That did not go as planned!

I started my day by visiting the twins, they had spent the night at Grandma's.  They were playing with Lego's, that went great until Harper knocked over Ava's castle, then they were a little upset.  They had painted the bird houses as a birthday present for me, and gave them to me this morning.  They are really cute, Ava did the top one and Harper painted the lower one.  Vera offered to make me a cake for my birthday and asked what I wanted.  I made my choices, and was getting ready to head down town for supplies, I started the Blazer to let it warm up a little and it died.  I tried a couple of more times and it died each time.  I went around to the drivers side, gave it a little gas and tried again, it died again.  I gave it lots of gas, tried again and it started, then lots of smoke started rolling out from under the hood.  I opened the hood, started it again and discovered the alternator was not turning, the back bearing had failed.  I checked to see what I would need, Vera and I hopped into the van and it would not start!  I got the jumper battery, started it and we headed for NAPA.  I got a new alternator, serpentine belt and battery, then we went to the store for the cake mix and then picked up the mail.  I came home and installed the alternator, belt, and battery while Vera baked the cake.  We made a run down to take the old alternator and battery back for the core charge, it all worked out pretty good, just a $300 trip to town.  Michelle texted me asking if we wanted to do something for my birthday tonight, as they were going to the beach tomorrow.  We finally decided on Papa Pete's for dinner and cake here afterwards, I called Bev and she could make it also.  We had a great time at the pizza parlor.

Then we came home and had the cake and Breyers Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Ice Cream.  The combination of chocolate frosting, Butter Cream frosting, milk chocolate cake and ice cream was Delicious!  I am excited about my gifts, I have wanted the screw driver set from Michelle, Mik and James since I put it on my Christmas list.  I even looked at it one day in the store and left it there because my birthday was coming.  Bev gave me the Jelly Belly's which I love, I will try and make them last.  The Corsair from Vera, they went out of production and I had a heck of a time finding them, the retracts are from me to me.

This is the cake after the first set of helpings, Vera sent some home with James and a little got nibbled off, but I have plenty for the next couple of days.  It was a great evening spent with the family.