Happy Birthday Matthew Bentz!

Yesterday we celebrated Matt's birthday!! We had a lot of fun but before I get into what we did, I want to explain what happened leading up to his birthday.  Matt is one of the hardest people to buy gifts for because he is constantly saying "oh let me show you this", or "this is awesome, I want this".  The list gets so long and I am often left wondering what does he really want?  Some may say, well you have a whole list of things to choose from so it can't be that hard!....but I just don't want to get him any old thing, I want to get him what he really wants!  I had an idea though that would solve all of this!  I made a "birthday test" for him.  I wrote out 7 questions, some multiple choice, some fill in the blank, and one free response question; In other words it was a very reliable test, at least I thought it was!  The only thing I forgot to do was write directions telling him he could only choose one multiple choice item per question!  Anyway,  I was able to gather information on what he wanted to eat for dinner, what kind of cake he wanted, when he wanted it, what he really wanted the most for a gift (kind of, he said he wanted to go shopping all day), and what he wanted to do all day since we were both going to be off!  At the end I asked him to leave any additional comments or suggestions and this is what he wrote and I quote, "I pretty much am going to get as much free food as I can from around the valley and then we can decide what to really eat for dinner." 

Since it was his birthday I had to give him what he wanted, so we did a little of the "finding free food" thing.  The day started out though with a little surprise gift...something I heard him say he missed, but didn't specifically ask for. 

He woke up to balloons with little words in each one that would help him to find his gift!

I love this face! 

He found all the papers (except for one) and he had to arrange them into a sentence.

Can you see the one he lost in his popping frenzy?  I had to quickly write it again and throw in it the mix :)

No tissue paper, so zebra fabric would have to do...at first he thought it was his gift :)

Yeah!  He lost his IPOD Shuffle a little while back so now has one to rock out to!

After he got his gift, we went to IHOP so he could start out the day with some free birthday breakfast :)  The shopping then started!  We went to several stores and it was funny because we would both go our separate ways to look and things, try things on and such, and I was always the first one done waiting to leave!  I would text him in each store and say "I'm done" or "I am done again".... My husband the shopper....He did find some good deals though so the shopping paid off.  The day ended at Benihana's (yes another free meal for Matt).  It was delicious and new for both of us.  It was a great day and I am so glad we got to be off of work together and hang for so long!  I love Matt and I am happy to celebrate with him any day!