A Daddy's birthday update-A day for surprises!

We celebrated our last birthday with Daddy before he turns thirty.

That's right, were way beyond mid twenties now.

Next year its the big three-o for him.

We spent the whole week prior,

making his surprises.

Sneaky us right?

If you know me very well, you know I am bad at surprises.

I am good at ruining them.

I can barely keep a secret.

Not this year baby!

So first thing on the agenda was for dad to BUST open our homemade pinatas!

Dad got the special task of breaking open three beautifully handcrafted works of art.

Made especially for him- by the Peeps.

I went with a Mexican theme this year because his day is

May 5th

Also known as Cinco De Mayo.

Enter Lauren's pinata

La Flor

"The flower"

The birthday tradition in our house is:

The party starts when your eyes crack open!
This time, Dad's eyes weren't awake early enough.

So we woke up those big peepers.

Of course there was no time for coffee and a hairbrush as you may have noticed. 

In fact- I think he was about on his third blink when the fiesta began.

Lauren is way into fashion these days,

More than I am, and sometimes better than I am.

-Sometimes.

She stuffed a nice new collared shirt and a cell phone case in her pinata.

All this took about 45 minutes to find in the store,

After circling all 'Daddy' the racks multiple times.

Silas' beast was called

"Nacho Libre" 

No translation here, just a fan of the movie.

He stuffed a bunch of camping gadgets that we found in the outdoor section.

Straps for a sleeping bag,

bug spray,

retractable pocket silverware,

Basically the things a six year old chooses when you let him choose on his own.

These fun creations were made from the dollar store punching balloons.

Quite the messy experience, but oh so great!

Claire's pinata had customized  Jenga blocks.

I had the kids tell me what to write,

Then we stuffed it into the pinata, and prayed it wouldn't break until it was supposed to!

The best part of the planning project for me was writing down the great things the kids said for me to write on the blocks.

They had some seriously ridiculously funny stuff!

Silas:

''Dad: since its your birthday tomorrow, I can't believe how fast I'm going to run in t-ball!"

"I like going to Grandpa's house- just me and you!"

" Dad, your funnier Than a road lizard!"

"Dad, thank you for making our family a little bit rich!"

"I hope we get to have our man-date soon!"

"You're a really good Dad because you don't spank us very  much!"

"That man named Jacob, he's a pretty cool guy! That man is my dad!"

Lauren:

" Dad I just want to tell you a funny joke:

 A rabbits home is a beehive, but I'm not sure, so you go test it out!"

Mom: What do you like about Daddy?

Lauren: "Ummm, he always looks handsome?"

"Dad, you're so nice, I can't even stay away from you!"

"It's fun going on dates with you!"

"Thank you for all the money you make for us!"

"you be (are) nice to us every day!"

Claire:

She decorated most of her blocks, but some of them said things like:

Mom: '' How do you tell Daddy you love him?"

Claire: "Ummmm watch this!"

Claire runs off.

Mom: " What do you want to tell Dad on his birthday?''

Claire: '' Ummmm Surprise!!!"

Mom: "Why do you love Daddy?''

Claire: "Because he's the best Daddy I ever had!"

SO after that fun and the party, it was off to t-ball.

Grandpa Dave showed up all the way from Washington- to surprise Daddy on his birthday!

He had fun showing Claire how to drink from the side of a water bottle.

Next surprise on the list:

I asked the coach to tape birthday signs on the kids' backs just before their first bat.

"I'll run fast for you on your birthday Daddy!"

The kids were so jazzed to do this for the special man of their lives!

So here's what Mommy had planned special for Dad on his big day:

For two weeks,

I had all sorts of family in on it with me.

First of all, the trailer is from Sabba and Sahvtah.

Without them, the plan would not exist.

Then I got to figure out how to get it here.

That's where Grandpa Dave came in.

He -along with Uncle Greg brought it down.

Gram and Gramps gave us supplies to stock the camper

(to go along with all the great stuff Sahvtah left in the trailer!)

Grandpa Bob temporarily fronted the cash for gas money to get the trailer here

(So I wouldn't need to try to secretly save up the money).

All these people loved our family so much that even Daddy had NO IDEA about any of it!

Bam!

This was by far the best, most exciting surprise I could ever pull off!

I fully acknowledge the fact that I couldn't have done it alone!

Our camping life has been thoroughly revolutionized!

We can camp in the elements!

Comfortably too!

Life just got 20x better for us folks here in OrEEgOn.

In random order

(because Blogger is so difficult)

Claire's pinata

"Rojo"

Or "Red"

After all was said and done that weekend,

we were completely wiped out.

This Mama was so relieved to have all the secret surprises over with.

We were just about to call it a day when Dad said nonchalantly:

" This is the first birthday I've had where we didn't have a birthday cake"

Oh man really?

How did I forget?

That just wasn't going to fly.

So Grandpa came through for us one last time,

And snuck out to get Dad's favorite cake:

DQ ice cream cake.

Because a birthday isn't just so, without every wish his heart desires right?