:: Stew, Beck & Soph ::

Since Easter was in March this year the month of April has been dedicated to celebrating Stewart and My BIRTHDAYS! First is Sophie’s half birthday and then comes Stewart’s birthday followed by mine. Over the last 8 years of marriage I have learned that Birthdays are not a big deal to Stewart and the opposite for me. In-fact for the last few years I have come to the conclusion that Stewart will never make my birthday awesome like my family did when I was growing up so I should not expect it. No amount of hints or blunt comments will help him, it is just not the way he was raised and it is not who he is. Granite all of our marriage he has been in school or training with a vigorous schedule to keep up, sooooo if you really think about it… this may have a BIG roll to play in the way we have celebrated my birthday (and his). And you know what, I don’t blame him because he is doing his best and that’s all that matters.

Instead of getting upset over the lack of birthday festivities I have taken it upon myself to through us a birthday party sometime during the month of April around our birthdays. We invite our friends, eat cake and ice cream, play games and socialize. Most of our parties are low key that take little planning, but this year I went above and beyond and planned a murder mystery dinner party. It was a blast and I hope to plan one again in a year or so. When I told Stewart the plan he looked at me like I had lost my mind but still helped me with some of the details when it came to planning it and inviting couples to join us, he is a good sport I tell you.   

The name of our murder mystery was called Class of 1957 reunion, we invited all our guests to come dressed in a 1950s themed costume that best fit there character description assigned to them.  Since I did most of the planning I made sure not to read character descriptions and other info that would tell me who the murderer was and give the game away, by doing that it made it so I could play along because I was a clueless as the other guests.  Stewart and I were detectives set to figure out who killed David a classmate who was murdered just a few days before the reunion.

All our guests did a fantastic job role playing their characters and really getting into the game. This was one of the best parties I have done and seriously can’t wait to do it again sometime. Best Birthday Party ever!

We knew Stewart was going to be out of town during the month of April to complete his rural Wyoming rotation so Sophie and I decided to give him his birthday (father’s day, residency graduation, and anniversary) gift to him a week before his birthday during the week he took off to Study for his big board exam that he has to take April 12^th.  I am not sure who was more excited about it him or me. In the end I think he won since he put it together rather quickly and has been trying to find time to use it as much as possible. Do I have you wondering what it is we gave him yet? It is a telescope to look at the stars and planets with! I came up with the idea last summer, when Stewart would invite Sophie and me to join him in the wee morning hours to go look out at the stars.  So I started saving my money and researching telescopes with the goal of giving one to him for his birthday this year. I hope this telescope becomes a fun family activity for us to enjoy with Stewart being our fearless astronomy leader.

My birthday was spent helping Stewart get out the door to travel to his rural rotation in Saratoga, WY and on the phone with my sisters, parents, and grandma. Their phone calls made me feel loved and remembered even though Stewart had to leave Sophie and me for the month.  Stewart and Sophie took my very blunt hint and gave me a coupon to purchase new sneakers since my currant ones have been well used and are nearly worn out to the point there are holes in them. I have not bought them yet but am excited to go shopping.  All in all I would say birthday week for all of us here was a success! We are very blessed.