Birthdays!! 🎂

Well it must be a party because Dad has the salmon on the grill! We had to celebrate the birthdays a little early this year, because Sam had a dive on the 15th of August. We chose the weekend before, August 7th, to celebrate Alex’s birthday, Lis’s birthday and Mom and Dad’s anniversary. Alex chose salmon for his birthday dinner and Mom had grilled shrimp this year, while he had some seasoned potatoes and French fries for the sides. We also had an untraditional, but very decadent chocolate and caramel cake for dessert. Alex, unfortunately, did not get an actual present on his birthday as it was decided we were going to get him a new bed. We looked several places and found one he liked at Ikea, but it wasn’t in stock at the time. As soon as it is available, we will go out and pick it up for him, along with some new sheets and maybe a new dresser. Not an exciting birthday present, but one that he needs and will be able to use for a few years… besides he is 23 years old. 😄 Mom on the other hand hit the jackpot as she got 2 new outdoor hose attachments for the garden AND a set of hand stitched wool dryer balls…. can you believe it!! On top of all of that for her anniversary present she got what every woman wants on her 26th anniversary…. a worm farm! We still haven’t started the farm yet though, as it is surprisingly complicated and a little too hot right now. She does have a gift card for 100 red wigglers though whenever she is ready. Mom and Dad will also be going out to dinner next weekend while Sam is on his dive… hopefully to get some crab cakes in Wilmington.

Sunflowers…

This year Mom planted some sunflowers around the yard and we by far had the best results up in the front of the house as you can see from the photo with Sam. The sunflowers in the backyard just didn’t get enough full sun (blocked by the hydrangeas) to really get big, but they were still very pretty. We will definitely do this again next year and maybe try a couple of different locations in the backyard. Mom has harvested some of the sunflower seeds and will probably take down the rest of the sunflowers later this week.

Meanwhile, Dad had a chance to visit the NC State sunflower field this year and he was able to get a couple of photos… obviously they planted a few more than we did. 😉