this is 40

a few months ago i read an article in the wall street journal about an annoying trend of people who have month long, multi event birthday celebration extravaganzas with multiple outfit changes and different activities for different tiers of friends. what the what? first of all, tiers of friends? like friends with all their teeth and friends who are dentally challenged? what do that mean? how do you have tiers of friends? how do you even decide that? if you're sitting around making lists of tiers of friends, perhaps you have enough time to do genealogy or emergency preparedness. for the record, i prefer genealogy over the term family history any day. my blog, my choice!

i digress.

thomas turned 40 last saturday. it was the most low-key, chill birthday of all time. no tiers of friends whatsoever and only one outfit change because he had to go to the DMV. and both outfits included his sporty arm sling because he had a pretty bad bike accident last week when his handlebars slipped off his bike and he took a pretty bad fall. add insult to injury, he was just up the street from the house going down a rather steep hill and the bike tire was so damaged that he had to drag that bike home behind him. in the dark. it turns out all his whining and crying is a sprained shoulder and a broken collarbone. this is 40! it was pretty horrific and i gagged a lot when i saw the injury and he didn't like it very much either.

our typical birthday breakfast with gift opening. thomas likes surprises but he also likes looking at the bank account multiple times a day so that makes surprises difficult. my gem of a friend, paula, was willing to purchase all gifts and hid them at her house and i wrote her a check. thomas was ACTUALLY SURPRISED! especially since he had already bought a couple gifts for himself that i didn't know about. 

new lawyerly wingtips for work. this is 40.

 classic reagan line, "oh look, dad, there're two in the box!"

 thomas is nice enough to let his kids help him open his presents. i am never that nice, or that injured. it helps that he's practically an invalid these days. hope i don't have to shoot him.

my piece de resistance birthday gift, a replica of the original herschel walker UGA jersey. i was hoping he would wear it to the DMV for his picture, but he was afraid that he would get mobbed by people thinking he was the actual herschel walker. 

another surprise was jack stack barbecue, shipped from kansas city. divine.

"put this food in my mouth!!!!!!"- thomas simpson, 40 years old

his other birthday gifts included buying a used weight bench from our neighbor. i also bought him chocolate milk and doritos, because i normally make a point of not buying those things. 

i took this investigative journalistic secret photograph of thomas lovingly putting his birthday grill cover on his grill. this is 40.

 later, he took his top tier kids to the movie theater to see "finding dory". this is 40. it was a gift to me too as i was alone with hersch for the afternoon and he took a nap. i made pie and explored new musical groups on youtube. this is 36.

the party continued. 

athena blythe's popcorn bowls

strawberry pie and singing after church on sunday.

and gross store bought cupcakes for the less discerning palate. 

the end