Yesterday was my 35th Birthday! I was pretty excited, months ago, when I realized my birthday and the Olympics would collide. That just meant we could do all kinds of out of the house activities and frame it as my Birthday Weekend Olympic Extrvaganza! Plus, my birthday was on a Wednesday, so it fell perfect with our weekend. It's always a bonus when Asa doesn't have to use a vacation day for our birthdays!
Our board from yesterday looked like this:
Our first activity of the day was two events in one: Kayaking and Cycling! You might remember a few weeks ago, Asa and I did the Water Bikes along the Riverwalk. But, when I saw the biyaks, I thought they would be perfect for the Olympics! It's a bike and a kayak! Perfect! And, unlike the bikes, they fit two- so it wouldn't be as pricey as 5 bikes would be.
The biyaks are really cool. You just peddle them, and use the lever to steer. No paddles required. Of course you have them attached to the side, if you need them. (And we did a few times to course correct), but for the most part they are just peddle powered. And you peddle back and forth as opposed to a biking motion.
Since we're an odd numbered family, one person would have to go by themselves, so we decided that would be Calib. We let him pick if he wanted a single biyak, or a water bike. He heard the water bikes were impossible to tip, and he was sold (not that the biyaks were easy to tip).
Peyton was my biyaking partner, while Asa went with Hayden. We were lucky to have a nice (though hot!) day, since the weather had been less than stellar lately, but we did all get quite a bit of sun out there. We saw some fish, birds, and Calib even spotted a dolphin (which he was convinced was a shark that was going to eat him). We biked up and down the river, and it was awesome.
After everyone was thoroughly exhausted, we headed back to the docks.
Then it was off to lunch at First Watch. It's a breakfast/lunch chain place that was rated highly and in downtown so we decided to give it a try.
There were no complaints here. Everyone enjoyed their lunch.
And, I mean, who doesn't want lemon curd ricotta pancakes for their birthday lunch?
After lunch, we headed over to Amalie Arena. I had gotten tickets for the beach for a couple of times during my birthday weekend, figuring if the weather was bad on my birthday, it would be something to do. While we had blue skies, it was just SO. MUCH. FUN when we went on Monday. And I had the tickets, so we decided to head back. We collected our free ice cream while we waiting in line.
Here's a little more info on the beach.
But, if you missed my post Monday, it's a temporary (totally free) exhibit being held at our hockey arena in downtown Tampa.
And it's a giant, amazing, super fun ball pit to play in! There's no time limit, but expect to be pretty tired out after about an hour of climbing around, and sinking, in the balls. I never went under, but Peyton almost exclusively spent his time under there. He got stepped on a lot, but didn't seem to mind. I guess the balls offered cushioning. But, I mean, who doesn't want to spend their 35th birthday jumping into a giant ball pit. That's one way not to feel old (for the record, I don't feel old. I'm pretty proud of my 35 year old status, even if I don't matter for TV ratings anymore!) Anyway, I'll let these pictures speak for themselves.
Oh, and the arena is a gym, which Asa occupied for a tiny amount of time.
After the beach, we were headed home- but we had one stop to make first. When I realized my birthday would fall in the Olympics, I knew I wanted to do a crazy around the world spread for my birthday dinner. We were still working off the Europe bag, so we had all kinds of spreads and snacks and such, and in our quest to find food for the bags, Asa and I noticed all the food at Whole Foods from other countries (particularly the cheese, olives, and fruits), so we made a mental note to get there for my birthday dinner. It just worked out that we were in Tampa on my birthday, so we made the stop. We picked all kinds of cheese...
....and olives (Peyton was not a fan). We got Olives from Greece, France, and Denmark.
And, while not Europe, we did get some around the world fruit too.
I was probably way more excited than I should have been, that I got a whole bag of stinky cheese for my birthday!
When we got home, I set up our Olympic Event for the day: Fencing! When I saw this crazy version of kids fencing on Pinterest, I knew I had to do it. But, I wasn't sure I could get the boys on board. My solution? Schedule it on my birthday when they had no choice but to participate with a good attitude. This, however, did not stop Peyton from having this reaction when he saw what I was doing.
