Did Somebody Say Birthday?

We celebrate a lot around here . . . I'm going to do a celebration mash-up post, just to make sure everything gets covered. For instance, celebrating breakfast! Blina, of course! To celebrate . . . being actually at home for a morning? :)





Caelan frantically finished knitting her dad his very own blanket (which he LOVES), as he was pulling into the driveway after his chiropractor/foot scan/haircut, etc. etc. appointments. The kids pitched in to "look natural" and clean up the evidence of final gift preparations.



The girls attended a relationship conference for young ladies over the weekend. They had a friend come home with them after band/girls' ensemble/choir who also attended. We attended a lot. I also attended, but needed to attend to taking the fluffy one halfway to his vet appointment and another weekend of weekend warrior care to do so (we are awaiting the results of his tests to find out if he can remain in the program). There was a boys' conference happening downstairs in the same church, and one of them is a very tall friend of Caelan's from youth group. He came over to talk to her in the morning until one of his buddies dragged him away. I told Buck and Buck just growled, ha! 



It might have been the weather, but I was too antsy to sit still at the conference for long, even after I returned from my two-hour trek (Buck covered for me at the conference by learning what to say to young men who are interested in our daughters; after looking over his list he told me, "If I would have had to answer all these questions, we never would have gotten married." Lol!) Anyway, I ran to about five stores, picked up baby chicken coop supplies (and Starbucks) and arrived back at the conference in time to take Caelan to work. It was quite a day, but the girls made some new friends and hopefully learned some important ways to guard their hearts, minds, emotions, and everything else until they each meet their one-and-only :) And that will be something to celebrate!



The next morning dawned upon Buck's birthday. Graysen is always the breakfast-time gift giver, and Buck was excited to be given the Rugged Outdoorsman Guy magazine he's been wanting for like six months (I think that's what it's called ;) We enjoyed a lively sermon series launch of the Song of Solomon, and both Buck and Gabby received very special cards from our chicken fan friends--the paper is scented like vanilla!


Without a moment to spare (and parking hard to find), we arrived at our brunch destination, only to be shown all the way back to the "royal" table in the sky-lit brick room. It was pretty special! Buck sat in a tufted golden upholstered chair and ate his breakfasty-lunch like a king! We had lots of time to enjoy our nook, because the kitchen seemed a bit overwhelmed. We scored some extra bacon and a second stack of pancakes as a result, so really, who is going to complain?



The rest of the day, Buck watched sports on TV and relaxed. We opened presents and ate the chocolate caramel brownies his mom baked. It was a good day of celebrating :) And notice the mug . . . it's foreshadowing . . .






Yes, he's smelling the wrapping. He's very good at guessing what's inside. The "baby" bag threw him for a minute, "Are we having a baby?" he asked suspiciously. Ha! Nope, not this year :) "Then I know what the gift is!!!" he said excitedly. Gabby stumped him with her tactical gloves, and he was excited about he ESV engraved Bible from Brennen. ATA hat came from all four, and the range finder from his mom was a mega hit! He said he was very happy with all his gifts :)


But first . . . Z visited the chickens and, though I didn't get a picture of her looking at the chickens, she very much enjoyed watching them take dust baths--playing in the dirt to get clean, such a contradiction! :)




The next day, Buck and I each had an hour-long massage. I've never had anything other than pregnancy massages, and by looking at my youngest you can tell how long ago that was :) Last year, the physical therapy masseuse Buck saw at our chiropractor's office had a sale. We bought two hour-long sessions, thinking these would be good for Buck's future neck and back therapy needs. Well, then she announced she was moving offices to somewhere downtown and would no longer have a bunch of people milling around the same space. Not cool Robert Frost! We decided we'd each use one of the pre-paid massages, but together. Little did I know, that you can't take the therapist out of the massage lady. Ha! I felt like she was massaging bruises at some points, bruises I didn't even have! Oh well, some of it was pleasant--hands, feet, head. The chin massage was weird, but at least I can say I've had a real massage (sort of :) Buck ended up with a bad headache afterwards. He spent most of the rest of the day sleeping, while the rest of us headed to karate.

I lost my train of thought . . .

Oh right, so he wanted to go see the Endgame movie, but I wasn't feeling throwing three additional hours at being gone from the house (when we have so much going on that I'm gone all the time anyway). However, he talked me into Tuesday morning before our long list of other commitments (including baseball in the rain). It just so happens it's $4.99 movie ticket day on Tuesday, so for the price of the two of us on any other day (more or less), we could take all eight (four of which were on pins and needles hoping their friends who'd already seen the movie wouldn't spoil it). They might have freaked out a little when we told them they were going to the movie too :) There were TEN previews btw--TEN! That took nearly the first 30 minutes of the three-hour runtime. Anyway, we *finally* saw the movie. Celebrate! A continuation of Buck's birthday since he'd been really, really trying to talk me into seeing the movie for weeks maybe? for his birthday. Mission celebration accomplished!






