Silas Turns 24

Yesterday was Silas' golden birthday!  He said he didn't care if we did anything, but I wanted to at least recognize it because once you leave home, your birthdays aren't very exciting anymore.  Especially if you're a guy.  Girls' roommates will often make them a cake or do something to recognize it, but a male roommate is more likely to moon you with his bare butt than congratulate you on the anniversary of your birth.  

Unfortunately, Silas was at school until 8pm yesterday, but when he got home we had a nice little dinner and a couple presents.  It wasn't anything extravagant, but I'm going to post pictures because, believe it or not, it took me ALL DAY to decorate and bake and put everything together.  So. 

For dinner, I made cloverleaf rolls, barbecue chicken and mashed potatoes (at his request), and salad.  I only have pictures of the rolls.  But it was all (surprisingly) delicious, I can assure you.  (Meat is not my specialty.  I hadn't made chicken in quite a while.)

Silas doesn't like cake, and I knew he didn't want one for his birthday.  But I couldn't resist.  A birthday is the perfect excuse for cake!  So, I made him one that I'd made for my friend Marissa a year and a half ago.  It doesn't have any flour and it's super chocolatey and delicious and moist and extremely rich.  It's kind of like eating a super decadent fudge.  (Can you tell I love it?)  It doesn't taste at all like a traditional cake, so I was hoping he'd like it.  He was a wee bit skeptical at first but after he tasted it he loved it!  I was so pleased. 

(Let me interject and tell you that this was the first celebratory dinner I've made where everything turned out like it was supposed to.  Usually the meat is over or underdone, the rolls are flat or as hard as rocks, the mashed potatoes are too runny....I always mess at least one thing up.  But everything was okay!  Even the cake!....after I shaved off the bottom so it would sit right.)

Oh yeah.  The cake.

Oh and I forgot to show you the (minimal) decorating I did.

For his presents:

A card from me.  Here's a picture I put on the inside:

He's growing a "March Mustache" right now.  I tease him about it.  He's still one good-looking man, though.  :)

I also gave him some candy, those tamales I bought from the lady, and two Patrick McManus books (which haven't arrived yet).  The "grand finale" (although it wasn't that grand) was this:

Which he opened, only to find this:

On which I had recorded two songs for him.  I was really nervous because I cringe whenever I listen to myself sing, but he loved it.  :)

(A special shout-out of gratitude to Nick and Elyssa for letting me use their recording equipment, and for letting me kick them out of their apartment so they wouldn't hear me sing, and for basically being awesome friends.  We love you guys. 

Please don't go to Thailand.

Just kidding.  Sort of.)

Happy Birthday, Silas!