June 14th, The Army's Birthday, Flag Day, and Last But Not Least...Matt's Birthday!

Sunday, June 14, has a lot of meanings attached to it. My favorite is that it is my honey's birthday. He likes it because his birthday is on Flag Day....and it was cool while he deployed to share a birthday with the Army as well. I don't know many other deployed soldiers that can boast of having cake and ice cream as well as a party on the birthday's...sponsored by the Army!
This year his birthday fell on a Sunday, so no fancy meals out, and he had meetings. Still, he was able to keep his meetings short, and we got to have him home by lunch. We had his favorite "cheesy chips" (nachos) for lunch, and after he partook of the luxury of taking a Sunday nap. Something he hasn't been able to do for some time now. While dad was taking his birthday nap, the girls and I made dad his birthday cake. Matt's favorite cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He loves when I layer it, and cut each layer in half so there is extra frosting. This year I decided to not be lazy, and we made the cake from scratch. The girls had a blast as they helped mix the ingredients together. At the end Hannah exclaimed" Mom, it DOES look like batter". Too funny!

I even cooked Matt a meal he hasn't had in a long time (since he lived at home), mainly because I don't eat seafood. Matt requested shrimp quiche for dinner. I thought it turned out beautifully, but the taste was a little off...not really my fault. We had acquired the ingredient list on the fly in the grocery store from a phone call with his mom. So there was a misunderstanding about one of the ingredients...something I have promised to rectify this weekend when I make it again for him. This time using all the RIGHT ingredients!

After dinner, eating cake and ice cream (which was red, white and blue...a nice touch I thought), we opened presents. The kids were worried that Matt would be disappointed he was only getting three presents (one of which Hannah proudly wrapped all by herself), but I assured them that he wouldn't care or be disappointed. I was right. Matt loved his gifts...but most of all he loved being home to celebrate his birthday with his girls.