However, I'll be taking him out to eat at Gaetano's to celebrate, and he knows that. His gift, which he also knows about, is a meal at Topolobampo. I couldn't get a reservation until late March, but this way he gets a celebratory meal and a "foodie present," to be redeemed later.
But back to the birthday surprise. You see, I baked and frosted a cake while having our neighbors and their 3 kids for BBQ pulled pork sandwiches on Tuesday evening. And even though I was able to get a head start because Josh was driving through 6-8 inches of snow to pick up Oscar from his neutering surgery at the Anti-Cruelty Society, I still had to cook the icing and frost the layer cake right under his nose. With 7 kids running riot through the house. (I made the Caramel Cake from The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. And it was delicious.) Josh was speechless. Partly, I think, because he couldn't figure out how on earth I could bake a cake so fast and partly because it wasn't his birthday yet. I think I've stumbled upon some kind of secret birthday surprise strategy here.