Trav is getting old.

This poor guy just went through a brutal week of finals. Even though I saw him at home plenty while he studied, I felt like he was still physically/mentally/emotionally gone for a week. A couple times, all he could say is, "My brain is mush" and I felt so bad! I couldn't imagine having to know all the stuff they are expected to learn! All the horror ended on his 28th birthday with his last 2 finals. Here he is with his traditional, birthday donut breakfast (still on his lap top studying).

 I had originally planned on just having a few friends over that night for dessert to celebrate. But then Denyse planned a big Cinco de Mayo fiesta to celebrate finals being over and it inadvertenly got switched to our house since so many amigos were able to come and her backyard was still a swamp from the many rains of April. That gave me some last minute motivation to clean out and spray down the garage. Trav mowed the lawn when he got home and we were ready to party! It turned out so fun. I was having nostalgia from the fiesta of last year.

Carolyn laid down on the blanket with her feet up and I guess Collin saw, plopped down right next to her and started kickin his feet. haha.

 Traci was so nice to hold the babers for a bit while I scrabbled around getting stuff done.

 Some of the yummy Mexican food spread...

 I found Collin running around with his food of choice, a lime.

 Check out the yummy margaritas that the Moellers made!

 Go Wayne. He brought his A game muchacho-ness.

 So I was in charge of dessert. Trav loves cheesecake and I recently acquired a spring form pan so it was time to try my first ever cheesecake! I got the award winning (literally) recipe from Megan and made most of it the night before. It was a time consuming recipe. Lots of steps. I was nervous it wouldn't turn out, but as I put it on the cake platter I gave myself a little mental pat on the back. It looked good. I had even whipped up a homemade strawberry glaze since Trav doesn't like regular pie filling as topping. (mushy fruit = gross, to him). I lit the candles then headed out the door, trying to shield them with one hand from the wind. When I got to the bottom of the steps, all eyes were on me as the candles blew out from the wind. Sigh. Travis was by the garage and quipped, "Hey, I blew them out from here!" My shoulders sagged, ever so slightly, and the next thing I knew, my cheesecake was on the cement!! Rachel literally screamed. I wanted to die! I couldn't believe it! And while everyone was watching. I was so embarrassed. And it couldn't just be a dumb box cake I spent no time on. It was the ridiculous cheesecake that took me hours to make! The metal bottom of the spring form pan was still underneath the cake, so it made it extra slippery, sitting on the glass cake platter. I shouldn't have even tried to walk with it. Trav ran over to hug me (he's the best) and I didn't know what else to do, so I went inside and had a mini melt down. I was just so tired. It was the last straw. All week I had felt overwhelmed and stretched too thin, with too little sleep.(But there was no way I could complain, given my husband was getting about 4 hours of sleep a night) So anyway, scratch that. I would have had a mini melt down if it wasn't for such great friends. Doug and Trav managed to scrape it off the ground, just leaving the topping on the cement and everyone ate it anyway!! Seriously, there were specks of gravel and blades of grass they were picking off of it, but everyone ate it anyway. AND they raved about how good it was. I have some pretty great friends.

 Trav was even willing to eat it straight off the ground. Now we'll always laugh about it being like the FRIENDS episode where Rachel and Chandler are fighting over the cheesecake and it falls on the floor and they eat it off the ground anyway! And then Joey walks up, appraises the situation, pulls a fork out of his jacket and asks, "So what are we eatin'!" Given my love of FRIENDS, you'd have thought I planned the whole thing! :)

 I had also made Funfetti cupcakes (Trav's other favorite), so here's Collin munchin away with the birthday boy.

 The {after} shot of the cake. Just a little mushed.

 The Shaws brought some Toblerone's for Trav (his fav candy bar.. boy you're learning lots about his dessert preferences) and while we were cleaning up after the pary, we chuckled at Collin trying desperately to dig his way into the wrapper of one. No one thought he'd succeed, but this kid's a scrapper! The next thing we knew he was trying to devour the whole bar. And oh so pleased with himself to boot!

HaPpy BiRtHdAy to my handsome hubby... now a big, bad senior! I can't believe he'll be starting his last year next week! Way to go babe. :)