The BIG 3-0

Months ago I was stumped on what to do for Phil's Birthday this year. Yes, we are both turning 30. Hello. So I set to work planning a surprise. His birthday is not actually until the end of September (30th) so I thought the best way to surprise him would be to plan something in August. It also just so happened that our friends from college, Tim and Karen, would be home from Korea in August as well. Perfect. I knew that I had to be sneaky planning it because the only way to get in touch with Tim and Karen would be email and Phil and I share an email account. Hmmmm. So I called my friend Jenni and told her my idea for the surprise and she got in touch with our Korean friends. I had this picture in my mind of us walking into a restaurant and finding our friends sitting at a table just waiting for us! I knew it would be the best kind of surprise for Phil and the best gift that I could give him. It all came together perfectly and my vision came true!

I am so glad that Jenni captured Phil's moment of realization of surprise. My look is of relief...keeping secrets is stressful. I do not like keeping secrets but this was so worth it! I knew that my funny behavior over the past few days would finally be explainable. I even picked a fight with him and dramatically stormed out of the house just so that I could pick up his cake!

Such lovely and happy faces! A serious sight for the sore eyes. Like coming home!

I had Jenni text me when they were almost to the restaurant (they drove from Lafayette) so that I would know that things were running as planned. I had gotten a call in the afternoon and instead of putting my phone in my pocket, like I had planned, I left it out on the counter and when my phone got the text Phil was standing right there. He said "oh, Jenni sent you a text. Didn't she call you this weekend? You should call her back." I scooped up my phone and left the room murmuring something about "getting back to her later." I was totally acting strange.

At 6:15pm that evening, when I normally would have been putting dinner on the table, Phil said "so really, what ARE we having for dinner?" I said "I don't really feel like cooking now. Let's go out?" I knew that he was not happy about that BUT I knew that he knew that I was going to get my way! I had been trying to hide our food all day so that we would have a reason to go out to eat.

After we were done eating at the restaurant he said "well, do you want to come back to our house? We could stop and get some ice cream or something?" This fully confirmed to me that he really was surprised and had no idea that there was an ice cream cake in the freezer with his name all over it!

My handsome guy who totally deserved this surprise in every way!

This would be an example of "too much birthday"
Luke enjoyed the surprise just as much as Phil!

Luke got a hold of the camera!

Sam is the baby whisperer.

Now just the ladies!
Karen, Jenni, and I

And now one of just the guys but Luke really wanted Karen in the picture so he pushed her in place. It was cracking us up!

Men and boys.
Tim, Sam, Micah, Phil and Luke

Sam and his papoose.

The day after the surprise we left for vacation. We had a very long car ride ahead of us and shortly after we started driving I heard from behind me "Here is the church. This is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. Karen taught me that!" He was so proud! Apparently Karen had taught him this little saying and hand motions that both Phil and I know but never showed him before. It was really sweet hearing him say this all on his own and really sweet that Karen taught him that when we were not looking. We LOVE our friends. Thank you Karen!

Here is Luke showing us the steeple on vacation.

And now for some party music. I thought that I recorded the whole song but I guess not. Bummer. We all played "Happy Birthday" on our cheap party favor instruments. Musicians we are!

The Reality of Real Estate

Here is the link to our complete Reality of Real Estate episode in case you missed it or live out of Ft. Wayne. We have heard that it was shown again last week!

Vacationing

We apologize for the recent lack of blog activity. Vacations can do that to even the most faithful bloggers. For the past two weeks we have not checked email once. We even stayed LONGER on our vacation than originally planned. Why? Because we could!

So instead of checking email, various blogs, and facebook (you know that you have a problem when your 2 year old asks frequently throughout the day "checking email mommy?") We have been:

floating at the pool

going to a baseball game

watching airplanes take off and land

taking trolley rides

feeding sharks

enjoying the view

meeting Sesame Street characters

climbing in treehouses

hanging out with the hippo
(Finally Luke's hippo dream comes true! I think this one will need a future post of its own!)

building sand castles

and relaxing!

Ahhhhh...why did we come home?

It's Here!

Phil's MBA diploma arrived today!

Now, to get it officially placed in the frame...by a perfectionist...

I offered to help and then proceeded to take these three photos and stand by watching whilst removing my hairpins. It's a "too many cooks in the kitchen" sort of job.

Tada!

Ready to be hung in an office downtown...seals aligned...and then quickly packed away.

And the wait continues for the J.D (law) diploma.

6 Month Dr. Appointment

Micah has his 6 month Dr.'s appointment.

Here he is getting his head measured!

Both boys have smallish heads.

So serious! Just like his dad!

His stats were:

27 1/4" long --75%
23 lbs. & 4 oz. -- > 95%
head: 17" -- 30%

Here is Lucas at 6 months:

Luke's 6 month stats:

27 3/4" long -- 90%
20 lbs. & 5 oz. -- 90-95%
head: 43 cm. -- 25-50%

Let There Be Light!

Phil finally got our fireplace lit! Welcome fall!

I'm Expecting...

A baby eggplant!

So sweet!

First Tooth

Baby Micah has been working on a tooth for quite a while.

I discovered it this morning when he was chewing on my finger.

I thought, well here we go!

I thought that it would be a rough day but he was so happy just like always.

He even took a long afternoon nap while Luke was napping. That's a mommy thrill!

The Easiest Recipe Ever

Butter

Is it even considered a recipe?

More of a method maybe?

Ingredients:
Heavy Cream

That's it!

If you are looking for something totally easy and gratifying then butter is your thing!

I started by skimming off the cream from my contraband milk with a measuring cup.

Next, poured the cream into my KitchenAid mixer and used the whisk attachment.

I found the 6 setting to be a good speed and let it do all the work for about 15 minutes.

This makes me sooooo happy!

"Butter, oh Jo, isn't butter divinity?" or something like that. Does anyone remember this line from "Little Women?"

I plopped the butter on my cheesecloth and squeezed out the milk. Yeah, you can save the milk and drink it and use it in recipes. It is buttermilk. Next I kneaded it a little and added a little sprinkling of kosher salt for flavor and crunch!

One gallon of milk made just enough to pack into a pint glass jar for safe keeping.

Here is my homemade butter next to grocery store butter. I can tell that my milk was from grass fed cows because it is so bright and yellow in color. Is it just me or does my Kroger butter seem boring now?

And now for the "baked potato test"

Yum! And double YUM!!

You know it passes the test when your husband simply says:

"It tastes like butter"

"Take a picture from you!"

Thursday we went to the zoo. Luke was very excited...

...about the hippo trashcan. Of all of the wonderful and exciting things and animals to see at the zoo, the thing that stuck most in Luke's mind was the hippos. It took us a while to figure out why he was so excited to see the hippos because the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo does not have hippos.

But they DO have a hippo trashcan!

Take note of the look on my face.

This is one of those moments as a parent when you wonder if you are going to get the full value potential of your zoo membership?

Luke wanted to take pictures of the "funny trashcans" and he cracked us up taking the pictures so close!

The one other thing that he remembered was the merry go round.
He started talking about it as soon as we entered the rain forest area. I don't know how he remembered it before seeing it!

Riding on the tiger.

So the things that he remembers and likes about the zoo are not actual animals.

And this guy won't remember anything! Oh well.

We have fun anyways!