Heather loves birthdays. LOVES ‘em. This makes Annie and James very lucky because each of their birthdays is going to be very special. Annie, in fact, has already enjoyed two incredible themed birthday parties (Yo Gabba Gabba and Three Ring Circus), and is sure to have many more. Before we had kids, though, Heather poured her birthday love into her own parties (and mine, too), and because I love her, I did my best to support her in making them as awesome as possible.

Now that I think about it, I wasn’t the best boyfriend on her first birthday after we started dating. That’s because I spent the night at my buddy’s bachelor party! I was going to skip the bachelor party to celebrate with Heather instead, but she wouldn’t have it and insisted I go. Did I feel guilty hanging out at a strip club on her birthday? Yes. But I also felt pretty lucky to have found a woman as cool as Heather.

I did much better the next year when Heather was living in New York. Not only did I fly out to take her to dinner at Tavern on the Green, but I took her on the “Sex and the City” tour. Since I was the only guy on the tour I was the butt of a lot of jokes, but I’m sure I’d have been teased even more if they knew I’d never seen the show!

It was after Heather moved back to Los Angeles that her run of cool parties began.

In 2005… about thirty of our friends celebrated by taking over a section of Dodger Stadium during a game against The Padres.

In 2006… It was Heather’s Golden Birthday. A Golden Birthday, Heather informed me, is the year that your age matches the day your birthday falls on. In this case, Heather turned twenty-seven on the 27th. To celebrate we had a gold themed party and everyone dressed the part!

DSC03491
A whole lot of people wearing a whole lot of gold.

DSC03478
Golden Birthday cake.

In 2007… Heather celebrated at the track, and we all pretended we were at The Kentucky Derby. That meant hats and pretty dresses for the girls, and suits and hats for the guys. We even arranged it so we could go down on the track!!!

Me and Mike

Trumpets

In 2008… We took trapeze lessons! For a week or so afterward I had visions of running away to join the circus.

IMG_0595

IMG_0628
That’s Heather!

2009 was a tough birthday as it came just a couple months after Maddie passed away. That year, and the next couple years, we kept things mellow, but last year Heather had her party hat on once again. We had a big party at our house called “Heather’s Thirty-three Jubilee!”

This cake might as well say "World's Greatest Mom."
Annie… minutes away from eating her mom’s face.

This year we’re back to keeping things mellow on account of having just had James, but that’s okay with Heather. We were discussing birthdays the other day, and she said that she now gets much more excited about her kids’ birthdays than her own. All she wants this year is to spend the day with her babies.

Despite that, I’m still trying my best to make her birthday as awesome as possible. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve including cooking a special breakfast (something difficult I’ve never cooked before…yikes!).

As lucky as I may have thought I was to have found Heather all those years ago when she insisted I go to my friend’s bachelor party, I now know how truly lucky I am to have found such an incredible wife and mother for our children. I love you, Heather, and hope you have a wonderful day even if Annie already told you what your present is – darn kid can’t keep her mouth shut!

Happy Birthday, Heather!