her mind on what she wanted to get Kris. It was a special necklace you fill with charms that she saw around Mother's Day and it was the only gift she wanted to get her mom.


Nick found a beautiful butterfly clock (he also got a butterfly balloon, see a pattern here?) he picked out. It was very pretty with inlayed Mother of Pearl. He thought mom could take to her work office.

Here are kids working hard in the kitchen! We really did have fun! Nick learned how to remove the shells from garlic and how to chop safely with one hand - grandma doesn't want two hands on the cutting board!! He made the garlic bread and was quite proud of that.

Amber found out her mom's favorite cake is coconut so that's what she wanted to make.

Nick working hard on making garlic butter for the bread.

He was so careful in melting the garlic butter.

The kids even made up signs they hung on the mail box and in the garage wishing happy birthday to their mom. They were SO excited about every part of the day and couldn't wait for their mom to get home and see their efforts and taste their food!

Amber also made the meat for stuffed shells. We had a lb. of chopped sirloin but we did make over 40+ shells and ran out. What to do next? Well, Amber and I improvised and made stuffed cheese shells! And guess what? They were really good! Amber decided she liked them better than the meat! Who knew!

The only real upset was the cake. It did stick to the pan and kinda crumbled but it tasted great! Really was good! I brought some fresh picked strawberries so Amber and I cut them up and we all ended up putting them on top of the cake.

All in all the dinner turned out good and it was nice to sit with all the kids even though Uncle Jeff was telling how to get rid of chipmunks! Bad Uncle Jeff!