J's 30th Birthday!

J's birthday and my birthday are about a week apart.  I actually love this since it makes our birthdays just a little bit more special.  I mean, it gives us a whole birthday week to celebrate instead of just one day ;)  That said, it can also make the gift giving a bit more challenging.  You know, if someone gives you something pricey, you feel the need to meet or beat that price with the gift you give back.  While gift giving isn't about the money spent, having close birthdays made us want to set a price limit anyway.  

I also figured setting a price limit would be the perfect opportunity to surprise J with an awesome celebration.  After all, it was his big 3-0.  So, I told him we should set a lower limit so we could save money for our summer adventures and some other projects we want to start together.  All the while thinking to myself, "This trick is working.  He has no idea I'm planning something big."  And then, his birthday came.

As soon as I woke up on March 14th, I rushed over to J's house and started his birthday off right with homemade-fresh blueberry waffles. Mm mmm good.  We love food and cooking together, so I wanted to make sure every meal was awesome.  For lunch, we went to Snow White Grill on the walking mall.  It's this small burger joint from the 50's that sells some of the best little burgers and fountain drinks.  Probably had the best Coca cola there I've ever had in my life.  So good.  Then came the opening of his gift.

Ealier, when I had J convinced we weren't spending too much on each other, I asked him to show me an electric guitar he really wanted and all the accessories to go with it.  In perfect suprise form, if I do say so myself....and I do, I saved all the links and told him maybe next year for Christmas I'd get him that.  After some research and advice from my brother B, I ordered almost everything he wanted.  And here's him opening it!!!  (I understand I probably sound more excited than him or anyone else)

The first thing he said when opening it was "What did you do?!"  Haha and then I had one more thing for him...the new Rocksmith!

See his surprised grin?

Ta da!!!

And that kids, is how you pull off a suprise.

The rest of the day we spent with his family grilling steaks and opening more presents.  And then the next day we made homemade shrimp po'boys for dinner and he blew out the candles of his cookie cake I made him.

The icing on the cake was inspired from a ticket he had to Bonnaroo 2007.  He had such fun time there I thought it'd be cool to decorate his cake from that.  Here's the original ticket:

It's not exact, but it's close enough!

Then the following day, my parents came over and took us out to dinner at Longhorn's followed by another gift (a new guitar bag!!) and more candles!

He loves this bag, and it fits everything perfectly

And of course, the celebrations continued all week long until my birthday closed it out.  But, that's all for another post.  

Happy 30th birthday babe!!  Hope it was one to remember :)