A Weekend of Birthday Surprises!

Hans' birthday weekend proved to be one of numerous surprises this year!

Thinking most of his friends were out of town for a frisbee tournament, Hans was completely unsuspecting when the two of us went to our favorite downtown venue, the Claim Kitchen, to toast his birthday. As I had events planned for our return back home, Hans may have started to catch on when I kept texting friends to coordinate the evening, and rushed us out of Claim rather prematurely.

When we got home Hans was "surprised" with the arrival of our good friends, Jake and Sandra with their boys, Colton and Landon, as well as our buddies Rosa and Alden. We spent the rest of the evening playing Exit: a collaborative riddle escape-room style game that always proves to be a mental challenge and a lot of fun.

The next day we spruced up the front yard by planting new shrubs along the porch and the two fig trees that miraculously survived our snowy winter being transplanted from our old house. Hans' parents and Grandma P popped by from Florence to wish Hans a happy birthday, and we thought we would spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing before Hans and I headed over to my mom's for another birthday dinner...

But, as fate would have it, Hans and Brett discovered our old water heater decided to give out that day and had started leaking all over the garage! So we rushed out and bought a new water heater, and he and Brett spent the rest of the afternoon removing the old one and installing the new one on the spot.

Exhausted after this busy day, we said our "goodbyes" to Hans' parents and Grandma P and freshened up to go to my mom's for dinner, where Hans thought we would have a quiet celebration just the three of us. But we had one more surprise in store for the special guy as my mom had invited Jan, Brett, and Grandma P to meet us at her house, unbeknownst to the birthday boy.

Krystyna cooked some of Hans' favorite foods, including his favorite Polish dessert, knedle--potato dumplings stuffed with juicy strawberries and topped with cream and sugar. It was a great way to top off an action-packed and surprise-filled weekend, which certainly proved to be a birthday to remember!