The Bakers (with 1 B): Birthday Week Part 1

Greg's birthday.

One year, a few years back, I bought Greg a grill that was a little malfunctional, and then I bought him a watch he didn't like, and then he started buying his own presents, leaving me to have to be a little creative in my gift giving. Somehow show him how much I love and appricate him, without buying a gift he won't like/use/will return.

But this year, he turned 30. That's a big deal. Things are real now. He has to be a real adult--get life insurance (which we have), start a retirement fund (which we don't have). There's no way around it, we aren't young anymore. So I wanted to make a big deal out his birthday, but, as mentioned, I can't buy him gifts. And his birthday was on a Sunday this year and he's at church from 9 to 5 on Sundays, so there goes a party (although a roaring 20's party sounded like fun). So this is what I came up with:

I asked each of his siblings and parents and my siblings and parents to share stories/memories/things like they like about Greg. The original plan was to get a corresponding picture for each story and to have a story for each year of his life for a total of 30. I got 30 pictures and I got 30 stories, but they didn't exactly correlate. And it was stressful enough trying to get all the pictures scanned and stories formatted without Greg seeing since he works from home so often and comes home whenever he wants unannounced. And then the helium tank I bought only filled 28 balloons and then by the time we got home from church half the balloons were on the floor, so we just taped them to the ceiling instead (waste of $23.99 on a stupid helium tank). Luckily, Greg really did ask for a golf umbrella, which ended up fitting in with my theme perfectly.

As soon as he got home from church, he wanted to run right out and play with his drone, which he also bought for himself. So the kids and I headed out too and I snapped some adorable shots of Henry.