Instead of or in addition to “Happy Birthday”. Mr. Rilch’s birthday is coming up, and this time I’m buying a cake. It’s a beach scene: guy with surfboard standing by a cabana. I chose it because we don’t get to the beach as often as we like, as in almost never, so this is my way of bringing the beach to him.
So what kind of greeting should I have them put on it? “Life’s a beach” is overused, but there must be something else. ???
Swell!
Happy Birthday, Big Bouy
Another wave!
It’s your Birthday, sea?
I’ll stop now…sea sickness…
¡Te quiero la mar!
Now the question is how to compact “my love for you is as big as the sea” in English. Does “I love you an ocean!” work?
“Dude”
Doesn’t really need much else, he already knows it is his birthday 
‘Son of a beach it’s your birthday!’
Or you can do what my mom did to me one year. She wrote “surprise inside” on the cake. So my friends and family and I all ate the cake up wondering what the surprise was. As we at that last bits of crumbs and scraped frosting off of the bottom of the plate, she said “Surprise! You ate cake!” Hardy har har.
Happy Birthday…Sand Many More!
Happy Birthday to the Big Kahuna?
“Let’s Get Wet!”
Good suggestions, all! But this
is perfect. I was thinking along the lines of “My love will last as long as the waves,” but I didn’t want to be too wordy. So I’m not going to translate it. This is L.A.; the baker will have done cake inscriptions in Spanish many times before.
I just now got Hawaiian-themed paper plates, and on the day, I’ll get premixed pina coladas. And maybe instead of Thai, we’ll do Hawaiian barbecue! 
That sounds amazing, and thank you for sharing so I can now say Te quiero la mar to my latino husband <who knows more spanish than he admits to> 
Yayyyyyy! He loves the cake. One thing, though: the bakery guy changed the inscription to “Te quiero tanta como el mar”. ???
Google Translate gives the original as “I love the sea” and the final inscription as “I love you as much as the sea” - I’ll leave it to actual speakers of Spanish to say what the colloquial versions would be. Maybe the version used is more common in Mexican Spanish?
From Google translate:
Te quiero la mar=I love the sea
Te quiero tanta como el mar=I love you so much as the sea
I’m guessing he wasn’t familiar with the idiomatic phrase (which is maybe more Spanish Spanish than Mexican Spanish?)?
Nitpick: “Te quiero la mar” means “I love you the sea”, not “I love the sea.” The “Te” at the beginning is an object for of “you” modifying the first person verb “quiero”, hence “I love you”. (Yeah, yeah, it’s Google Translate, but still…)
Disclaimer: I’m not a native or even particularly good Spanish speaker, but I’m pretty sure I’m remembering this part correctly.