Today is Adam’s birthday, and we had a joint party to celebrate that and my mom’s retirement this coming Wednesday. My mom didn’t know we were celebrating her, and we (Adam, me, and my brother) got her a gift and card.

This morning I was up at 8 making birthday blueberry muffins from scratch.

These are from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook, but I took no prep photos. I’ll post about them some other time.

Then my family came over, and we had roast chicken with Adam’s mashed potatoes and peas. Just because he’s the birthday boy doesn’t let him off the hook with the mashed potatoes. No one makes them like he does.

Then we had cake. I made Adam the triple layer Devil’s Food Cake with dark chocolate frosting, which he loves.

I didn’t put fancy decorations on it, I just ran out of time. But no one minded. And it was delicious.

And then for gifts I gave Adam this ceramic Polaroid sculpture from Yellow Owl Workshop. I saw it on Angry Chicken and thought it was perfect for him. I long ago gave up buying him actual gadgets, so this was a good compromise.

Then for my mom, we all gave her this AWESOME Flip Mino handheld camcorder. It’s crazy small, and she loves it. I’ve put this one on my Amazon wishlist.

This photo is, of course, Adam figuring out how it works for her.

Now I’m exhausted. Time for October.