Happy Birthday John!: A Western Story

Yesterday John had a birthday! Hurray!!! Lucky for us it was on a Saturday, so we had lots of free time to celebrate!! We started off the day with a birthday breakfast of blueberry muffins and presents!

I have a funny story for you about the muffins. It was already kind of late in the morning so I was kind of in a hurry to get them finished – I had a lot of party prep to do during the afternoon – so as soon as the muffins came out of the oven, I stacked them nicely on a plate, stuck in the candles, got them lit and sang John the birthday song and he blew out the candles. Normal, right? Well, what I forgot to consider was the the muffins were still really hot. And the four candles in the top muffins had completely melted into the muffins by the time we took them out to eat the muffins. Oops. ;)

Then came presents!

Not a bad haul this year, eh? ;) After we got ready for the day, we had some errands to run and I spent most of the afternoon getting ready for a western themed dessert and game night! A few weeks ago I made these super cute *ahem* manly cowboy invites to send out to some friends
I wanted it to look somewhat authentic, so yes, I did actually burn the edges of the paper. The pyrotechnics got a little messy and the bathroom smelled like smoke for a little while…but oh, it was worth it. ;)

Then I set to work getting the food done. I spent most of this week getting some prep done when I’d get home from work. So I went from one kitchen to another ;) I also put together some mini cupcakes for John to take to work on Friday.

I was finally able to try this new chocolate cake recipe that Chef Josh at school had given me several months ago. It turned out really yummy! With the remaining batter I made the cake for the party. I also tried out a recipe for peanut butter mousse. (I know, watch the drooling)

I had a fun spread put out for our guests, all western themed of course :)
It wasn’t until after I made the labels and put everything away that I thought of “Buffalo Chips” for the tortilla chips. Oh well ;)
This was the best one ;)

And I just have to show you the inside, after we cut it :) Yummy chocolately peanut-buttery goodness…

I had it all set out for munching and at the last minute I made this fun birthday banner – with my cricut of course!!! :)

We got all dressed up in our western gear and we were ready to party! Our friends Emily and Shawn were the only ones that ended up being able to make it, but we had a great time and played one of our FAVORITE western games: BANG! Emily and I totally won the first game, when she was the Sheriff and I was the deputy. We “killed” the boys off pretty quick ;) During the second game, the boys were knocked out again pretty fast and then Emily and I duked it out for a good half hour, when she finally beat me. She was an outlaw and I was the sheriff.

The boys weren’t too happy they got kicked out so fast, but what can I say? We had the luck of the draw that time ;)

We finished the day happy, sleepy, and full of yummy food. Happy birthday John! I sure do love you!