But we had another celebration to take care of . . . straight from the movie theater, we headed to our favorite bakery to keep up our annual tradition of celebrating our visitors' May birthdays (well, except we weren't quite ready for Grandma J's). As soon as Z saw where we were heading, she started cheering. It's a good place! Graysen wore his signature shirt (it has the bakery owners' signatures on it :) and traded in some bottle caps for a whole box of mini cupcakes--they are the best!! We did, sadly, find out, they are overwhelmed with the amount of hours they are working, so they're closing the store and just doing special orders. I'm glad she told us in person though, we would have been so sad to discover they'd gone :(











Z was very happy with her gifts, especially the candy, so all-in-all, the celebration continued. The owner said we were one of their favorite families who come in to the shop, and they will miss seeing us enjoy each other. 

And that is the conclusion of my celebration post, unless the boys come home with a wet win in baseball. Z and I decided to sit this one out :)

A Few Bits and Pieces

Gabby's friend found her the dabbing karate unicorn shirt for her birthday!!



Brennen joined the worship band for one evening of drums :)

Zooper Day!

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with a pad of paper and wrote down all our daily commitments during the week that our visitors would be visiting. It took some work, but I finally spotted a hole in the schedule that would allow us a trip to the zoo. So what that the morning was rainy, cold, and windy? This was our time!!

As we found jackets (well, except for the boys who insisted it would be short-sleeves weather eventually . . . technically they were right ;) texts started rolling in from my friends . . . "We're going to the zoo!" "Anybody want to meet at the zoo?" "Who all is coming to the zoo?" I responded "We're already on our way, see you there!"

And so, Buck found himself with his mom, sister, my three friends, and 16 children--traveling through the zoo as a happy homeschool pack. It's so much fun to see our kids' friendships, and so funny to enjoy the silly quirks of the new friends I've made (like the mysterious French fry purse Lisa brought a long :)

Judi and I had to laugh--we're having a conversation with Lisa and suddenly she's eating a French fry! Apparently she stopped at a fast food restaurant on her way to the zoo and had stashed them in her covered purse. Every so often, she'd just casually grab one out and munch on it. So funny!

Just three sets of parents belong to all these kids . . . we're kind of superheroes :)

The lionesses were lounging by the glass; you can see Buck through the window and Graysen getting the eye :) Also, new baby giraffe--oh so cute!! (Different enclosures, hee hee)

Although I had a crock pot of chili simmering for our return, the four hours we'd spent touring the zoo as a herd in our own right, had made us hungry--and 2 p.m. is a weird time for any meal. We decided to save the chili for after baseball practice, the girls' work, and ladies' night Bible study (Grandma J made the cornbread during the brief intermission at home). Buck had eaten wings at a local restaurant with his guy friends during their Bible study night, and his mom loves wings! Also, the youth leader had used these wings in his talk the previous night, so we had wings on the brain :) Everyone was impressed, yay wings! (and burgers, I got one of those and just sampled Buck's wings).

We are running around like crazy, but it is still fun to be on vacation at home :)

Prom Dress Shopping

We set out on our adventure at 10:30 a.m. Maybe 10:45. Gabby had already been to the doctor for her well check. We made surprisingly good time there (probably because she's so healthy :) With Grandma J, Auntie Z, Caelan, and Gabby loaded into the van, we headed out. There were two main objectives--to find Gabby some clothes to use her birthday money to purchase and to find Caelan a prom dress.

Our first stop was a score for Gabby and a whammy for Caelan. Our second store resulted in nothing Gabby couldn't live without and an on-clearance purchase in the prom department for Caelan. The dress was a maybe--just in case we didn't find anything else. I won't disclose a photo of that option just yet, as it is still in the final running :) The girls did have some fun trying on sparkle dresses together though!


Next, we stopped by the fabric store to pick up some modifications for the first prom dress option (a bit low cut, nothing ribbon won't solve!) and to pick up some t-shirt quilting materials. I was hungry, but everyone else was in the mood to shop, so we skipped lunch and headed for the next shopping destination.



This is really where we wanted to begin our search, but the store didn't open until noon, and we didn't want to waste hours in waiting, especially when Gabby could be finding cute things for herself (which she did find!). As it turned out, there were LOTS of prom options at store three (four?) and Caelan claimed her own rack to hold her gown options (she requested Gabby *guard* them :)




















Gabby tried on another sparkle dress, but decided she'd had enough of clothes modeling for the day. Caelan narrowed her selections down to four. In her mind, she wanted long, blue, and sparkly. We found short, short, short. And absolutely nothing that matched her undershirt options for that day, ha! 

