My Super Sweet Budweiser Birthday Bash

I've never really loved where my birthday fell during the month of July. I remember growing up 1/2 of my friends could never come to my birthday party because they were doing something with their families for the 4th of July. It was a day that was supposed to be all about me and for some people it wasn't and that made Princess Jeannette sad.

And then there were the years we spent the 4th on Orcas. My mom always made me feel special with a nice cake and party games but the kids at the party weren't necessarily my friends, they were cousins or friends of cousins or random kids staying in nearby cabins.

So finally, at age 33, I decided to quit crying about it. It's not so bad to share a birthday weekend with the Nation. It's really not! To ramp up my new found joy I applied to host a Budweiser Bash. Budweiser sent me all kinds of goodies for me to share with my guests. My guests were whatever members of Matt's family happened to be at their lake spot on the 3rd, and that was a-ok by me. And by my guests I don't really mean that I did any form of hosting. Everyone brought food and beer to share, I just handed out some beer coozies from the pockets of my Budweiser apron and snapped some pictures here and there.

Mentally I had taken my birthday into my own hands and was having a good time with it but then my husband surprised me with the greatest gift you can give a food addict - an entire Costco cake. I didn't see it coming at all - I never give that guy enough credit.

On a side note: I had no idea that my love of the Costco cake was so well known. My old pal Katie commented on FaceBook that she hoped I'd get a Costco cake for my birthday. Perhaps I should stop talking about it so much?

Or perhaps I should talk about it more? Who else is upset that they no longer let you pick your filling and frosting combo? White cake with chocolate mouse filling and buttercream frosting - hell yes! Chocolate cake with strawberry cream filling - yes please! Now we're limited to all white or all chocolate. Come on Costco!


Since I shared my day with the Nation (Deer Lake did fireworks on the 3rd this year) we got to light sparklers with the kids. We also got them some of those little snap it things that you throw at the ground, which turned out to be hours of fun for them. They set traps all over Matt's Grandpa's house by lining the steps with snap its. So tricky. Another side note: the girl pictured below folding her arms is Abby. Abby of 5-year old flower girl fame.
Annie is definitely mine.

My husband also surprised me with a new wireless mouse (wires are so 2010! sheesh!) and a new little video camera called a Bloggie Touch. It's the size of my phone and it holds 4 hours of HD video plus it's a 12 megapixel camera. It's super easy to use and fits nicely in my pockets (even nicer in the pockets of my Budweiser apron). Thanks Matt! I love it!

Also thanks to everyone in Matt's family for playing along with the Budweiser Bash! Hope you enjoyed your barley malt, yeast, rice, hops, water, nothing more and nothing less!