birthday WEEK.

Mark turned 29 on the 21st!  He celebrated all week long!  I love birthdays and how they are such a good reason to get together with friends and do fun things.  Maybe we should all be more like the Mad Hatter and celebrate our un-birthdays??? 

Anyway, the first celebration was on Monday night.  Mark had a few guy friends over for a fun game of poker.  He used to have a weekly poker night before he started working second shift.  I think they all enjoyed it - I sure hope they find a way to do this more often!  

In case you are wondering - from left to right - Zeke, Mark, Shay, my dad, Brian and Chris

 On Tuesday Mark was asked to be TC for an event at a local elementary school.  It couldn't have been better timing - they needed him from 2:15-3:30.  I get home from work around 1:30 and he has to leave for work at 3:30.  I think he really enjoyed being in "the suit" again and bringing so much excitement and joy to the kids.

Wednesday and Thursday were just normal days, no extra celebrating except when Mark got home from work Thursday he found the card the boys and I made (I guess it was actually Friday by then).

And Friday was the big day!  Isaiah's preschool was cancelled because the very cold temperatures so we had the entire day as a family (plus Caiden) as Mark took the day off work.  We tried hard to be quiet so he could sleep in, but he was up fairly early anyway.  After breakfast we were off to Mark's choice...Chuck E Cheese :)

 

We always have so much fun there!  We don't go very often - usually just on our birthdays, but it is such a great time!  We like to go first thing when they open (around 10) and just play the games.  We easily go through 100 tokens!  Good thing they email us coupons!  Once we run out of tokens we are ready to head home for lunch! 

They had TONS of new games since we had been there the last time.  Mark got pretty addicted to the new baseball one.  He had so much fun on it that he told me I needed to come play it to see if I could beat the high score which he got at 297.  I said okay and gave it a shot -- guess what my score was -- 617!! :) haha.  He had to keep playing (more than a few times) to finally beat my score at 620.  I didn't try again - I figured I'd better let the birthday boy be the winner, right? 

We came home to eat a fancy lunch of Mac and Cheese and then it was time for CAKE.  Check out this yummy cake I made!!  Chocolate Peanutbutter Mousse.  It was amazing!  I'd never tried anything like it, but the birthday boy requested a chocolate peanutbutter cake - and he always gets what he wants! :) haha.

After nap time we gave daddy his gift. - a remote control helicopter.  Look closely in the picture, it's flying in the air.  It's really fun!  Mark's friend has a few helicopters and Mark has had fun flying them with him, so we figured he needed one of his own!  Definitely a fun gift for the whole family. 

Around 5:30 LeAnna came to watch the boys while Mark, my parents and I went to play bingo.  We've gone a few times to play on my birthday because I love bingo and you get to play free on your birthday.  I forgot to take any pictures but I do have a good story!  We happened to be running a bit behind due to some construction we ran into on our way there.  We were in line to get our bingo cards at like 6:50 and bingo starts at 7.  It seems like everyone ahead of us was either asking a million questions or buying like $65 in bingo cards and taking forever!!  Mark decided to switch lines to see if we could get done faster.  They announced they were going to start and so we were all extra antsy.  They showed the first number on the screen -- 21 - Mark's number (he's born on the 21st) -- we (as in me and Mark) got excited! It was finally Mark's turn in line so the lady gave him his cards for free and then I paid for mine.  We sat down to quickly catch up -- they had called like 10 numbers by now.  We figured out we were going for an "M" on the card - Mark's letter!  So we were hurrying and I realized I only needed one more number...and then my number came up!!! I yelled Bingo -- and was the only one so I won $300 on the very first game!!  I really wish that it had been Mark that won - it was totally set up for him.  I've kidded him and said he should have been a gentleman and let the "ladies go first."  But it was still so much fun to win!! Unfortunately the rest of the bingo night was uneventful. 

Then Saturday my department at work was having their Christmas party.  A party bus was rented and we went bar hopping all around town!  We hadn't been out like this in YEARS.  It was a lot of fun.  

The bus was just a white school bus.

The first stop - we played pool with my boss and her husband!  I can't remember who won - we played twice -- did we both win once?  I don't think I even got one ball in, good thing I have a good partner!  Here we are -- I told you Gina that you'd make it on my blog! :)

Tara and I were buddies on the bus - we were supposed to make sure our partner always made it back on the bus so we wouldn't leave anyone.  It sort of worked.  Tara introduced me to Asti on the bus.  YUMMY. It's a really sweet sparkling wine.  You should definitely try it!

Mark sang his usual karaoke song - Baby Got Back.  :) 

We parked our car by the last bar on the bus route so we could leave when we were ready - and so we were closer to home - the bus was actually taking everyone back to the restaurant that we started at -- but way across town from our house.  It actually worked out well because as we were walking in (around 12:30) we were ready to (get some food) and head home.  Good thing Wendy's is open late! 

Happy Birthday week Honey!!  I hope you enjoyed all of your celebrations!  Can't wait for next year -- the big 3-0!