Mikey Turns the Big 28

So it seems that Mike had all these plans about what he wanted to do for his birthday and just dictated them to me a few weeks before the big day :) The only input I had for the day was where we'd go for dinner. I searched and searched and searched for the perfect restaurant...but I'll tell you more about that later. So Mike's FIRST REQUEST was that he wanted his birthday cake to be "the cake from the box." That's exactly what he told me. I was like Duncan Hines??! Ok, EASY :) DONE. The finished product was a Duncan Hines Fun Cake (the vanilla flavored one with the colorful dots) and chocolate frosting.

So, we had cake before dinner because dinner reservations weren't until 10pm.

***Funny thing, I never knew how much Mike really liked Duncan Hines cake. In the days that followed his birthday, Mike "went to town" on that friggin cake. He loved it SO much that he consumed a HUGE chunk of that cake for breakfast every morning. I was DISGUSTED.***

Mike's SECOND REQUEST on his birthday was that he wanted to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Ok...no problem...if you're in New York during Christmas time, that is a must. So after cake, we headed up to the ice rink where we were greeted with the gorgeously lit tree and rink. Isn't it pretty?? We were so excited to skate on that gorgeous rink, but were disappointed when we found out that it was closed for a special party that night!!! JERKS! How could you ruin Mike's birthday!!!!!!

SO INSTEAD, we did something WAY BETTER than skate on that stupid rink...we sat and admired the beautiful decorations around the center. See how much we enjoyed looking at them?

Saks Fifth avenue light show

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Finally, dinnertime!!! So, the story behind the restaurant was that I started looking a month before his birthday. I researched and researched til I decided on Mario Batali's Italian restaurant Babbo. It turns out that you can make reservations as far as a month in advance. So on the day, EXACTLY a month before Mike's birthday, I called and the earliest reservation I could get was 10pm! ISN'T THAT CRAZY!!!! But the dinner was PERFECT. We had the perfect table, in the corner. The perfect meal, all the food was recommended by the waiter and it was all so tastey and very, very different than the italian food that we are used to eating. APPETIZER: barbecued octopus SOUP: spicy calamari soup, FIRST COURSE: portebello mushroom ravioli SECOND COURSE: lamb and veggies.