Chris Surprise Party Part 2

The gifts were fun & creative. When I sent out the invitations, I asked everyone to bring a silly gift. Well, 30 of that silly gift. That was FUN. Here are some of the ideas that people came up with...our family & friends were quite creative.

-30 powerball tickets (was hoping for the BIG winner)
-30 scratch tickets (x3), Yes, we had 90 scratch tickets! (I loved it)
-30 straws (Dylan's favorite)
-30 containers of play doh (Connor's favorite)
-30 almonds (came with a card that explains getting old)
-30 $5 Starbucks gift cards (YUMM)
-30 coffee beans (+ the rest of the bag since they don't drink coffee...delicious)
-30 home computer printed/very detailed 'In-N-Out Burger' certificates (it is rumored we are getting one near us, which has the guys at work obsessed)
-30 band-aids (since apparently Chris complains a lot at work about aches & pains...must be from old age)
-30 bits of memory (or so they say)
-30 sticks of gum (all wrapped)
-30 Happy Birthday messages (how sweet)
-30 awesome bits/orange tic tacs (some inside joke at work)
-30 B-specs (another inside joke at work...wouldn't expect anything less coming from geeky engineers)
-30 matches from a favorite restaurant/brewery in St. Louis
-30 piece Lego set.  (Not sure who was more excited Chris or Connor!)
-30 page photo book with 30 reasons why we love Daddy (from Connor & Dylan)
-30 different bottles of beer (a yummy treat for Chris)

And of course, here are a few pictures from the gifts. Again, I just loved seeing all the fun & creative ideas.

The 30 different beers & the photo book.

Lot of scratch tickets!

And Powerball tickets!

And Starbucks gift cards!  Hooray for caffeine!

Coffee beans.  Again...love me some caffeine!

The kids had fun helping with the presents too!

Play doh.  I was SO not thrilled with the 30 things of play doh, (Thanks Rich & Cheryl) obviously Connor was.  He kept taking it to Becky and you can see Eric giving the 'thumbs up'. 

Chris was laughing at a card...about getting old!

The 30 piece Lego set, a car to put together.  Fun.

 

His 30 "Whataburger' bucks.  That took some time to create & cut those out!

Taking a look at all 30 of those 'Happy Birthday' messages!

Dylan had fun with the wrapping paper & the bags.

We are so blessed with amazing friends & family.  We have made some great friends in every city we have lived in.  We are so thankful for our many blessings.  We had a blast at the party and so happy everyone could participate by sending a quirky gift (or 30) and/or being here to help Chris celebrate as he turned the big 3-0! 

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Surpise Party Part 1

Well, Friday's 30th surprise birthday party for Chris was a big hit! He was shocked. And I was amazed I was able to pull it off. Quite impressive, huh?!? It wasn't some huge elaborate party, it was quite simple. It was so simple I made nothing! For those of you who know me, that is amazing as well. I order Pizza Hut pizzas, got salad from Olive Garden, ordered a cake from Costco, and got a few dips from Costco as well. And had plenty of beer and a little wine too. We were set! It made things SO much easier and less stressful than slaving away in the kitchen all day!

The worst part was I had to lie to Chris! I told him I had a play date from 3-5pm at our house...on a Friday...on his birthday. And he couldn't come home until after that! And I told him we could go out to a nice steak restaurant for his birthday. Instead he came home to his friends from work, pizza, beer, and cake. Not too bad, right? He was excited and we all had fun.

Here is Chris walking in...

He didn't say a word. I think he was trying to figure out what was going on.

Didn't put 30 candles on the cake...that would have taken way too long.

So excited for the cake.

Ready...Set...Blow.

The kids were thrilled with the cake. And the ice cream with chocolate syrup.

Dylan loves Jodey! Look how happy he is.

And look at Kailin's sweet little face!

Here is a video of Chris walking in:

And here is a video of part of the water balloon fight. You may want to mute it, as you can only hear me laughing and my super high pitched voice the entire time. Sorry about that.

By the way, the water balloon fight was SO much fun! A few of us decided to participate and that had to be one of my best ideas yet! How fun for the kids & the adults (well, those of us adults who still act like kids).

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Happy Birthday Chris!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, amazing, loving husband!  He is the BEST!  Happy 30th Birthday to you!  Hope you have a wonderful day full of fun.

Pictures to come this weekend!  Stay tuned...

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Oh Dylan!

Dylan is becoming a handful to say the least.  He is full of energy, thinks he can do anything and everything Connor does, stubborn, and just plain cute.  Well, he is cute 98% of the time.

And here he just helps himself to some food in the fridge:

 "What MOM?!?  You can't deny me delicious blueberries...."  And he is right, I let him eat them ;-)

He also makes BIG messes:

 Mmmmm....yogurt!

