I have to start by saying that Marcel's birthday has always seemed to get overlooked for one reason or another. I blame it that it has always been so close to our anniversary. When we were dating our anniversary was on May 22nd and now it is May 30th! Last year, we were very strapped for money (it was practically already our money even though we weren't married yet) and wanted any extra money we could find to go towards having fun on our honeymoon in Vegas, so we went to Grease at Keller Auditorium, solely because Pacific's alumni office had a group rate on tickets!
I found myself wanting to fall into that same trap again this year, thinking that we're about to reach our first anniversary as a married couple and I want to do something fantastic but that we don't have a lot of money for that since it is only 1 month after Marcel's birthday. I stood strong and planned Marcel 4 days of birthday activities. They could have all been done in 1 day (except day 1 & 4 would be hard to do together, you'll see below) but it was way more fun to separate each one into it's own day.
Each morning, Marcel got a hand-made card that had a hint for the day in it. I included the hint's in this recap! He also opened a gift around the time we were participating in the activity.
DAY 1: Friday, April 23rd
Hint for today's activity: Check your email! (I had sent him an e-card that had a coupon for a night spent together) more clever hints to come :)
Marcel and I both worked, but I took baby to Fred Meyer for some shrimp so that I could make Marcel a special dinner: Shrimp & Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo! We have fettucini all the time but for me to use shrimp was a huge milestone in our house. I don't eat seafood so he felt honored that I made it for him. I also rented Obsessed, which turned out to be a barely ok movie in my opinion but Marcel seemed to like it. Either way it was so nice to just spend the night together. Marcel had been at church Monday-Wednesday nights until about 9pm and then had class on Thursday night, so this was the first evening we had spent together all week. It is so nice to have such uninterrupted time to reconnect to your spouse!
Marcel after work
probably the most handsome substitute ever
Cooking dinner
gifts and the what-cha-ma-call-it was because coupons made the shrimp more than free and the stores won't actually pay you to shop there, but I had just recently learned that was his favorite candy bar!
His first birthday as a married man!
Day 2: Saturday, April 24th
Hint for today's activity: We'll witness something legal only in the United States & The Republic of the Philippines
We woke up really early and headed to my dad's house so we could walk with him in the March of Dimes 6 mile walk. It was pretty fun and a great cause for us to support--Marcel's brother was born at 32 weeks! We then headed to the park to watch Payton & Presley play in their 2nd softball game ever. It was also pretty fun too. I have spent so many years watching & playing softball so it was nice to get to do that again. Marcel knew about both of those activities, but then we headed home to get ready for the surprise part of the night. Marcel had figured out that we were going to a movie, because what else starts at 7:30 on a Saturday night, and had put a few snacks in my purse to bring (sshh, don't tell!) and when I found them, I said, "oh, these are for the movie?" I GAVE IT AWAY! Ugh, I was so mad at myself because I had caught myself several times all day and this time I finally forgot. He didn't know that we were seeing The Bounty Hunter (where the hint came in--I searched for Bounty Hunter on wikipedia and found that fact). It was a pretty good movie; I was hoping for better but we both enjoyed it!
Old Navy is our favorite, cute and still in our budget, even without my employee discount!
Our SECOND picture in a movie theater
Day #3: April 25th
Hint for today's activity: We'll see what the weather has in store for us!
Church day: Marcel had to be there by 7:45am for pre-service worship team practice as the sound guy so I got up at 6:30 and made home-made hashbrowns for us. They always turn out so good, if I can say so myself, and to think there were many many years of my life when I hated just about any form of potato! Marcel got his card and immediately thought the activity was weather-dependent, which was wrong. I met him at church to attend the 2nd service and after we were done Marcel drove without knowing where we were going, just had to trust my directions. I led him to Dairy Queen where we were going to enjoy Blizzards. I had to explain the clue to him! Blizzards are a weather-related event. I LOVE cookie dough blizzards but there just isn't room in our budget for them too often, but for a birthday it is okay! Later that night we had home group for church which was fun as well. It was only our second time at the group and we already feel so connected to the group. Again, just a really nice day spent together :)
trying for an artistic picture
more in love today than ever before :)
the gift for the day :)
Day #4: April 26th--his actual birthday!
