The Best Surprise Birthday I've Ever Planned!

SOOOO - Steve was turning 30 this year, and he's managed to have some pretty un-fun birthdays the last few years (last year excluded - though he was at a conference for it instead).  His first year of PT school he had a final for his hardest class ON his birthday.  I wasn't even allowed to make him a birthday cake that day.  His second year he was studying for finals.  And his third year was the worst - he took boards ON his birthday.  There was some serious making up needed for such crummy birthdays.  

I decided a getaway would be the most fun and set to researching and polling people's opinions on great places to go.  It got down to Chicago, Washington D.C. and Harry Potter World.  I only had a few days to work with, because I decided I wanted it to be a surprise and I even got his coworkers to work it out for him to switch his Wednesday off for getting Friday off so we could have three days to work with without him knowing.

After digging in and looking at flights, Harry Potter World won out with convenience of flying and maximizing our time.  My amazing friends offered to watch our kids for the weekend (since it's tricky getting family here anyway and for only a short time).  I planned and planned and fretted that somehow he would find out, but amazingly he was TOTALLY blindsided when I told him!  I was going to wait until he got home from work that day to throw him in the car and tell him, but he was feeling pretty bummed about having to work four 10's in a row instead of his usual two and two.  Also - I was so excited I couldn't stand it anymore!!  

He had NO IDEA.  Even when I was telling him he thought I was going to tell him I was throwing a party for him.  Haha!  

It was absolutely fantastic!  We flew through the night and got to Orlando in the early morning.  We found our hotel, snoozed for a little bit in the car, and then headed for some crazy fun at Universal Studios!  

Orlando here we come!!

It was so strange being able to just pick up and go somewhere and literally carry NOTHING in our hands wherever we went!  It was like getting a taste of an old life we used to have that was fun to visit for a few days.  

Universal Studios did NOT disappoint!  Their graphics on the rides made them SO amazing!  We loved the Spider-man ride, the Transformers, and the Jurassic Park ride as well.  We went on all of them at least like 4-5 times.  

Spiderman for Ross!

Hogsmeade!

And Harry Potter World was surreal!  I felt like I literally walked in to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.  Their shops were fantastic, and the Forbidden Journey ride was my absolute favorite.  I think we rode that one seven times and I never got tired of it.  The waiting lines were also really entertaining.  They even had the moving/talking picture frames on the walls, Dumbledore's office, and the goblins at their desks at Gringotts.  

We ate at the Three Broomsticks one day and the Leaky Cauldron the other day.  I, of course, had their yummy fish 'n chips, and Steve got his turkey leg.  The butterbeer was TO DIE for!  SO good, and we even sampled the butterbeer ice cream which was not to be ignored!  

They had wands you could buy that would actually do magical things in the shop windows if you said the magic words and waved your wand the right way.  They were fun to watch.  Hogwarts looked amazing and we even took a ride on the Hogwarts Express (to the other park).  

Inside Hogwarts waiting for the Forbidden Journey ride. :)

Penseive

Got our Butterbeer!

Olivander's Wand Shop

The Knight Bus!

Gringott's!  The dragon really breathed fire! 

The Gringott's ride

We even got to see the Delorian and Doc!

Some transformers for Ross ;)

Despicable me parade!

The Sorting hat - who would really talk to you!

Hogwarts!

I loved every second of the humidity - even if my make-up was sweated off after 20 minutes.

There was an 85 ft. drop at the end of the ride at Jurassic Park.  And the T-Rex was crazy realistic!

Spider-man ride 3-D!

And of course Steve got his turkey leg! :)

Each night we came back COMPLETELY exhausted and fell asleep the second our heads hit the pillows.  We did have a dinner at Carraba's one night which was delicious and then just ordered pizza in the next since we were DEAD.  Steve's poor toes were like grapes with their blisters.  We even took a taxi for the mile and a half ride home the second day.  But it was all worth it.  

