his birthday weekend

so stephen turned 30, and for his birthday he got a big ole surprise


i SUCCESSFULLY threw him a surprise party at my parents house friday night.  i cannot believe it was successful.  now this thing was "in the works" {ie in my head} since not too long after stephens 29th birthday.  and then i "got" pregnant {i hate the way that sounds...but you know what i mean}, and then stephen began being on call nearly every weekend, and then....well, and then i still decided to do it!
and i knew if i did it, it had to be the stephen way: family and close friends, bar-b-q, yellow cake out of the box with chocolate icing {his favorite}, intimate and casual.

and it was.

i used the excuse that we were dropping bennett off at my parents so we could go out to dinner and, when we walked in, everyone was standing in a group off the kitchen and stephen was SHOCKED.  he said we scared him to death and he was kinda overwhelmed for a little while before someone brought him a drink and he eased on into his party :)
i knew i wanted to get Byrons barbecue from auburn for the party {stephens favorite} but didnt think realistically i would have a way to get it until stephen's brother michael offered to stop by on his way home from atlanta {love you uncle awesome - the byrons MADE the party}.


bennett in the midst of a niiiiice "choo choo"

some of the ladies


i thought about using 30 sparklers buuuuut that might have been considered a fire hazard

how every cake should be eaten:
but a fork works pretty well, too {i honestly dont know if stephen even tasted any of his own cake that night...}

all in all the party was a huge success and i LOVED making a big deal out of his birthday and letting stephen be the center of attention for once {he always shys away from this type of thing...but i figured this was a good time to break the rules!!}.
our best family pic from the night...thats right...this was the best:

the next morning we packed up and headed to chatom, al to my brother in law {ben}'s familys "farm" {a farm, as we explained to bennett when he broke out into a charming rendition of e-i-e-i-o, that does not have animals.  its just what they call it}.
i felt like i was at camp and i could have stayed there for weeks.  the cabin is perfectly charming and built from the lumber cut down when the lake was made.  the wood on the walls and ceilings make it even more authentic and absolutely cozy...we were in heaven.  bennett has been here a couple times before, but i think this trip took the cake.

as every good farm boy should, he spent most of his time "almost neck-ed" {as he would put it} and packing in as much "farm life" as he could:

riding in docs new {to him} tractor at mimi and docs land right up the road from uncle bens farm

"driving" down the long driveway to the farm with daddy


playing on the pier

mastering his spinning rod technique {he is surprisingly very coordinated with it...and reeled in all his fish by himself-but had to have someone grab the line and pull the fish up when it got to the edge of the pier}

catching lots of brim and bass {which we ate with leftover byrons for dinner - i heard the brim and bass were delicious but alas i opted out of the moderate-mercury-laden fish...i did steal a teeny taste tho ;)}

riding the boat with daddy and the boys
watching the rain from the back porch


playing with his trains {they follow us everywhere}

snuggling with his emory {and his mommy}

 

and pretending to be asleep


all in all, i think daddy had one great birthday weekend
{his other two thirds sure did!}