Surprises of the non-pregnant variety

I just wanted to put that out there from the get-go since we are approaching the 9 month mark and all, and since my last post about a surprise was regarding some, well surprising news.  Glad we got that cleared up.

No, this time I was the one surprised.  My birthday was yesterday and since last year's birthday was a bit drab my hubby decided to up the ante a bit.  We made plans to spend the day at Inner Harbor, Baltimore for the Sailabration (celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the War of 1812 - as my brother pointed out, not sure why we're celebrating the beginning of a war and not the end ...).  There were a number of tall ships in port that week along with some festivities at the harbor and an air show in the afternoon.  We met up with Uncle Jared and were about to check out our first stop - Coast Guard Cutter Eagle - when I noticed someone looking an awful lot like my older brother walking towards me.  And then I heard my mom's voice burst forth in the birthday song.

And yes, as the story goes, I did turn around and walk away from them.  Forgive me folks, I don't get surprised very often and when I do it takes me a little longer to process things.  I was still working out all the details in my head hours after the event.  So anyway, I got to spend the day (and the rest of the weekend) with my whole family and that's reason enough to celebrate.

Our first order of business was to board Eagle but as it turns out they weren't open to the public and we couldn't get them to open to my Handsome Coastie either so we had to settle for pictures out in front.



Not too many pictures of this day because it was very, very hot and I had a napping, sweating little girl hanging off my chest all day. 

This was a slave ship exhibit ... Jack was really getting into character.  He wouldn't even look up at the camera.

We left Inner Harbor and headed across the water to watch the air show later in the afternoon.  It was a great show with the highlight being an appearance by the Blue Angels.  I won't bore you with my amateur attempts to capture moving jets from great distances, but just to give you an idea ...

Julia was more interested in Marmie's necklace than the jets.

By then the kids were hot, tired and hungry.  Okay, so maybe the adults were too.  We all came back to our place for dinner.  You see, this really was a complete surprise to me.  I never once caught on.  Not even when my husband cleaned the house from top to bottom on Friday night.  Not even when he arose early Saturday morning and volunteered to go grocery shopping.  Not even when he came home with bags and bags of food and a rather long receipt, despite my lecture on not getting too much before we both were out of town for the week.  And not even after noticing the large dinner he had planned when it was only going to be us and Uncle Jared.  Of course, there were the things I didn't notice either.  Like the birthday candles he picked up, or the fact that he made the guest bed while I was feeding the baby.  He did well.

And I was all too happy to let him take over.  I felt a little ill-prepared for weekend guests, especially after I had just completed a no-grocery-shopping-eat-from-the-pantry-only week, but my family is pretty easy to please anyway.  Jon made a phenomenal grilled salmon (my favorite) and salad.  And "contributed" an angel food cake with strawberries for dessert.  And then we got to sing and blow out candles, and of course the boys just loved all that.



And then it was time for presents!!  I won't go through everything I got because that would be weird, but let's just say we have our work cut out for us this weekend with all my new "homesteading" goodies.

Julia loves her Uncle Micah ...

Dishes were washed, kids were bathed and put to bed and we finally sat down to play a game.  My choice, since it was my birthday, so I went with an oldie but a goodie  - Pit!  We haven't played this in YEARS but I have fond memories of screaming commodities across the table with my family, attempting to corner the market and all the while snickering at my senile Great Aunt Edie who had no idea what she was doing but always wanted to play anyway.  Good times.  Poor Jon was the only one who had never played before but it proved not to be a factor and he soundly beat us all.

Uncle Micah has "the touch."

Everyone spent the night so we could celebrate Father's Day together.  And since I hadn't done any grocery shopping or menu planning that week, we decided to eat out at one of our favorite local, and most manly, restaurants - Mission BBQ.  The food is great here but honestly I just like the service and atmoshere.  And, since it was Father's Day, they had a little set-up where they would take your family's picture in front of the smoker and put it in a special Dad's Day frame.  Here was our family's (notice Julia's wave, it's starting to reach a point where her hand is in the air more often than it's not).



After lunch we rushed home, threw together an overnight bag for the boys and packed them in the car to send them home with Marmie and Poppa.  Okay, not exactly.  The grandparents asked if they could take the boys for the night to give us a break and we said "of course!"  And when Jack and Jude found out they were headed to Marmie and Poppa's they were so excited we had to hold them back until everything was ready.  But I will say, I am most thankful not only for parents who are willing to take my kids overnight on their own (especially since we just started potty-training Jude this week) but also for kids who love to visit their grandparents and have no qualms whatsoever about leaving Mom and Dad.  I think.  I mean, it is a little strange that they literally just waved bye and jumped in the car with no thought of when they would see me again.  Turns out, it was the next day but they didn't know that!

"Bye Mom!"

Well anyway.  Jon and I (along with sweet baby Julia) spent a quiet evening at home that night.  And it would have been more than enough if my birthday had ended there.  But no, there's more.  In fact, it's now the day after my birthday and we're still on the celebration train.  But we'll save all that for another post.  Until next time!