Hint for today's activity: We'll be traveling out of this country!
I had to work this day but Marcel decided not to sub. He asked me Sunday night if he had to work the next day and I got a little frustrated because the school year is almost over and I want him to sub everyday, but when as I was going to bed I realized that I don't like to work on my birthday either, so I couldn't hold a double standard. My mom brought by Marcel some presents this morning, before he had gotten up for the day, so don't be surprised by the picture (she got him the first 4 seasons of Boston Legal). Marcel was awesome enough to mow the lawn and I weeded part of the backyard while baby enjoyed the outdoors. She is SO happy to be outside or shopping; it is wonderful! Baby went home just as my mom was getting here to lend us a weed-eater. We then left for our big adventure. Again, he sort-of knew it was a dinner date because it had been a long time since I had eaten last and he knows me better than to think we were going to do something non-food related without me packing snacks! We went to Jalapeno's, which was somewhere we had never been to before. It was a decent dinner, just made us miss La Sierra in Forest Grove! The best part was that we both brought home left-overs so no cooking the next night. Then we came home, cuddled on the couch and watched Two & A Half Men, just like every other Monday night!
Hint for today's activity: We'll be traveling out of this country!
I had to work this day but Marcel decided not to sub. He asked me Sunday night if he had to work the next day and I got a little frustrated because the school year is almost over and I want him to sub everyday, but when as I was going to bed I realized that I don't like to work on my birthday either, so I couldn't hold a double standard. My mom brought by Marcel some presents this morning, before he had gotten up for the day, so don't be surprised by the picture (she got him the first 4 seasons of Boston Legal). Marcel was awesome enough to mow the lawn and I weeded part of the backyard while baby enjoyed the outdoors. She is SO happy to be outside or shopping; it is wonderful! Baby went home just as my mom was getting here to lend us a weed-eater. We then left for our big adventure. Again, he sort-of knew it was a dinner date because it had been a long time since I had eaten last and he knows me better than to think we were going to do something non-food related without me packing snacks! We went to Jalapeno's, which was somewhere we had never been to before. It was a decent dinner, just made us miss La Sierra in Forest Grove! The best part was that we both brought home left-overs so no cooking the next night. Then we came home, cuddled on the couch and watched Two & A Half Men, just like every other Monday night!
gifts even before getting up for the day
Birthday boy, happy about his drink & his guacamole, oh and probably being with me!
fried ice cream, something neither of us had ever enjoyed before
tribute to early dating years
watching TV at home after a long, but fun weekend!
Thanks to all of the coupon blogs I read I was able to do ALL of this for a very small fraction of what it should have cost.
- The shrimp was free with coupons and I had all the rest of the ingredients in our pantry that I had also gotten for just about free
- Obsessed: free with a Redbox promotion code
- The Bounty Hunter: Buy 1 ticket, Get 1 ticket free when I redeemed 2 of my Tropicana rewards points (I have never gotten a point from buying the juice, instead I just wait for people to post the codes that can be redeemed by everyone to get my points)
- Dairy Queen: Buy 1 Blizzard, Get the 2nd one for $0.25! We splurged for the large sized so we could bring some home, but still paid a little less than what 2 smalls would normally cost us!
- Jalapeno's: Restaurant.com $25 gift certificate for $2 a few weeks ago. It required that we spent $35 and included a 18% tip before the certificate could be used, but it still turned out to be a fantastic deal.
- His present each day was a shirt or sweater that I had gotten at Old Navy, on clearance and with a coupon!
- The Wink photostrip was also 100% free, including shipping
It is fun to spell out how I saved so much money in this birthday, because it makes me realize how far a dollar can go when spent the right way. Now I know I never have an excuse not to treat Marcel to a fantastic birthday every year. Besides he deserves it for how well he treats me each and every day!
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