Jonathan is 30!

My handsome hubby turned 30!  I tried to fill his "birthday week" with a few surprises.

Surprise Date Night!  At a hibachi place...

I had planned out to feed Annalee and get her in bed by 7:30 and thankfully, she cooperated!  We had some amazing babysitters that Connor got to stay up a little late and play with.  THANK YOU sweet friends for taking such good care of our babies!  So since we started our date at 7:30, it was a late night for this old man! ;)

We went out to the movies afterward and chose "Les Mis", which we had both wanted to see.  It was great but soooo long.  We got out at 12:50 - yikes.  Thankfully I had snuck an overnight bag into the car and made a hotel reservation so that we could sleep in! :)  Jonathan said that he was wondering if we were going to be gone all night because he saw that his glasses weren't in the bathroom...ah well, I had to pack them!

Our date night was on a Friday, and then Monday morning Jonathan left on staff retreat.  He was going to be gone right up until choir practice that Wednesday night, his actual birthday!  Jonathan's co-workers and I had been doing a little scheming about this night, too.

Surprise, Daddy!

I tried a new sugar cookie recipe, these were "Key Lime Pie Cookies" (Jonathan loves key lime pie).  I didn't know that key lime extract was a hard to find item until I checked 2 stores and called 6 more, to no avail.  I finally found a place online called "The Savory Spice Shop" that was also in downtown Charlotte.  I dreaded driving the 40-45 minutes it would take to get out there with both kiddos in the car, but we did it!  We were the only ones in the store and it was SO nice, I definitely want to go back. The woman who helped us measured the extract into a 2 oz. bottle so that we didn't have to buy too much, and we walked around among all of the hand ground spices and seasonings (testers for each one!).  Definitely a place I want to go back to with Jonathan (when we have some more time!).

We moved choir rehearsal into the choir room (usually in the sanctuary, but no food allowed there) and Jonathan was oblivious.  Everything was hidden in an office, and Brenda had gotten a crew of people together to help with the surprise!  Jonathan started rehearsal and after running through one song, said, "Okay, let's look at page 12..." and much to his surprise, out of the speakers blasted, "YOU SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!"  We came piling out of the office with cookies, coffee, waters, and a table FULL of CUPCAKES!

Everyone was standing, singing, clapping, laughing...so fun.

Cupcakes were made by our friend Lucille...she makes DELICIOUS cakes and cupcakes, so pretty too!  Our friend Glenda made cookies too, but they were gone too fast for me to get a picture!  THANK YOU, ladies!

The choir members had e-mailed me all sorts of encouraging notes, funny stories, and birthday wishes that we gave to him in a book for his office.  He also got so much love in cards, a balloon, a snowball thrower (?! lol)... Here he is, recovering from his surprise and enjoying a birthday cookie.

Ever the jokesters...Mike said a few words and handed the microphone to Jonathan, and Jonathan said, "Okay, let's turn to page 12."  Ha!  Really though, we enjoyed the treats and "Booski" (pictured below) played us a few tunes.  Then we got back to rehearsal!

Since Jonathan wasn't home on his actual birthday, we had our family birthday dinner the next night.  Enchiladas...what else?  On the special plate, of course.

Ha!  Annalee: "Scuse me, I'm eating."  Connor: "Cheeeeese."

Jonathan had a few little presents to open from us and the kids were excited to have some time with their Daddy!

Ahhhh hahahaha...I was laughing so hard that I cut off Jonathan's head.  Notice that Annalee was about to have a nice big chomp after she was being squished!

I love you, my best friend!  Happy 30th Birthday!!!