 Mmmm....chocolate!

And then I forget about child labor laws and I put him to work...

He works hard for milk & cookies.  And his bonuses are kisses ;-)

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Pool Party!

This weekend, we went over to a friends house for a BBQ and to go swimming.  What fun!  They have a beautiful home and an awesome backyard---I fell immediately in love with it!  Connor & Dylan had fun playing with all the kids.

It is funny that it was a group of St. Louis people (all who Chris works with) that all moved to Dallas right about the same time.  And all the guys  play softball together.  So, it was fun to get all 5 families together.  Fun times when you get 5 geeks engineers together for a pool party.  Thank goodness their wives are all normal!

The boys had fun swimming in the pool...

Connor did such an AWESOME job swimming by himself!  I don't think we even touched him the entire time.  He was jumping in and swimming the entire length of the pool and everything.  Confidence & some floaties have taken him a long ways in the pool this summer.  We are so proud of him!

And then there is our little Dylan who thinks he can walk on water, swim through it, and drink it until it is gone.

 He loves the water too.  Can you tell?!?  

He does a great job floating by himself.  And when you tell him to kick his feet, his little legs just start moving.  Adorable!  By the way, I was within a few inches of Dylan in the pool while Chris took the pictures...just wanted to clarify so you didn't think that we threw him in the pool by himself while we sipped on margaritas.

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Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!  Chris-you are an amazing father & husband.  I couldn't be more proud of you.  You are a wonderful father to our two energetic and adorable little boys! 

We love you SO much!

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5 years...

Wow!  5 years.  1826 days.  4 moves.  2 amazing children.  Bought 2 houses, sold one in the last 5 years.

Wouldn't change a thing!  I am so excited to see what the next 50 years will bring.  I know it will be an adventure and can't wait to see what the future holds for us.  We are truly so blessed.

Love this picture.  And all the pictures from our wedding day.  What a special day that was.  Can't believe that was 5 years ago.  See how young we looked?!?  Back then, neither one of us had any gray hairs.  That is not the case anymore.  Sadly.

But we are happy that we have these two amazing, silly, crazy, and adorable boys to blame for all those gray hairs...

What an awesome adventure the last 5 years has been for Chris & I.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

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Vacation!

I need a V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!  Every time I see a commercial for somewhere tropic with a beach, I drift off and imagine me sitting on a beach with the sand between my toes.  And I hate sand!  But it sounds so lovely and nice.  And relaxing.  So, while Chris was watching the History channel they were talking about Mauna Kea Summit Adventures in Hawaii.  It is one of the best places to look at stars.  And the views just look incredible.  So, that is at the top of my to-do vacation list.  The average temperature is 30 degrees!  But on the tour they provide parkas and gloves and hot drinks.  So, for the few hours, I am sure I could handle it.  And you have the nice warm sunny beaches of Hawaii.  What could get any better than that???

This photo is from their website: Mauna Kea Summit Adventures

So pretty!

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Summer Camp!

Connor survived his first day of summer camp.  He was so excited.  We went and bought him a new backpack and a lunch box.  He was so excited.  Okay, it is only for 3.5 hours 3 days a week for 2 weeks, but still.  For Connor Me this is it a pretty big deal.  He had fun. 

This was him before we dropped him off:

And this is what he got in his lunch:

After Dylan & I picked him up and were walking to the car, he says to me, "I was SO excited you put M&M's in my lunch.  I didn't know I was going to have an M&M treat in my lunch!  I love them so much!  And I love you Mama.  You are the best Mama!"  He just makes me smile.

Yes, M&M's do the trick.  It is not something we have very often at all.  So it is a true treat to him.

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Big bump!

Check out Dylan's forehead!  He hit his head pretty good this week.  He screamed for about 5 whole seconds, no tears.  I think he was proud of it.  And he thought it was fun to put ice on it. 

Doesn't he look proud?  And happy?

And these pictures were from after we got home and put ice on it.  It was 3 shades of blue & purple within seconds.  The swelling went down quickly after putting ice on it.

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Bowling

On Sunday we headed to Shenaniganz because they participate in the Kids Bowl Free program.  If you haven't you should sign up.  We had a blast!  We only bowled one game. 

There was a lot of high fives...

And sadly, here are our scores...

Connor got a 62, Chris got a 138, and I got an 89!  That would have to be my lowest score EVER!  I was very disappointed to lose to Chris.  But happy that at least I beat Connor ;-)    I need to practice, apparently.  Wii bowling, here I come! 

I was thrilled that Connor had so much fun bowling.  Mainly because I LOVE bowling.  Probably because I am generally decent at it and it doesn't take a whole lot of skill.  I am hoping for lots more trips to the bowling alley. 

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