Daddy's Birthday!

Yesterday was Brian's birthday.  The girls were so excited all day long!  They couldn't wait for him to get home so they could sing, "Happy Birthday" and eat cake, of course!
They helped me mix and frost his cake, which resulted in a lot of frosting on us as well.  The cake was Daddy's favorite--chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--and the girls asked me about 100 times when they could eat it. In the past, I've had a lot of trouble with round cakes. It seems like the "hump" on the bottom cake makes the top cake split in two and crumble apart.  It's been so bad in the past that we've actually taken to calling it, "Earthquake Cake."  But yesterday it worked out fine. And unfortunately, the only picture I have of the whole event is of the cake.

Brian's birthday cake.  Can you guess how old he is?  Imma said he was 8!

Brian got a few gifts, including a Bass Pro gift card because I have no idea what kind of tackle box to buy and a frozen lasagna, which is my version of cooking. Overall, I hope he had a nice time.  I know the girls loved baking the cake and singing happy birthday.  We are finally all done with birthdays for the next 8 months!  Which means I have about 6 months until I have to start planning the next Birthday Extravaganza! As much as I love parties, it's nice not to have to think about it for a while.
Of course, there's a couple of other little holidays I like to go all out for in between. Halloween decorations go up September 1st, people.  That gives me a little over a month . . . . And of course I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping.  You snooze, you lose (and what you lose is time, patience, and sanity in my case so I don't snooze!)  When do you start decorating for Halloween?  When do you start your Christmas shopping? What are you overly-obsessive about when it comes to planning and decorating?