Well, the birthday month is here. My husband’s birthday is at the beginning of the month, and my son’s birthday is at the end. We didn’t do much for my husband’s special day, just had a dinner out, which we don’t do very often, so it was very nice. He had been requesting a chain to put his wedding ring on as he couldn’t wear it to work without risking damage being done to it, so I got him a nice chain. It looks nice with his ring and he wears it everyday now, so that’s nice.
We waited too late in the planning process for my little one’s birthday and the pavilion at the park that we wanted is already booked, which means that we’re having his birthday at the house. The problem with this is that our back yard is a righteous mess, so we have a whole lot of projects to do now. My husband and roommate have been working on getting the back yard cleaned up and I have re-started my dresser project so that we can get it off of the patio. I am a bit embarrassed to say that it took nearly two weeks to get more sand paper, so rather than getting the project done within a week, I just starting working on it again a couple of days ago. I finished sanding it this morning and started staining it. I didn’t do a wonderful job of sanding, as I wasn’t able to get all the paint off the areas that are grooved and decorative, so the piece will definitely have character. Thankfully, I’m not a perfectionist and this is not a show piece. I will always remember that it was once the dresser for my son’s Dr. Seuss-themed nursery, as I can see the different colored paint showing through the stains in places. I’m not posting a picture of it just yet because it doesn’t look that great, but I’m hoping that it will look better once the staining is done.
My hubby has been working on building a chicken coop for the last few months. We are hoping to get some chickens in the spring so that we can have fresh eggs. I’m not sure how the dogs will take to the chickens, but I expect that my son will be thrilled by our new pets. I have encouraged him to make that project a priority so that we can get the pieces of that project cleaned up before we have guests over for the birthday bash. Today he mowed the lawn and trimmed some branches that were hanging over our yard from the “forest” behind our fence. 
Yesterday we went to a local nursery and picked up some lemongrass and sage. I figured if we were cleaning up the back yard that we may as well do a little landscaping, and they are handy plants to have. Lemongrass smells good, can be used in cooking, and is a flea and mosquito repellant. Sage smells good, can be used for cooking, and is a flea repellant. I had hoped to plant them today but there’s a freeze warning in effect tonight, so it seems like a bad time to plant a tropical grass. We are also going to try to make a pathway using the wood from some of the pallets that we’ve picked up to help with the construction of the coop. I’m looking forward to posting pictures of that as it comes along.
My little guy has had a great time being outside so much while we work on our projects, and we have some super fun stuff coming up. We will be celebrating his birthday two weeks in a row. My mom is an accountant, so it is difficult for her to take off the end of the month, so she and my dad are coming down the weekend before his birthday and we are all going to Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom, to be exact. We are splitting the cost of a super affordable hotel room, thanks to a Florida resident discount, and we also got a pretty good deal on tickets to the park as well. I can’t wait. I’ve taking my little one once before, but he wasn’t even two yet and spent most of the day with a “WTF!” look on his face. I think he’ll enjoy himself much more this time. The weekend after Disney my in-laws are coming down. Both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law with his wife. We are really excited. We are having his birthday party on Sunday so that my hubby doesn’t have to request two weekends off in a row. Unfortunately, my in-laws will have to leave Sunday, as they were unable to take Monday off, but the upside is that my little guy will get to celebrate his birthday twice in one weekend. By the time this is all over my hubby and I will be exhausted, but it will be worth it.