We didn't initially plan this trip to celebrate Corry's birthday, but it lined up perfectly with his 40th birthday this year. Our friends that we met through NTTE wanted to go camping and it was decided that we were going to visit Lake Murray State Park near Ardmore, OK.
We decided to leave Thursday night, which was Corry's birthday, and head up there after work. Luckily, it didn't take us that long to get up there, get set up and relax with our friends. We stayed in the Rock Tower area of the park and it was awesome! The first night there were very few people there and we got awesome camping spots right on the water. The area was very quiet and the spots were spacious and ideal for a larger camper, which you don't always find in a campground. This was our first time to camp at this state park and we definitely will return. They have several hundred campsites in the entire park and awesome amenities like an ATV area, fishing, swimming, play grounds, etc.
As I have mentioned several times before my children absolutely love camping. I will admit that I am stressed for days before a campout that at least one of my children isn't going to sleep well at night, isn't going to eat what we are serving, is going to fall out of a camper and injure themselves - wait... too late on that one. Needless to say, my children would live in the wild if I would allow them to. They love being outdoors and have no problems just wandering around playing with bugs and dirt. By the end of the evening, they are both so worn out and dirty that they really should be hosed off before going to bed but they couldn't even stand up long enough for that. 
Because we now have Grace living with us, we had a different sleeping arrangement this time than we normally do so we could give her the most comfortable sleeping placement possible. We moved Isabella to the table bed and let Grace have the fold down couch bed. It works out fine, especially because Isabella could sleep on a log, I think, if she was tired enough. Most nights she sleeps so well that she ends up with awesome bed-head like this. We called this her 'I went to prom last night' hairdo. Silas slept amazingly well in the 'baby-jail' situation that we have set up for him in the bunk house portion of our camper since it gets dark and mostly soundproofed in there. Our friends have children that are older than Isabella and Silas, and they have so much fun with their children. They love other kids and are starting to not freak out 'stranger danger' style around our friends. 
Of course because it was actually Corry's birthday, we definitely had to get a cake. And, of course, because we were ordering a cake I contacted Heather from A Sweet Fix bakery to make it. She went so above how I thought this cake was going to turn out. Everyone was amazed and oohed and ahhed over how awesome it looked and how great it tasted. It was rich and chocolatey and delicious. Corry agreed that this was definitely the best tasting cake that we have ever had from her. I know that I have talked about her and her business in several blogs before but definitely if you are in the DFW area and in search of an amazing cake, you have to check her out. This cake was an amazing chocolate inside and chocolate buttercream on the outside. I know that buttercream is not what she normally deals with but it is always excellent. She made these awesome donut shaped cookies that my kids loved as well. She really goes above and beyond what I could expect every time that we order a cake from her.
All in all we had an excellent weekend with family and friends. My parents came up to bring the cake and celebrate with us. We also met some very nice new people while we were camping who had some very sweet children. I definitely could not have asked for a better weekend for my husband's birthday.
What would be your ideal birthday weekend celebration?