Grandma J offered to purchase the first blue dress pictured above (because, of what she tried, Caelan liked this one the best, but it is too short without some sort of modifications)--it rang up $12, ha! How's that for a prom deal steal? I bought another option that Grandma and I agreed was in tough competition with the first option (which she has officially decided to reserve for the homeschool homecoming dance this fall). The lady at the counter insisted it had JUST come in and it was NOT on sale, but it rang up $28 anyway :) Meant to be, right? Caelan bought herself a pair of silver heels that cost more than the dresses, but look good with all three of them. Other than flowers, hair, makeup, jewelry, pictures, etc. etc. I think she's about ready! Ha!

I will say, she was very honored to be invited to three proms at three schools by three boys in three towns. I think the sweetest invite was from cousin C who wanted to make sure she didn't miss out on attending prom. We joked when they were babies, born three months apart, that someday we'd send them to prom together. Maybe next year it will work out! Had we not been so booked, we would have honored his thoughtful request this year. She would have loved to go to the dance with her cool cousin.

He was the second invite, her first invitation was a young man from youth group, who requested my permission first. This was out of the blue, so Buck and I were both a little out of our element trying to figure this all out! Homeschool prom happened to be this upcoming weekend (as was the second invite) and the girls already have plans to attend a conference, friends coming over, and Grandma and Auntie in town. Too much to do!

However, the third invitation, at a private school with a May weekend prom was actually a possibility. The young man from her karate school very politely and very nervously asked me if he could have my permission to invite Caelan to his prom. I had told Buck when this young man friended me on Facebook earlier that week, "Wouldn't it be funny if he wants to ask Caelan to prom?" Buck just growled. Ha! I was right though! We've been making this kid jump through all kinds of hoops, which he has gone above and beyond to jump through. Little did he know in asking her to attend prom, he invited our first child for the first time for the first outing she's ever been invited to, and we have to figure all kinds of things out!! That's a lot of responsibility for one young fellow to carry. He's still smiling though, so I guess so far he can handle old ma and pa's shenanigans (our very wise and caring, thoughtful and rightly protective shenanigans, that is ;)

Gabby's Birthday

Two-thirds of our early-bird Crew (Buck and Gabby) loaded into the Nitro for a birthday morning donut run :) I rolled out of bed to help G$ decorate before their return. With baseball late the night before, everyone was so tired that decorating just didn't happen :) We didn't have much time, but we tried to make it festive!

Gabby opened her gift from Graysen at the breakfast table (notice all bananas pictured were ignored :) She found time to color while waiting for her requested birthday lunch at the restaurant of her choice--yeah hamburgers!!

We waited patiently for Grandma J and Auntie Z's plane to arrive! What a fun birthday gift :) Buck and the boys went to fetch our CA visitors, while we did some last minute house sprucing (and may have accidentally touched up the walls with the incorrect color of paint, oops! :)

After a quick round of catching up, we headed upstairs to sing Gabby her birthday song around a glowing carrot cake! Buck had to hide this one away because they were selling out so quickly, and she'd specially requested carrot. The unicorn candle holder was also a dad find. She was so excited about that little glowing pony, ha! "Stuart" came with a backstory about eating sprinkles and dancing on rainbows and making good people's dreams come true :)




Graysen was eager to show Grandma J his hamster and quarter collection. Gabby was eager to open her birthday gifts, so we put the one on hold in order to accomplish the other. She was excited about her shoe organizer, shopping money from Grandma, new shoes, a watch from her sister, the customary unusual instrument gift--a jaw harp from Brennen (along with 10 York Peppermint Patties!), many fun goodies! Perhaps not the best instrument for someone wearing braces, ha :)



Before long, the girls were due at work, so I drove them to their destination with a bag of clothes to change into once we figured out our dinner plan. Gabby was hungry for Mexican food, so we started running through the options--there are some decent meals to be had, but nothing that we were really raving about. I did a quick search online and discovered a little dive-looking Mexican restaurant in the old part of town. The reviews were through the roof, so we thought we'd give it at try. We picked up the girls from work and arrived at our destination. Graysen said, "That front door looks sketchy." Buck said, "This is gonna be good!" Dives are his favorite :)



The food was so good! The closest to CA we've found in the area. There was just one waiter and we took up the only table large enough to fit us all in the eating establishment. There must not have been many back there cooking, because the plates came out as they were prepared (but there were boatloads of chips and salsa to keep those waiting occupied :) The waiter even offered to take a picture of us all, so I get to be in one of Gabby's birthday pictures too! It turns out this is a favorite of a bunch of our friends--they recognized the interior on fb and were super excited we ate there. I guess duck-taped upholstery doesn't bother them either :)

Back at home, the Crew settled in for the next installment of the Marvel series--Infinity War--secured from the local Redbox. In fact, that's what they're doing now as I blog. I am SO caught up (well, except for that one post I skipped and need to go back to).



We are proud of the young lady Gabby is becoming. She's trusted by families who rave about her babysitting skills. She's finding her way at her first job. She's always honing her writing and illustrating skills. She's a good friend, a willing bandmember, and exceptionally good at organizing (and color-coordinating). God made her special and we love her very much :)