Best 30th Birthday Gift for the Best Boyfriend

I always thought of myself as a creative person.  And granted, although I still believe I am, I often wonder to myself: how did I ever live without pinterest!  Okay, so perhaps that sounds a little silly.  Of course I can live without this website and I could definitely live without most websites like, facebook, twitter, even Linked In. But I really, really love pinterest, it’s my favourite social networking site to date. It’s every visual learner’s wet dream.  It’s where creative ideas come together to be seen.

So, why do I love this website so much? From it I found this very sweet birthday idea, which I did for my boyfriend’s 30th birthday this year.

The Idea: Fill 30 balloons with helium and attach a ribbon with a photo for each year of the person’s life at the end of the balloon.  Gather them all together (I used the bed for photo support) in any room in your house and wait for the birthday surprise.

I couldn't have done this without the help of his mother, who sent me all of the adorable photos. I took each one, cropped it and then affixed it onto white paper to make it look like a Polaroid picture.  The last step: number each photo.  An optional step: add a message on the back of each photo.

I was just gushing flipping through each one, such a cutie!

So serious but adorable, at Disney world.

This was one my favourite photos. How perfect! A father/son photo of them fishing ... well, actually not fishing (I learned afterward from Mike) they were only pretending to have caught that fish (funny story).

I made sure to have as many different coloured balloons as possible.  They looked so pretty in the light I didn't want to move them.

Tools you will need

• 30 balloons - any colour, all colours
• 30 long pieces of ribbon
• 30 photos, numbered and with an optional message on the back of each
• Helium tank that can fill at least 30-35 balloons (I rented mine from It's my Party!)
  

The very happy birthday boy looking at his pictures and reading the messages.

My only dilemma throughout this gift making process, something that weighed on my mind quite a bit before I got started was: are balloons recyclable? With this being a green blog and all I of course had to acknowledge that question and do some research.  The answer was better then imagined.  Latex balloons (which are what I used here) are biodegradable (even better), meaning they can be broken down and composted. This is a good news seeing as I still have 30+ balloons floating around my house to dispose of.

And for dessert, his favourite: apple crumble!

Oatmeal Cookie-Topped Apple Crumble
Recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes, p.410

For the Apples:
4 apples, an flavour of your choice, unpeeled, cored and cubed
1 tbsp whole pastry flour
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
3 tbsp apple juice

For the Topping:

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp creamy natural peanut butter
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp plain almond milk
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Line an 8-inch baking dish with parchment paper
3. To make the apples: Combine the apples, flour, syrup, and juice in the baking dish and stir to coat
4. Cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.
5. To make the topping: Whisk together the flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium size bowl
6. In a small-size bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, oil, milk, sugar, and vanilla until emulsified.
7. Stir the wet ingredients with the dry.
8. Remove the foil: crumble the cookie dough evenly on top of the apples.
9. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the apples are tender and the cookie topping is golden brown and cooked through.
10. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!