My birthday: Part 1 (Mom always said I could stretch my birthday out for a week.)

Thursday was my birthday. I was looking forward to the day. The kids went to VBS in the morning and so I spent a quiet morning watching a movie and sewing. I talked to several friends and family members that day wishing me happy birthday. Thanks everyone! That evening after John got home from work we all went out to eat. I wavered back and forth between Mimi's and Macaroni Grill. Thankfully they are located right next to each other. I didn't have to decide until we got there. All day the kids were making suggestions as to where they thought I would like to eat. Tyler wanted me to go to Red Robin. Hannah wanted me to go to Dairy Queen. Karena told me I could go anywhere I wanted. Thank you, Karena. I finally decided on Mimi's Cafe to eat.
Its one of my favorite places. I ordered a grilled shrimp and asparagus dish with a strawberry and lettuce salad. It was excellent!


After eating they brought me my birthday cake/pie.


John and the kids sang me Happy Birthday and Tyler ended it with "Cha, cha, cha." That has now become their ending to any birthday song. I think its something they learned in pre-school.

John got me a new Wii remote and some peanut butter. (If you want to know why the pb ask me later but I assure you its one of those you had to be there things. But it was still really funny.)

Oh and for all you Wii afficienados that is an after market remote and is cheaper and works just fine. He got it at Wal-mart. After we got home and got the kiddos to bed we had fun beating each other on the Wii.

Part 2 later. I'm really tired and have got to go to bed.

4th of July

For the 4th we didn't make any huge plans. The day started off with John preparing some ribs and then putting them into the smoker. They were supposed to take all day but were done around noon. They were amazing!!!!!


He cooked country style ribs and spare ribs. They were both good but my favorite was definitely the country style. They just had so much more meat to them.




John's sister, Sarah and her husband, Jeff came over for dinner. Thanks John for a great dinner!

In the past, Tyler has always been terrified of the fireworks. Someone had to sit inside with him while he shook with fear from all the noise. But he always wanted to watch them, too. This year John and I expected the same thing. The kids went with John to buy some early in the afternoon. Tyler kept asking when it was time to go do fireworks. He was so excited! It finally got dark enough and stopped raining long enough to go outside and have some fun.

We threw some little poppers on the ground that made a loud popping noise and a little spark. At first I thought that was going to do Tyler in but he stuck with it. Then John did some small close to the ground fireworks. Tyler was still being so brave. He wanted to stay on the front porch but there was no shaking this time. Then John started in on the big high fireworks. I wanted to be with the girls. They LOVE the fireworks!!! They were out on the driveway oohhing and aahhing all the lights and sounds. I watched Tyler slowly make his way down the stairs and dance back and forth along the sidewalk. I could just see his nerve getting stronger as he went further down the walk. I was so proud of him. He finally made it to me on the driveway. He stayed there the whole time and watched the rest of the fireworks. He liked them so much that he bugged me for days to buy him more.