the big 3-0.

 Mark turned 30 on January 21!  As we approached his birthday, Isaiah decided that when it's your birthday, it's not just on the day of your birthday - you get the entire weekend to be in charge.  And not only are you in charge and get to decide what you want to do, you should also get presents all weekend long.  (Sounds to me like he's got big dreams for his birthday in September! :)  He was very serious about this and decided that Mark got to do whatever he wanted Friday the 20th.  Knowing that his birthday was Saturday and that the few employees he had at the time were completely busy meaning that he'd have to work from 9am-11pm, I took Isaiah's idea and went with it.  Mark got to sleep in a bit on Friday and then the boys surprised him with his first gift - blue headphones.  I love the top right picture with Levi kissing his daddy's forehead!

 After Mark got up and moving, we decided to give him gift #2.  A much needed new winter coat.  Mark had fun posing in it.  haha

 We had lunch and Isaiah had to go to school and Mark had to head in to work.  He worked late until 11pm or so and then headed off to work first thing on his birthday, but not before we gave him the big gift -- an Ipad!!  He'd been wanting one for business stuff for quite some time and he was headed to a laser tag conference for the next week that I knew he'd want it on, so I figured, you only turn 30 once.  The boys and I did surprise him at work with birthday balloons and dinner.  Isaiah picked out one that said, "You are how old?" haha.  He was able to sneak away for about 10 minutes to enjoy his Subway in the car.

He did get to have the entire day Sunday the 22nd off work to celebrate - we went to church and then my sister came to visit so we spent the day at my parents house celebrating - and he did sneak away to play basketball at the rec center for a few hours with friends.  We had a low-key relaxing evening as a family that included a traditional chocolate peanutbutter cake--each year I try to come up with a new recipe and I must admit, I really liked this years cake!  yummm.  Maybe for 31 we will have a big bash??  I'll have to work on that!