It was SO fun to be together just having a grand ol' time and being carefree for a little while.  Our kids had a super fun time too!  In fact, Ruby was very upset to leave.  Haha.  She got over it after a while though. :)

Ruby saying bye to Avery's house.  They were quite good to her there. :)

She felt better after a car ride and a donut though. ;)

Rowly was doted over as well enjoying all the attention from friends and a cute dog. :)

The only wrinkle in the trip was missing our flight home when the airline was understaffed to check people's bags in.  We managed to get home though and put ourselves back together. :)

My Steve is pretty much the best thing in this world.  He works so hard and give us so much of himself, his time, pretty much everything he has.  He deserves every good thing in this life, and I love that he's mine forever.  My life is always better whenever he's around and I love him with all my heart.  Happy 30th birthday Brown Eyes!  You're the best there is!

Goofiness and Grass!

April was a month of playing pranks on us left and right, weather-wise.  It seemed that every day Steve had off of work was rainy or stormy - which didn't make for great conditions in trying to get our yard ready for grass.  We got ready anyway!

BUT - during the days of storminess, we goofed around just a bit...

I'm sure there MUST be some more room for a bit more banana in that mouth, don't you think?

Ross earned enough stickers/money to get Spiderman.  We ordered it on the computer on Thursday, and it said it would get here Monday.  They decided to wait by the window (Friday) just in case the mailman brought it!  It didn't work out so well - but he got it eventually!

Ruby decided to do my hair.  She kept saying, "Mommy, hold really still!" I wonder where she heard that before??

One of our stormy days, we made a sweet fort...glasses stealing baby included. ;)  Can you see his little hand??

A rare visual of said baby.  He wanted to hang out in there for ever...until he realized he could wreck it - then that's all he wanted to do.

Movies viewed in boxes are always much more enjoyable.

A snuggle morning.  Ruby and Rowland play together a little more these days. ;)

You know he's a terrific daddy, when his daughter wants a princess book read and he even does the voices....she was totally into it!

The crazy storm clouds mixed with sunshine one soccer practice.

So I may have decided to make my sister some baby bows for her baby girl she is having....and I went a little crazy!

I tried out a "Make Your Mark" painting night with my good friend Kami.  It was fun - even if my trees look like I'm still in preschool. ;) 

Working on our yard - Rowland took command of our tree stump.

Goofy face!

Stump boy to the rescue!!

Ruby found her cowgirl boots and promptly told me, "Mommy, I fink I need a horsey."

Skirts and boots!  Love it!  She's still asking me for a horsey. ;)

It's a bit tricky trying to figure out how to do Ruby's hair when it's shorter on the top and longer on the bottom and super fine.  This headband braid seems to work out pretty well though. :)

Graham crackers and milk - a yummy snack!

Another stormy day it decided to hail...

Family movie night!  I even got Rowland to hold still for 15 seconds!

SO - we also have been working on getting our grass in for weeks and weeks.  We've flip flopped over planting vs. sod, getting topsoil, and where to put the grass.  Once we finally decided we talked about a billion small tiny rocks, shoveling topsoil everywhere, raking it out, moving sprinklers, fixing sprinklers, raking dirt again, fixing more sprinklers, and finally raking after a hard rainstorm again to finally be ready for the sod!  And we finally got it!

The beginning...

The dump truck of topsoil couldn't fit in our back gate....so we got the pleasure of shoveling it out of the alley and THEN spreading it around our yard.  Double the pleasure my friends.  Lucky for us, Steve's fam was visiting so we put Auntie Meghan right to work. ;) She and I swapped some juicy stories in all our hours of dirt digging. ;)

Ross helped with his dump truck too!

Our sprinklers have always been a bit finicky...and every time we thought they'd be figured out, something else would happen.  But, with the help of an expert, Martin, and trial and error, Steve figured it out!

Soooo - we had some pretty good rainstorms before we got our sod...so guess who got to do some more raking and shoveling???!  Just when I thought I couldn't get enough of it!  BLAH!

But THIS picture made all that stinkin' work all worth it.  This patch is like Steve's 4th baby.  We have to ask permission to walk on it. ;)  JK!

It's fantastic!