you've had a birthday, shout hooray

OK, so it was my golden birthday. It started off iffy but ended with a bang! So on my birthday, some great friends called me up to go to brunch with them while our three-year-olds were at joy school. I was way excited to go to Crepes, etc. with just James and enjoy brunch. So two days prior to my birthday both Isaac and Blake got sick. James had gotten it on Saturday. Both Blake and James only threw up once and they were fine. Isaac threw up all night that night and then the next day only once. I thought he'd be fine for my birthday since he'd already thrown up 6 times, way more than Blake and James. But on the morning of my birthday, he started throwing up again at 8 AM. Darn! I was happy(ish) to nurse him again and clean up the carpet again and do some laundry again but it really made me sad that on top of that I would miss brunch. Like great friends do, they came over anyway with one toddler in tow and brought me cupcakes. I made them sanitize their hands when they left. So that made my day. Isaac seemed to have gotten it out of his system by 10 AM so when Blake got home at 3 (early, yay!) everyone was nice enough to go to the fabric store with me (love Fabric Nosherie!) and then to pizza. We chose a restaurant that had a couple arcade games to make it low-stress for us parents. It was nice to let the kids play and then sit down to eat without having to worry about keeping the kids in our booth while we waited for food. The pizza was ok--nothing special. Ok, there was something special and that was that Isaac actually ate a slice and loved it! He hasn't even tried pizza in over a year. He is such a picky eater.

Then we went home for blonde brownies and ice cream and presents.

I had lots of helpers to blow out the candles.
And lots of present openers.

So the rest of the story is this: So I planned a party for myself. I had a guest list, golden foods to make, a craft to do, and I had almost finished my golden ticket invitations. Blake saw my prep and said, "You can't do that." I said, "OK." so I stopped. I figured Blake called my friends and asked them to do something for me and that's why they called to take me for brunch. I felt all weird about it because I felt like he had conned them into taking me out and I didn't want them to spend money on me. Two days after my birthday, I had the kids at the Magic House and Blake kept calling me about how to make German Chocolate cake so I knew something was going on but didn't know what. I figured maybe he was having a family or two over at our house for a birthday party or maybe we were meeting some people at the playground. And I felt weird about it because I was going to throw myself a party so now Blake's made these other people give me a pity party. When we got home and I frosted the cake for him and he said we had to get in the car, I was slightly confused. As we drove further and further I got nervous about what was going on. We ended up at the Emily's and I was so embarrassed that Blake conned Emily into doing something else besides brunch for me. And then I noticed how many cars were there that I knew. So we got inside and there was a huge party for me! And Emily had planned the whole thing a month ago and called up Blake and arranged it because she remembered me telling her last year it was my golden birthday this year. It was quite the party with great treats. I can't believe Emily did that for me! I wish Blake had brought the camera! And I can't believe Blake couldn't keep it more of a surprise--I know he knew I wanted German Chocolate cake but we could have just bought something so I didn't know what was going on. I guess I should just think how sweet he was to make the cake he knows I like. We stayed way too late past the kids bedtime, but it was lots of fun. So my golden birthday turned out to be totally golden!

Last week there was a small electrical fire in our apartment complex so the kids had to go see the fire truck. The firemen were so nice and handed out hats and let the kids get in.
Isaac was scared when the kids would honk it.

We love our new apartment, but we've already had to say goodbye to two good friends who've moved. It's hard to live somewhere where you have so many friends but know your time with them is limited! Our friends moved last week and they let the kids get in the truck when they were done packing. Isaac told me I had to go get my camera. I think that's the only time he's ever requested that I take a picture!