Early Birthday Meals

Friday, a couple of friends had a little early-birthday lunch for me that was so fun and super deeeeeeeeelicious. Holy smokes. I totally stole this picture from my friend's blog who hosted. Check out my awesome little cake. Have you ever seen a cuter cake? I haven't. It was so fun and I felt extra special, and not don't-eat-the-paste special and not you-are-great-with-child-special, just plain special and loved, which was so, so nice. And I even got to take some of these gorgeous hydrangeas home with me in a new little vase. Score!

Then, because who knows when Go will be home Monday on my real birthday, we as a family celebrated last night, Saturday night. He took Ruby and May on a bike ride while Olive finished napping (sweet peace and quiet for me!) and on the way home, picked up a dozen freshly steamed and seasoned crabs for dinner that he had ordered earlier, and had totally watched a video beforehand to learn how to break these suckers open for maximum crab meat consumption. Go took the first one out of the bag and Olive FREAKED out. Once she calmed down and we got all of our supplies ready, we went to town on these suckers. I always find a strange satisfaction in working for my food, like extracting pomegranate seeds, peeling off artichoke leaves, cracking open pistachios, etc. I had never had whole crabs before and they were even more delicious than I expected them to be. It was messy and fun and we all loved it. It was an excellent birthday dinner.

Mrs. Charmagne Lewis-Feinstenburger, our first victim.

May was crazy good at disassembling her crabs.

Those nimble little fingers got every piece of meat out of every nook and cranny.

Let us have a moment of silence for the discarded remains of our friends from the sea who provided us with a memorable birthday meal.