Without fail, October always brings three special occasions to Southgate Coins: Boss’s Day, Halloween Dress-Up day, and our favorite, Marie’s birthday! This year, we celebrated her birthday in style, with accidentally-matching, fall-colored chrysanthemums, balloons, presents, and of course—cake! Read on to see how the festivities unfolded.

Marie is always the first to arrive each morning, so last night, Rusty and I (Maya) were able to decorate her desk with birthday banners and signs—you know, just in case Marie forgot it was her special day today.

As you know, no Southgate birthday celebration is complete without a birthday cake (or pie, or something else that’s sweet and delectable). Rusty went out of his way this year, though. Here’s Nicole to tell you about Marie’s special birthday cake:

After experiencing many birthday and anniversary celebrations at Southgate Coins in the past few years, I (Nicole) have to say that Marie’s birthday cake this year was by far the most beautiful. Rusty chose a carrot cake this year, with a cream cheese and whipped cream frosting on the outside. But, the outside was what was even more spectacular.

First off, Rusty had it specially ordered in the shape of a cream-colored heart—a first for Marie. The heart-shaped cake became the perfect backdrop for a gorgeous fall-colored assortment of edible flowers. The arrangement consisted of orange, yellow, and purple flowers and burnt-orange fall leaves. The cake was almost too pretty for Rusty to want to cut into it! But, he finally did, and with mouths full of scrumptious carrot cake, we continued to rave about how pretty and elegant-looking it was.

Thanks, Nicole. The cake was certainly magnificent.

As you may have read in previous blogs, this year, we’re toning down the birthday celebrations. But we couldn’t not get Marie anything. As usual, Nicole and I (Maya) schemed as to what little gift to get Marie, and Nicole came up with the perfect idea: we’d get Marie something revolving on her three true loves—her puppies!

Now, the benefit of Rusty and Marie being so camera-happy is that we’ve got tons to work with when it comes to finding a gift that revolves around pictures. However, most of those pictures are of store events, and not necessarily Marie’s three little darlings. But even so, we found a wonderful image of all three pups on the couch, each in anticipation of an off-screen dangling treat. How cute!

Nicole used the image, and was able to get two gifts with it. She wanted to make the gifts somewhat practical, so she chose to get Marie a coffee mug, and a mouse pad. Now, Marie will get to see her beloved pups each morning when she has her coffee, and each day while she’s working diligently at her desk.

We’re all happy to honor Marie yet again on her birthday, but a special thanks goes out to all of you friends who called or dropped by and wished (or sang) Marie a happy birthday. Nicole and I (Maya) tell her all the time how great she is, but I think it really gets to sink in when she hears it from everyone.

Best wishes to you, Marie, on your birthday. We love you!

Maya and Nicole