Happy Birthday, You Old Coot!

Robert, now officially an old coot, turned 50 the day after I returned from Yellowstone.  (I can call him an old coot and get by with it because I’m about a year-and-a-half older than he is...sue me!)  Since it was a milestone birthday, I wanted it to be something a little different, but because I was fresh off the road and had been gone for a week, it took me a day or two to get it together (and I certainly had help).

Mandy, Jeromy, and Paisley decided to surprise Robert at work and invite him to lunch.  This afforded that old Grump-Pa the opportunity to show them his little plot at the community garden (he just loves that thing!).  There has been a lot of progress in making the garden look a little more dressed up and spiffy:

Robert was in for a surprise when he got home…I had invited his mother for this event, especially since Lynda did the hard part in the first place all those years ago.  She had been able to keep the secret all week and that was his first surprise for the evening:

Mandy was kind enough to take care of the cake for me:

While they were all here, I doled out the gifts that Uncle Vinnie had sent from Yellowstone, including a really cute book for Paisley:

Paisley is always intrigued with Nestlé:

We all went out for dinner at our favorite little home-cooking style restaurant, and afterwards, back at home, there were cards (with a little something extra in them)…

…And gifts (Mandy and Jeromy knew that Robert would love this):

But as neat as all of that was, Robert’s mother’s gift was the hit of the evening.  Lynda is an incredible seamstress.  No pattern?  No problem!  She concocted this really nifty conceal/carry vest (enough said about that), and the old geezer was tickled pink!

Robert told me that this was one of the best birthdays he had had in a long time.  As a girl who wasn’t that excited to see 50 herself, I’m glad that he sees it that way…