Some days I think to myself 'man, my life is weird. I'm taping an egg to a headband'. And then I think, screw it. This stuff is fun. So anyway, we taped raw eggs to the headbands from the game Headbandz, and put on some safety googles. Then each person got a square of sidewalk to stay on, and a pool noodle. First person to crack the other person's egg (by hitting it or knocking off the headband) won.
Asa and I had a play in event. I told him not to let me win just because it was my birthday. He didn't.
Calib and Asa then faced off.
And Calib was victorious.
Then Peyton and Hayden's match was up.
And you can see here, Hayden's headband is on it's way to the ground.
That left the losers of Hayden and Asa to face off in the Bronze medal match.
Hayden took some egg right to the ear, and Asa was our bronze medalist.
The gold medal match was Peyton vs. Calib.
It was a tough fought battle.
But Calib won (here he is running the neighborhood cheering, while Peyton was off to shower- he didn't complain, but he wouldn't let me get a picture of egg all over him).
Since I didn't get to smash anyone's egg, Asa let me smash his! What a nice husband, I have.
Our fencing medal ceremony.
Oh, and during all of this, one of the neighborhood kids brought me a hand made card. It was the sweetest thing ever.
Asa and I worked together to get dinner put together. He would have done it all on his own, but I knew it would be a huge undertaking to get it all out, plus it was fun to gather it all up.
I had him take a picture of the cheese before we unwrapped it, so I could remember where it was all from (when I put it on the board, I did it in alphabetical order by country, so we would know what we were tasting!)
So, here was our spread. It's mostly European items, but we had a few cameos from other countries.
I tried to take lots of pictures to document it all. Our beads were naan bread, pita chips, crustinis, and french mini toasts. And our spreads included an eggplant dip from Bulgaria, cookie butter from the Netherlands, and fig preserves and Dijon mustard from France.
We had some Brazil nuts, along with our international Olives and fruit.
We had various meats, mostly from Italy, and our cheeses from around the world. The cheese was not all awesome. (I'm looking at you, France), but it was so fun to try. We went cheese by cheese, and Asa cut us all a piece, so we could try it at the exact same time. I was so proud of all the boys- they tried every single one without complaint. Some were better than others, but the Spanish cheese was universally loved.
And for dessert we had Belgian chocolate, and cookies from Sweeden, Holland, and France. The chocolate dipped in the cookie butter was like the greatest thing ever.
We also had some Lingonberry juice from Sweden. It was quite the spread, and the coolest birthday dinner I've probably ever had.
We had leftovers. But, we ate a lot!
There was still more food to be had though, because my birthday cake hadn't been cut yet.
As always, we Skyped mom and grandma for the event.
After last years debacle, and not being able to get Angel Food cake anywhere, we decided to try something we knew we could get: Publix Chantilly Cream Cake. I'd never had it before, but I'd seen it, and commercials for it, many, many times. It looked awesome, so I wanted to give it a try. And, Asa could order it online ahead of time, so we knew we'd have no problem getting it.
It was every bit as good as it looks. It's kind of like angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream, just totally elevated. The cake is really light, the frosting is more whipped cream like than frosting like, and the berries in the middle are sugary and sweet, and perfect. Even Peyton liked it, and Peyton doesn't like cake.
Oh, and it wasn't just my birthday yesterday. You might remember, it was also Herbert Hoover's Birthday, so Asa made his drink. I gave it a try too, but it was pretty gross. There was egg white, and powdered sugar, and orange juice in it. It was weird. But, we did try it!
We spent the evening, all hanging out, watching the Olympics.
And of course, Calib, Hayden, and Asa had to show off their gymnastics skills. They totally should have been in Rio. You should have seen their vaults!
Here's an update on where we all stand. Poor Hayden is still waiting for Cuba to get a medal. But, I hear they should clean up in Boxing, which hasn't even started yet.
And our current leader board...
Next Up: A lower key day, but we are playing some table tennis, celebrating Australia, working on our pizza boxes, and getting up to date on the Candy Bar Election!
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