Catching up and a surprise birthday party

I know it seems I just post once or twice a month and most of the time it’s a Wyatt picture overload, but we haven’t had too much going on lately. Wyatt is just so fun right now so we spend every last minute with him just hanging out and having fun. He is a baby sponge and is soaking everything up. He is starting to be a little parrot, trying to repeat things we say.

          

I did one crafty project this month and it took 15 minutes to complete. I found an old wall clock in the storage room at work. I popped the cover off, printed a picture of Wyatt and cut it to fit. Voila! Instant clock makeover for my bulletin board at work.

The other big project I worked on this month was planning and hosting Justin’s 30th surprise birthday party.

He is a big fuddy-duddy when it comes to birthdays. I hate to let a birthday pass without at least cake and family coming over but he usually protests too much. Justin made the remark to his mama that he knew I was going to go all out for his big 3-0 so I had to work overtime to figure out how to pull one over on him. It came to me one day—I’d have a surprise party when he would least expect it: a month early. I tricked him into thinking we were going to a UGA family cookout for my work and we walked into the room full of more than 30 of our friends and family. I think we pulled it off well. It would have been impossible without the help of our parents, sisters, and brother-in-law. They were fabulous.

Justin found the craziest thing on the internet and asked his sister to make it for his birthday (he assumed in August). It’s called a piecaken. Amanda accepted the challenge and made the tastiest cake ever. It is two layers: spice cake with mini apple pies baked in, followed by chocolate cake with mini cherry pies, all frosted with the most heavenly homemade cream cheese icing. It was a lot of work and everyone was very impressed. Amanda stole the show with that cake.

    

I’m really glad Mrs. Desiree stopped the guys to get this shot. This is four generations of Cook men: Justin’s dad Sheldon on the far left, his grandpa Theron, Justin, and Wyatt. The last one we got like this was at the hospital the day Wyatt was born. Photos like this are priceless memories. I like to joke that the Cook genes run so deep, it’s like a picture of the same man at four different stages in his life.