"D" is for Murder....

....Providing, of course, that you are also familiar with the sinfully addictive - and inexplicably likable....

And, to be honest, I'm sure many of you already are. I KNOW we are way behind the band wagon on this whole delicious Dexter thing... the show came out in what? 2006? Yea... BUT, thanks to the brilliance that is Netflix, we are now fully on board.

And, sadly, as of last night, also just as caught up as all of you other dedicated fans. As we have now finally seen the last episode, too. (What are we going to watch every night NOW? *sniff* Season Finales are so... final. <-- I'm grieving. I'm not a thesaurus. Hehe ;) )


So now, some back story. When we began this series sometime late last fall, we were almost immediately hooked. Aaaand we couldn't help but talk about it... often... to anyone who was around. So my brother, his girlfriend, my mom, and her husband were all also soon Dexter addicts right along with us.

Now, we didn't all stay right together with our episodes, though. But a couple weeks ago, it became clear that Jared and I were about to finish up the series right around the same time as Mom and Roger. So, Jared had an idea: we should hang out and all watch it together. A final farewell.

And last night, we did.

We quickly agreed we'd eat steaks. And the rest of the gory, fun details soon fell in to place.  And yesterday afternoon I began to prepare.... mwahahaha..... ;)

 Some blood-spatter wall "art" and food descriptions

 The front door

 Some of the red splatter string things and a pool of blood...

 Light and window decorations

 And the scene was set!.....

 ..... as night slowly began to fall....

... and Jared and I got into the spirit of the whole party, while anxiously awaiting our dinner guests....

 Best Dexter interpretation.

 "Killin'" it in that look-alike army green Henley ;)

 Mwahahaha.....

 Yea. We had fun. Haha.

And soon our guests arrived....

 

 Such a welcoming entry, don't you think?

 

 And with candles lit, steaks grilled, and the Dexter soundtrack playing in the background... it was time to eat.

 The feast!

  Haha.

 

                 Just candy. But cool, right?!

 

          Care for a slice of the "perfect pie" anyone?

  So fun.

  

             And Mom and Roger got into it, too :)

 Awesome.

Plating the murderous meal...

 

 

           More of mom and her knife-wielding skills....

 And a nice group shot of all of us, sportin' our awesome Henleys, just before we ultimately took one final  deep breath, and pushed play on that last episode ever.

The end of an era.

But it sure was fun while it lasted.  

Aaaaaahhhhrrr!!!!.... DARK PASSENGERS UNITE!!!!

Green!

So, in all honesty, I was really busy with a Merry Monster order on St. Patrick's Day... and I know I didn't make it as "special" as I could have for the boys. No crafts or anything cool like that.

But I felt bad letting the whole day go by without anything fun...

....so we did have a very GREEN dinner... GREEN drinks.. and some really fun Irish music playing in the background all evening. (also, please please nevermind that horrible, embarrassing table cloth. It's only a temporary throw away one until we can get the new table stained!)

 

And Holden and I even whipped up some GREEN sugar cookies as an after dinner treat quick.


So, I think they forgive me..♥

Oh NO! The Big 3-0!!

 

 

Well, it had to happen. Jared is now officially 30, too! 

Ha. Now we're both old.

His birthday was on a Monday this year, and with a little persuasion, he decided to take the day off. And I'm so glad! He never just takes a "vacation" day.. it's always a work on a project day, it seems. So this was really a wonderful - and well-deserved - treat for him :)

So his birthday weekend started off like this:

 

 Hanging out..... At night..... In the freezing cold garage.... working on a project.

Old habits die hard, I suppose.

Phase one of his new power rack. (Basically, a spotter. It's just a cage like contraption that protects him while lifting.. so he can "max out" without actual said spotter. The iron bars catch the weight if there ever comes a time when he can't lift it back up. Clear now? ;) )

I'm sure it was a ton of work, but now, it's completely finished! 

And now he's always safe.♥

But anyway. Back to the big birthday weekend. So that was Friday night.


SATURDAY night.. was the big surprise :)

Now, let me just preface this by saying I am not very good at being deceptive. And I like to plan... and talk.. a lot. So, keeping a surprise from my husband, was really really not my forte.

But with much help from my mom, I think we did a pretty good job.

On Friday night, Jared suggested going out to dinner on Saturday. SERENDIPITY! haha. Now at least I didn't have to try to come up with some sort of lie to make him get ready and plan to go out :)

So Saturday evening we all started to get ready to "go out to dinner." I showered (and waited to put my real outfit on until the last minute!), the boys got baths, and then Jared got all cleaned up. We had a small discussion about his outfit - I suggested not jeans.. he complained about having to dress up every single day... - and then it was time to dress the boys. You know, to go out to eat...

So, after I put that off as long as possible - and Jared started to get a little irked that I was taking so LONG - we finally all came back downstairs to greet Daddy. The boys in their pj's. Me, in this:

So... he knew there was an alternate plan ;)

He changed out of his jeans, lol.. and then we waited. A few minutes later, our very first babysitter EVER arrived!And now Jared was really confused.

It was so much fun! Haha!

But, finally, it all came together.  And I wish I could have captured the look on his face when the shiny black Limousine pulled up to our house.

 He was totally surprised. 

And it was totally awesome.

 We got him a special Birthday Boy hat - since he loved the one he got so much on NYE

And since we had had the limo pick up Mom and Roger first, she was even able to decorate the inside for him!

 Our double date for the night!

 

Such an amazing, fun experience. And a wonderful way to celebrate this special man.♥

And then it was on to Sunday! And another birthday celebration for Jared. This time, with the boys :)

 The front of their card to him♥

 And present time!

 Helpers

 So - back story - we have a serious addiction to the tv show Dexter. And this was Jared's face when he opened his very own Dexter-esque Henley shirt!

And, of course, he had to wear it immediately♥

 Then we ended the night with some cake. A giant whoopie pie cookie CAKE to be exact. Just for him.

 And finally, Monday. His true birthday. So I made him a heart attack breakfast.....

 

and then we just hung out. No work. No projects. No errands. 

And it was lovely.

Officially 30. 

And he just keeps getting better.♥