Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and I am so lucky that I was able to share the evening with him! We started the evening off with appetizers, went and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant and then headed back to our place for cake, ice cream and presents.

The big cupcake cake I made for Dad

This year I had to get creative with his present. Usually I can either think of something great to get him or he provides a list of things he wants and are easy to choose from. This year, that was not the case. His wish list went something like this:

• Digital Camera
• Round of Golf
• Tan Pants – Dockers Like w/pleats – Cash or Gift Card Only
• New Casual Shoes Size 10 ½ or 11 (UGG) Cash or Gift Cards Only
• Sandals/not flip-flops – Casual Leather- size 11 – (Cash Only) Brown/Tan
• Gift Cards (visa or master card) are always great

Thanks, Dad; that gives us a lot of options - digital camera, golf or basically money. Lame! So I came up with a plan to give him what he wanted but in my own special way.

A little over a month ago my parents went camping in their pop-up tent trailer. One evening my mom went to go use the shower (she will only go to campsites with flush toilets and showers) and my dad went to bed. He heard a rustling under the pop-up that sounded like my mom going through the cooler, which they leave outside under the bed pop out. After calling out to her with no answer he assumed a neighbor was trying to steal food. He went outside to investigate and found the cooler knocked over. Not thinking much of it he set it upright and went back to bed. When my mom returned form the shower he asked if she had come back to get something from the cooler. She said no but someone told me they saw a bear in the area. So long story short, my dad thought a food stealing camper was getting into the cooler but it was a bear. In the morning they found bear paw marks and a hole, presumably from a bear claw, on the top of the cooler.

Because this has been the big story among my family I decided to play it up. Dave and I decided to give my dad money for shoes for his birthday (per his oh-so-insightful list) so we made the picture below, printed it out, cut along the doorway of the tent and made the cash look like it was coming out of the tent and the bear was going to get it and then we put it in a small picture frame and wrapped it up.

He had a good laugh when he opened the gift and was very impressed with our creativity. He is also looking forward to buying some new shoes this weekend.