Hubby's Birthday

Ok- this post is long and has a lot of pictures. So if you are not a grandparent of my children- this may totally bore you to tears. You have been warned!

Friday was the Hubby's birthday and he had the day off from work. He had decided he wanted to spend his birthday fishing with the kiddos. Sounded like lots of fun to us until we heard that the temp would be up to 100 degrees! Yeah, not so much fun, especially with 2 tiny babies still in a car seat.

So we came up with plan B. We hit an all time favorite.. the pet store! It's a great way to spend a good hour, and it's cool and best of all, FREE FUN!
The kids love, LOVE going here! We just look at the animals and occasionally ask an employee to let us hold one. Our favorites are the birds. Puddin has loved birds since she was a baby and they are still her favorite animal.




Next stop on the Birthday Express was... SHONEYS! WooHoo! Yes, we live LARGE around here!

We chose Shoney's for 1 reason only... all of our kids ate for 3.99 total! That is a DEAL! they also had a buffet which translates to our family- hot food, fast, for hungry kiddos. Hubby even got a hot fudge cake for his birthday!
This was also our first trip out to eat with everyone in tow. That meant it was Bud and Daisy's first out to eat dining experience. It was a little crazy. But,really, all in all it wasn't bad. The biggest question of the day was, "Are all those babies yours?!"

Shoney's is "family friendly" and there were mostly senior citizens there and they really enjoyed the kids. Good thing since no one gave us a high chair or booster seat. That meant Puddin and the Monkey's stood up in the booth to eat their food and had 2 important things that make every dining experience, well, an experience... freedom and an audience! Let's just say they took advantage of both!

Finally, we decided a little fun was in order and if we didn't do something quick, these kids might stage a take over. Since we were outnumbered we opted for some outside fun (it cools everyone off and wears them out. hint- a good nap is in the future!)

So, off to the creek we went.

This was our first family creek visit and almost everyone had fun.

Monkey Do just wasn't feeling it. In all fairness he had been extra crabby all day. The first step into the icy cold creek and he was done. He wanted no part of this kind of fun.

Monkey See on the other hand, had the best time of all! He is very tactile. He loves the way things feel. So the icy water, pebbles, rocks and mud were right up his ally!

the infamous snarl

Puddin was sort of in the middle where fun was concerned. She wanted to like it but when she saw some big boys there with their dad catching craw dads ( and saw what a craw dad was) she wasn't really having much of a good time after that.

Bud and Daisy just hung out with me and Monkey Do on the blanket. Such good babies! They each took a bottle and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was warm but by the creek in a shady spot with a little breeze it felt pretty good.

Monkey Do made his own fun... looking adorable for the camera and wearing Puddin's shoes! (not necessarily at the same time!)

After a couple of hours the heat and sun started to wear on us all so I stripped everyone down and dried them all off and we loaded the van once again.
Now the hard part started.
My precious nap time was at stake and I did not want to loose it after this busy day. It was important, extremely important, to keep everyone awake for the drive home.
So, I did what any good mother would do and gave them all candy! This treat kept them occupied and awake long enough for us to get home.
Then it was NAP TIME!!! And my precious babies slept HARD!
Puddin was out for 3 1/2 hours and the Monkeys slept for 4 1/2 hours!! Amazing!!
When Puddin got up she helped me make Daddy's birthday cake (it ended up being a sort of trifle like cake... long story I'll explain later).
She enjoyed helping!

Bud and Daisy even napped a little bit. This picture was taken, literally, 1 minute before he zonked out too! He is sooo cute!!!!

So we ended our day with a birthday dinner and fun with the kiddos. It was just the day Hubby wanted! We were all lucky to spend it with him!