Ben's birthday

Ben's 35th birthday was last Sunday. Isn't Fast Sunday a lousy day for a birthday? Or maybe it is an extra-special day. Hmm, what does it say about me that my first instinct is that it is a lousy day for a birthday? :-)
So on Saturday evening we went out to eat at Siena, a nice restaurant here in Austin. Ben likes to go eat somewhere nice and have us all dress up for his birthday dinner. Siena was a lot better than the place we went last year, which I pretty much hated. The boys are well-behaved when we go out to eat. They have always been pretty good at restaurants (well, not so much when they were toddlers-- I have nightmares sometimes of a really terrible dinner at Marie Callenders with Ben's parents when the boys were about 21 months old). As a result, we probably go out to eat more than we should. If they were bad, we'd never go out! Anyway, on our way there we were driving west down Capital of Texas Highway and there was the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a while. I said, "Look-- there's God's birthday present to Dad!"
At dinner I started contemplating this 35th birthday of his. 10 years ago we had just found out our IVF attempt had worked, but didn't know about the twins yet. Gosh, that does not seem that long ago! But 10 years from how, he'll be turning 45. Yikes!!!! It is weird to be getting old. (On an only slightly-related tangent, I purchased Season 1 of the X-files and we've been watching a few of them recently. I figured out that in Season 1, Mulder was supposed to be 34 years old. It's funny to think back on watching those episodes the first time around when Mulder and Scully were much older than we were-- when the X-files first came out I was 17 and Ben was 18. And now, those characters are our age or younger. I know getting older is weird for everyone because obviously it is happening for the first time for everyone, but that doesn't mean it isn't still weird!!)
Sunday was his birthday. We have 11:00 church now, which was a huge birthday present for Ben. I do love 11:00 church. After church I gave him the present of a Sunday afternoon nap and I made a birthday cake. From scratch! I made a caramel cake which was really yummy and had way too much butter in it. Mosey's birthday is this Sunday, which means more cake... Not good for the perennial "Eat healthier" New Year's Resolutions.
The boys and I gave Ben two picture frames for his office, each with 5 pictures. Also a watch which Ben bought himself, but gave me to give to him. I like our present-giving arrangement. :-)
So, welcome to the downward slide to 40, Ben!!

These are the pictures in the 1st frame:




(this is the same picture as this, but I color-replaced the shirt to be red to match the red theme of the rest of the pictures. It looks a little weird because the slight reflections on my arms are still blue, but whatever-- don't look too close)



And here are the pictures in the second frame: