Birthday Boy

Cory is 24 years old, as of today. The big two-four. Last year we did a big mario party. I've decided to save the parties for someone who wants/appreciates them in the future, so we took it nice and easy this weekend. 

We stretched it into a birthday weekend, starting Friday night. I made some delicious steak, under the careful guidance of my father, the master of steak. (Seriously, he has a PhD in Steak. He knows what he's talking about.) And so I present to you, the first steak I have ever really cooked. (Its like a rite of passage in my family).

Cory likes steak. He loves my Dad's steak. He had low expectations for mine (he told me afterwards), but he was pleasantly surprised.

He ate all of his NY strip, and half of mine. Looks like I found the best way to fatten him up. With this and Peanut M&M's he'll be plump in no time, right?

 I also bought all his favorite snacks for a movie night. (Turns out, you end up with a lot of food items when you do birthday shopping at the grocery store. Or maybe I just express my feelings through food.)

We didn't get to eat any of those snacks because movie night turned into "Go to the college of engineering and finish up one last project for 3.5 hours." So, we spent the night side by side in the computer lab. Without snacks. And I got bored of the internet. I didn't even know that was possible. Anyway...

Saturday morning the deal was that Cory could sleep in as long as he wanted unharassed. You're welcome.

I used the time this gained me to make his birthday cake and birthday waffles. It was time well spent.

I made chocolate cake (from a mix. I have yet to eat a made from scratch cake that made me think, "Yea. That was worth the effort. Consider that a challenge, my baking friends.). The icing was the same AMAZING Dulce De Leche recipe Freya used for Brett's party a few months ago. Cory raved for days about it then, and he doesn't rave about food. Ever. I knew it was serious after he told me, "We should fill a bathtub with this stuff, and then he could just lay in it." (Somewhat direct quote. He really liked this stuff.)

We went man shopping for his actual birthday gift. I didn't tell him where we were going, but he claims he figured it out on his own.

 1) Office Depot for his choice of pen (we got Zebras. Pretty fancy.). 2) Gamestop, so he could pre-order his game for next weekend. 3)Edwin Watts, so he could get something golf related. 

Like a kid in a candy shop. For real.

All done! His new 3 wood makes him happy. As does his giant bag of tees.

We were planning on going to the Greek Foods Fest with Danny and Joanna this weekend (as per annual tradition--3 years running, people!), and Jesse and Tanya were up for a night of Greek food too. So we decided to eat cake and ice cream afterwards for a small, simple no big deal birthday celebration. Not party. Cause I'm not doing those anymore, right?

I just can't help myself. I already had the banners in my "party drawer" so I put those up. But once I got started, I couldn't stop. I mean, what is a birthday without ridiculous hats? We needed some. So I made some!

We finished the weekend off with a Sunday afternoon with Cory's family.  I forgot my memory card, so no pictures of that. Cory's mom always makes your favorite thing for dinner on your birthday, but Cory wouldn't tell her what to make. So, she surprised him with birthday steak for too! Haha--we didn't plan that. So basically it was the best weekend of Cory's life so far.  

Happy birthday, babe! You're my fave.