Plotting the Big Three-Eight...

I was super excited about David's birthday this year. Since our bathroom project, David's been dropping hints and dreaming up a little workshop space for himself in the garage. He's also been pining away for a compound miter saw...he's mentioned tackling some other type of moulding project in the future. 

For the last couple of months, he would show me (and my dad) the area he thought a workbench could go in our garage. He asked my dad all about how to put one together and chatted with me about different styles of workbenches. Once August rolled around and his job got cRaZy again, he kind of put the project (as in...the project to help with other projects) on the back burner.

BUT I DIDN'T!!

The official spot David had mapped out.

And without him knowing, my dad and I had measured and remeasured and schemed about.

My parents told me they'd like to give David the workbench as their birthday gift to him. I decided to take on the miter saw (which I bought all by myself in a big, scary hardware store!).

We decided to set everything up for David in the garage and have it waiting on him when he got home from work on his birthday. Here's Benjamin the Builder helping grandpa wheel the super-heavy, super-duty workbench in place (dad said it was so heavy duty that we could park a car on it...we'll try that later).

Then my dad was kind enough to put together the saw that I'd been hiding in the back of my closet for the last few weeks. 

Ready for the surprise!!

We hid my dad's truck over at the elementary school across the street and waited in the garage until David came home. 

And he was totally SURPRISED!!!

He had absolutely no clue.

In fact when he initially walked in, he was a little confused as to why my parents were there, that it took him a couple of seconds to shift the direction of his view to the work bench. When he saw it, he actually jumped a couple of inches backwards!

My dad installed a vice on the end of the workbench that the boys are infatuated with. 

David now has big plans for peg boards & shelving on the wall behind the workbench.

The most special thing about the workbench? My dad planned it and built it all himself...David loves that and has mentioned on more than one occasion that the workbench will be with us forever and have such a neat history. I totally agree.

We finished the celebration with David's traditional birthday dinner of Mexican Chicken Spaghetti. There's a story behind why it's his favorite...but that's for a whole other post.

Yep, did ALL of the candles again.

I was standing by with a fire extinguisher.

David loves key lime pie. I recently found a recipe for a Key Lime Cake and knew it was the cake for this birthday! We all loved every bite of it...yum!

Happy birthday, David!! We love you so very much!!