July 27

Today was Chris' 33rd birthday, and after Caleb and Lily's birthdays, I was just about birthdayed out. I didn't have any presents for the poor guy, but I managed to make him a birthday cake and put together a special picnic dinner. Our plan for the day was to attempt to find 33 birthday cakes, in honor of his 33rd birthday. Do you remember how we found 3 cakes for Daisy's 3rd birthday, 5 cakes for Caleb's 5th, and 1 cake for Lily's 1st? Knowing it would be a challenge with the three kiddos in tow, we decided to attempt 33 cakes in one day.

Spoiler alert: we did it, and it was awesome! Prepare yourself for 8 million pictures. (Okay, really it's only 46 pictures. But that's still a ton of pictures.)

Cake #1

The kids really liked the giant shoe, made of shoes! Daisy was trying to fit her foot inside one of them.

Cake #2 - Grandpa used to work here!

Cake #3

Cake #4

Cake #5

Cake #6

This bench, featuring a lion strumming a guitar, was near Cake #6. Lily loved sitting in the lion's lap!

Daisy gave the lion a big hug, so Chris hugged him, too.

Cake #7.

Right after this was poopy diaper #1

Cake #8 Everyone is still in good spirits.

Cake #9 had Darth Vader and Superman on it!

Cake #10. Then things began to head downhill. Daisy started crying that her feet hurt, and she was right. It was 93 degrees out, and sweaty feet + jellies = painful blisters on the arches of both feet. Plus, even though it was only 3:45, everyone was hungry.

A quick stop at a FroYo shop helped a little bit. 

yum.

See? Not crying. For five minutes, at least. Daisy was such a wreck that Chris and I almost considered quitting after 10 cakes. But we soldiered on.

Cake #11

Cake #12 (Daisy is missing because she was still being whiny and fussy and uncooperative.

Cake #13

Still no Daisy. Also, Caleb seems to be missing. But we gained an elephant, so that's something?

Cake #14. Daisy? Daisy??? And again with that elephant!

Cake #15 - You can kind of tell how I fixed up Daisy's feet. I applied Hello Kitty bandages to each foot, then found a pair of fuschia socks in Lily's diaper bag. Miraculously, they fit Daisy's feet perfectly. Even better, they (mostly) stopped the fussing.

Cake #16

This place was beautiful!

Aren't they sweet?

Cake #17

You can see the pink socks + jellies combo really well here. But all three kids are cooperating! At this point, we got the stroller out and walked to the next 7 cakes. That was a good choice.

Cake #18

Caleb?

Cake #19

Cake #20

This was when Caleb and Daisy started fighting and arguing in the BOB. Caleb was trying to talk, but Daisy kept shouting the Darth Vader music from Star Wars at the top of her lungs, right in Caleb's ear.

Cake #21

Caleb is shell-shocked from Daisy's shouting.

Then we saw a Lamborghini!

Cake #22

Cake #23

Finally, time for dinner! I packed a picnic of Chris' favorite things, and Caleb chose a lovely spot in the shade. The kids were so happy to eat!

I love the look on Lily's face as she munches on gouda cheese.

Cake #24

I really wanted to take a sweet picture, but they really wanted to be goofy. So it goes.

Cake #25

Cake #26

Don't you love that elephant mask, on the cake with elephants on the bottom?

Cake #27

There was a wedding reception happening here.

Cake #28

poopy diaper #2

Cake #29

Caleb preferred to collect and throw pinecones.

Cake #30

Daisy had to go pee.

Cake #31

They got lucky and found a bathroom.

Cake #32

We drove the same parking circle three times before finding this one.

Finally! Cake #33!

The kids knew that real birthday cake was their reward, and they were so excited!

Hooray! We did it!

By this point, it was past bedtime and we had been hunting cakes for over five hours. They were done.

But birthday cake fixes everything, and Caleb and Daisy snuggled up to Chris and sang, "Happy Birthday" to him. He loved it.

Then they helped him blow out the candles.

It was exhausting, it was insane, it was frustrating, and it was so much fun. Happy birthday to the man I am blessed to call my husband! I love our wacky adventures together!