J's Birthday Weekend

This was an important birthday for J this year, so I wanted to make sure that he had a special day. The night before his birthday, we went out to celebrate with our friends Meka and John (the latter celebrates his birthday on the day after J). We ate dinner at the Madison Park Conservatory and then hung out at our friends' place for a few hours. Meka got donuts as a birthday treat for the boys:

Sam had a sleepover at Bop and Gram's house that night, which meant that J got to sleep in on his actual birthday. After we picked up some pies for J's birthday dinner with the extended family, we picked up Sam from his sleepover. While we were with Gram, J opened two presents. This picture was taken right before he opened his present from Sam (a Batman t-shirt). Sam wanted to buy J a Robin t-shirt (so that he and J could be sidekicks when Sam is in his Batman costume), but I convinced Sam that J would rather wear a Batman shirt than a Robin shirt:

The boys wore their Batman shirts together for the first time on the following day (the day after J's birthday)

After picking up Sam, we headed to a nearby outlet mall to grab some lunch. As soon as we got out of our car, we ran into my good friend Rachael (which is a coincidence, since neither of us live near these outlets). Her husband Richard was shopping in another area of the outlet mall so we didn't get to see him, but we got to visit with Rachael for about thirty or forty minutes. She even joined us at Subway for lunch. We had Sam take a picture of us afterward, so we could remember the fun event. The first picture didn't turn out, but Rachael and I ducked down for the second shot and it turned out alright:

J decided that he wanted to go to a movie on his birthday. So after eating with Rachael we left the mall and drove down the street to the local movie theater, where Oz The Great and Powerful was playing. It was a fun show. Sam was a little bit scared of the witches and The Dark Forest, but he did just fine.

We swung by COSTCO afterward and picked up some fun treats (including the chocolate chip cookies that J loves). Then we went over to a store that J recently heard about: The Root Beer Store. J loves to try different types of root beer, and this place is filled with bottles and bottles of different flavors and brands. He doesn't want to aspire to be a connoisseur of root beer (he said tonight that a "connoisseur" is someone who has dislike things), but considers himself an "enthusiast." Here he is, surrounded by bottles of his favorite drink:

This bottle wasn't for sale, but we thought it was an interesting novelty bottle to keep in the store.

We came home in the late afternoon and I pretended like we were done with our birthday activities for the day. However, I had asked a few of J's friends from high school to show up at our house in the evening and surprise him. My plans worked out perfectly and J didn't suspect a thing. They went out and enjoyed an evening together.

The next day, we had a family dinner at J's parents house with all of our cousins in the area. We had three different kinds of pies:

 

I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful, affectionate and thoughtful husband. I'm so glad that he was born!