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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Chris' Birthday

Instead of making Daddy a card, we decided to make him a Happy Birthday sign. This was fun for Connor. We traced Connor & Dylan's hands and feet. Connor thought that was a lot of fun. Connor couldn't wait to show Chris the sign when he got home from work. He was very proud. Then we got to have a nice birthday meal of Ribeye steaks, grilled asparagas, bread with pesto, and salad. And of course dessert!

Connor couldn't wait for cake. He kept asking for cake since this morning when we decorated it. But he did manage to wait it out.

Connor helped decorate the cake (as I baked it last night in an effort to not make the house any warmer). He was thrilled to help and even more exciting to eat the frosting!


I remembered why I hate baking cakes:

1. It takes too long.
2. You can't even taste it before you serve it-it is way too noticable if you do.
3. You have to wait to eat it along with everyone else.
4. There is no such thing as a small cake & I won't want it to go to waste, so I will end up eating it.
5. Decorating it takes way too much patience.


But, what seemed like 5 sticks of butter later, we had a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that we all enjoyed. Oh yes, and I couldn't find a buttercream frosting recipe that I liked, so I decided to make up my own-needless to say it turned out very tasty. I was impressed.

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Happy Birthday Chris!

Happy 29th Birthday Daddy!

We love you ---------------------------THIS MUCH--------------------------

and more!!!!!

Connor loves shoulder rides from Daddy!


Connor & Dylan love cuddling with Daddy.

We love our daddy.

Connor & Daddy having fun at tumbling.

More Connor & Daddy time at tumbling.

Daddy hanging out with his boys.

Connor & Daddy working hard.

Proud Daddy with Dylan!

Daddy-We hope you have a wonderful birthday! You are very special to all of us. We love playing with you. You the BEST!!! And we are excited for birthday cake & ice cream :)

We love you very much!

And, I love the fact that Chris is 3 years older than me, for a whole month! It makes me feel young :)

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