Mike's birthday events

I'm behind schedule on my blogging. As I posted a few weeks ago, Mike celebrated his 49th birthday on March 21. We've been celebrating ever since. It started that morning, when Kieran got up at 5:15 a.m. to make him breakfast in bed.

Scrambled eggs, toast, and fresh-squeezed orange juice

Kieran also wrote him a beautiful hand-painted card and poem. I took Mike out to lunch to celebrate (Thai food) and that evening we had an event at church. Nick made him a frosting cake:

and Kieran made him a rice cake covered in frosting:

The next evening we celebrated with friends by having dinner at the wonderful Tin Shed on NE Alberta. Mike indulged in his favorite dessert, a banana split:

Special friends Drew and Laurie (also celebrating a birthday)

Our great concert buddies, Christie and Dave

With the birthday boy

After dinner we went to see Girlyman, one of our favorite bands. I describe Girlyman as the Indigo Girls crossed with Peter, Paul, and Mary...if they all played several different instruments. I'm always amazed by musicians who are accomplished at playing multiple instruments, and Girlyman excels at this. This concert was notably excellent because of their amazing opening band, Sneakin' Out, which is Portland based. Check out the videos on their web site--highly unique and astonishing, especially the percussionist!

They also had guests from Coyote Grace, who also were multiply talented. One of the singers in Girlyman, Doris, recently survived a serious bout with leukemia, and it was the first time we'd seen them in concert since then. For their final encore song, Girlyman announced they'd be doing a classic spiritual and invited the audience to sing along, along with guests from Sneakin' Out and Coyote Grace. They then launched into a rousing rendition of the BeeGees' Stayin' Alive! It was a very fun concert!