Feliz Cumpleaños!

Today, Thomas and I completed our first round of "married birthdays!" My handsome husband turned 28 today ... which is almost 30 (weird!). I grew up in a family of birthday celebrators: My mom hung posters and balloons in the kitchen, made special meals, let us eat off of a "Special Plate," left notes on our lunch napkins, and did tons of other small, but special things to let us know that she was forever thankful that we were born. Thomas grew up in a family of guys who forgot each other's birthdays and showed each other their love by making fun, swiping favorite lunch snacks, and shooting each other with BB guns. I have tried to impart my love of birthdays to Thomas (and sort of ... kindly ... let him know that he might want to get on the birthday train when my birthday rolls around or else). I can't help but want to make each and every one of his birthdays even more special than the last. And this year, it has been especially important to me that Thomas just feel pure happiness, relaxation and love on his birthday.

This year, we decided to do a laid-back, family oriented celebration, complete with lots of food on Saturday.

We started the Saturday morning birthday festivities with none other than PRESENTS!

I was seriously scared for this cake when I was making the icing, but I have never been so proud of a finished product!!! All from scratch, using recipes from my family recipe book!

Thomas made his delicious and unbeatable ribs ... having time to cook these unhurried is a birthday gift in and of itself for him!

Thomas doesn't just lounge by the pool, he brings all the childhood fun back to the pool! He might be getting a year older, but he's still young at heart.

Then, of course, I couldn't ignore the actual DAY OF Thomas's birth!! So we had a little 3723 Simmons celebration, Italian style, just the way Thomas likes. Naturally, he thinks he's Italian and I think I'm Latin American, so we make a perfect pair. Our kids will be so confused one day.

At the request of my faux-Italian husband, we celebrated with pizza and wine.

I was the mastermind behind the dessert :)

Happy happy crazy happy first married birthday, Thomas Nathan Simmons!