The Big 3-0.

Nope, not me yet. :)
It was JC that recently took on another decade! We had such fun on his birthday! Here is a peek back at it:

I had been determined to keep any and all gifts a surprise until his actual birthday.
Success!
Here was our hiding place...wrapped presents in the back of my van.
Though, as it turns out, he did see them there the day before...but kept it to himself. :)
The kids LOVED having surprises for Daddy. The second they were up on the morning of his birthday, it was out to the van to gather the gifts.
See the sleepy eyes? They had probably been up for less than a minute at this point.

When Ben gets excited, he raises his eyebrows so high they threaten to jump off his forehead.

When James gets excited, he squeals and squeaks.

We made a nice pile-o-presents on the couch in the front room.
(The kids wrapped the present themselves...with help from Grandma Trudie, while I was working on an important project)

James ran up the stairs to wake the birthday boy!

When he got downstairs, he took it all in and the kids waited not-so-patiently for him to start unwrapping.

Their excitement was contagious, as you can tell.

Hugs all around for thoughtful gifts for Daddy's birthday.

And Bethany really reveled in the joy.

Then the moment of truth arrived...the big box. The 'important project.' The gift I managed to not only accomplish but keep it a complete surprise.
(Makes me tired just remembering trying to keep it a surprise!)

Ta-da!
I wanted so much to make him a big quilt that he could take hunting with him, that would be made all by me just for him. And, I believe, I succeeded.
I give you...
The Hunting Quilt.

Now, yes, I did all the actual cutting and sewing and what not, but I had lots of help from my mom on the design and the how-to and the haven't-I-taught-you-to-sew-like-ten-times-already?.
And I had lots of help from my sister, Laura, who helped entertain my kids sometimes when we were over there on random summer days so I could work on it.
So, thank you.
And a HUGE thank you to my kids who KEPT IT A SECRET for like, two months!!! I find that rather impressive.
Anyway.
It was fun.
Sewing doesn't come naturally to me at all and it certainly challenges my can-do attitude, BUT I very much enjoyed making something for my sweetie. I hope to do more things like that.
And he liked it.
So yay.

So anyway, back to the birthday...we spent the morning hanging out, enjoying a nice Saturday, then JC and I went out for the afternoon/evening. We saw not one but TWO super hero movies...Captain America and Thor. Awesome. I was pretty impressed with how entertaining and clean those movies were. It was a good time. We ate out, came home, then...pretty much went to bed like old people.
Hey, I've got a husband in his thirties, alright? I gotta keep him well-rested so he can keep up with me. :)

It was fun to have a day for JC and really fun to see how excited the kids were, choosing gifts for him. I had gone to the store with Ben while the other two were at school, and he and I picked out several things we thought Daddy would like. Then they all chose from those things. He ended up with a Transformers shirt, an angry birds key-chain (a video game? I was the only one in the dark there but Ben was pretty sure he would like it), and a big box of his favorite fruit snacks. Those are classic, they show up at every once of his birthdays. Good ol' fruit smiles from Walmart. (Well, I actually think they're gross. "Why is it drose?"...anybody?)
But he loves them.
And we love him.
And that's why we love when his birthday rolls around.

I feel really awesome saying that I'm married to a thirty-year-old man. Because everyone knows that the older a man gets, the hotter he is. (Please tell me I am not the only one who knows this.)
And he feels so much older than me now that he's thirty because I do NOT feel like I am almost thirty! I still have trouble grasping the concept of being an adult, so the idea that I am married to a thirty-year-old man makes me feel cool, like I said.
So, anyway, good times.

We love you, hon. I hope this is your best year yet. I'll be doing my best to do what I can to make that happen! :)
You old man, you.