Birthdays! How about Birthday WEEKS!

In my family, birthdays are a big HUGE deal. We tend to celebrate the whole month instead of just one day. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so he has the entire month of May. 

So to bring this birthday month to a close, this post is all about you, dad! I hope your birthday month was the best one yet! 

This weekends festivities began with a cook out with our close friends who are more like family to us from Mississippi. We have added onto our deck, which is now three levels so we had to break it in! I was able to spend my afternoon in the kitchen baking. My dad's favorite cake is a Black Forest Cake and my grandmother would make it every year for him on his birthday. So this year, I decided to call up grandmother and get this special recipe. 

Here I am with my finished product

A close up of the cake. It was so good! 

On his actual birthday, I got up and took dad to brunch at one of our favorite places, Bojangles. We don't go there too often but you can't beat a Bojangles biscuit and sweet tea for brunch, plus who can't resist being able to start the day off with saying "It's Bo time, y'all!"

Prior to going out to dinner, dad opened his gifts. I gave him a Columbia Performance Fishing Gear white shirt. You can never have enough white shirts and in South Carolina you definitely need a PFG. The fabric is extremely light and has Omni-shade sun protection, which is a lifesaver in this 98 degree sunny heat we've got here at the moment. Its pretty nifty. My mom gave dad a new Citizen Eco Drive watch. Its a nice, brushed silver watch and the neat thing is that it never needs a battery. The watch is powered by the sun and the movement of your arm. How cool is that?

So for dinner, we decided to step it up a notch and head to one of our local favorites, Arizona's steak house. Once it had cooled down we were able to sit outside and enjoy a nice dinner. 

Me and my dad sporting his new Columbia shirt

mom and dad outside the restaurant 

This concludes the birthday month of May.

 Dad, I hope you had a wonderful birthday month because you most definitely deserved it! I love you! :) 

Now we just get to wait until September for my festivities to start!