Birthday Celebrations

(let me preface this by saying I got two comments! Woo-hoo!)

Last Thursday was Russ's 39th birthday. When I asked him what he wanted he said "I've got everything I need right here with my girls". I decided to try to have a party for him without spending a lot of money. I didn't come up with a budget, I just figured I'd make it up as I went along. I'm new to this blogging this so not quite sure how to insert photos one at a time, so all the pics will probably wind up on top. To decorate, I wanted to make one of those lovely little banners you see in Pottery Barn Kids. Generally they string together cut up pieces of fabric, with fabric letters sewn on. I am not handy, so instead I got out 18 different colored pieces of construction paper and wrote one letter on each- Happy Birthday Daddy. I then taped them to the cupboards. We made home made chocolate cake with homemade frosting. Unfortunately Mary missed this since I wasn't sure how it would turn out so made it while she was at school in case I had to run to the grocery store to buy an already bought one. It came out FANTASTIC!! Seriously we all thought it was the best cake we had eaten ever. In planning the meal, I already had one in mind. I had just been reading Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and saw a recipe for Sticky Chicken. It looked so good. And it so happened that chicken drumsticks were on sale for 49 cents a pound last week (I don't want to think about the poor little chickens- if we were in the UK I"d have had an easier time buying free-range organic chicken...it's very difficult to come by in my corner of NYS.) There was also a special on potatoes 15 lbs for $3.99, which mom and I split. She graciously agreed to make potato salad. I also had corn in the freezer so that was our veg. It ended up being a really tasty meal and Russ loved that sticky chicken so much, I made it again last night with brown rice. As a gift, we took drawings Alice made and a Union flag Mary made at school and framed them. The frames cost $6.99 for three at the Christmas Tree Shop. I think you can see by the look on Russ's face, he had a great day with his girls! He does quite fancy himself as Mr. Bennett.