Ken's 40th Birthday!

We were all so excited to celebrate Ken's 40th birthday!  Really this whole month (4 weeks per decade) is his birthday celebration.  Last year when I started planning for his big birthday and asking Ken what he wanted it what pretty apparent that all he wanted to do was play around with his family and do something cool.  We were more then happy to oblige him with that!

He took lots of pictures of that day starting with breakfast.  This is the pancake syrup here in Cancun.  I bought it as a backup to the homemade buttermilk that he loves.  My buttermilk syrup still turned out pretty good (the sugar isn't as refined as the US so it tastes a little off), and the bottles stuff here is pretty close to that too.  We just thought it was funny that the Mexican one was carmel rather then like mapley like in the US.

We let Ken sleep in, when he came downstairs we were in full-swing of making him his special breakfast.

We made him french toast.  I am so thankful I brought my trusty electric griddle.  So much faster at turning out breakfast for a crowd.  Not my best picture but Ken likes it, and it's his birthday.

The boys were just as thrilled about getting their picture taking by their Dad early in the morning:-)

Girls were on Hot Chocolate Duty.

Happy Birthday Daddy!  Happy Father's Day too!

After breakfast me and Rose made Ken's birthday cake.  I was happy to find all the ingredients for German Chocolate Cake on our shopping trip!  Especially because I won't be making Ken's favorite dinner Chicken Cordon Bleu that I have made the past 14 years for his birthday.  The ham and cheese here won't do it justice.  So I really wanted to make sure we could do his cake.

We love that toothy smile!

We played some card games a relaxed a bit.

Then it was out to the ocean!

Catching some epic waves! (According to Darin)

Rose LOVES going out to float in the ocean with Ken.

Ginger found this cool shell on the beach.

Nathan is such a pro that he tried to strike poses as he rides in on a wave.  Half the time he puts his fist under his head like it is the Thinking Man.

I stayed closer to shore with Ginger while she played in the waves.  Pretty girl!

Doused by a wave.

Rose and Daddy

The boys spend most of their time Boogie Boarding.

Ken and Rose came closer and we switched up girls.

You can't go to the beach without making sandcastles.  We love the soft, white sand here!

Ken and Darin headed out to catch some waves.

Rinsing off the sand.

The Birthday Boy!  Exhausted from the waves.

Nathan found a clam.

We ate lunch by the pool.

Ken enjoying the beautiful view.

Can you see those bruises?  Darin came home from scout camp seriously beat up.  He was doing the Rowing Merit Badge and had to get himself back into the boat in the middle of the water after being capsized.  He had some really nasty bruises.

See the inner part of his thighs.  And this was 4 days after too.  They were really massive when we picked him up from camp.  Really they are from camp--we didn't beat him.

His banged up knees.

Tops of his legs.

Pretty Rose hanging out waiting for her sunscreen to soak in.  I make the girls count to 100 Twice before they can hop in the pool. Ginger has gotten really good at it, Rose already knew from Kinder, but she helps her sister out.

Refreshing dip in the pool.  It feels really good after being in the salt water.

After we came in for the day we banned Ken upstairs so we could prep for his birthday party.  Darin and I made a sneaky run to the mall across the street to pick up Haagen Daz ice cream.  For the past 14 years I have made Ken German Chocolate Cake with Homemade German Chocolate Cake Ice Cream.  It's is his favorite and completely rich.  This year I wanted to surprise him with the ice cream. I had saved little bits of frosting from the cake and froze it.  We picked up the richest chocolate ice cream with little chocolaty bits in it and mixed in the coconut pecan frosting.  Ken was totally surprised.

The kids blew up 40 balloons for Ken.

They hid his presents under the balloons around the bottom floor of the condo.

We ate dinner on the downstairs patio.  In lieu of his favorite dinner Ken requested fajitas. It was delicious and with a gorgeous view!

Ginger nibbling on lettuce.

Their I'm tough faces.

Happy Birthday to the Man I Love!

And Happy Father's day to the best father!  He always is so concerned with my happiness and the happiness of our children and is always willing to sacrifice anything for us.  We are so lucky to have him as the Daddy of our family and love him so much!
After Dinner our kids were so excited to have their Dad search for his presents.  Actually at dinner they were so excited that they kept giving him lots of hints.  They made Ken close his eyes so that they could spin him around.



Okay, open you eyes!

Searching...

Searching...

Searching...

Success!

The kids got Ken two movies.  True Grit (Ken's favorite) and Mission Impossible (Ghost Protocol, our boys soon to be favorite I'm sure:-)

Then they started to pile the balloons on Daddy.

Happy Father's Day!

Then we cuddled up to watch True Grit (this is the original version, not the one that came out a year ago).  Ginger promptly fell asleep, tired baby.

Halfway through we stopped our movie to do cake.  Ken kept calling his cake a porcupine.  With all 40 candles it certainly looked like it.  Rose had put in all 40 candles by herself earlier.

It took all of us to get all the candle lighted.  As it was we missed a couple in the middle but the heat was too much that we couldn't get to them.

Mexican candles are fantastic!  They totally spark as they burn almost like a sparkler.

Happy Birthday To You!

And He Huffed...

And he Puffed, and huffed and puffed because the candles kept reigniting.  I had no idea they were trick candles.

The boys kept blowing from the opposite direction so that they would start flaming again!

Finally Ken stopped them and practically had to start spitting them out:-)

We love you Dad!  With the girl who made the cake and the boy who fetched the ice cream!  Ken was totally surprised that we were able to make him ice cream!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate a really wonderful man!