Following Where He Leads...: Happy Birthday to Jas!

I so do not like those 4.5 months where I am "older" than Jas! But as of Saturday, we are now both officially 39.

We had a BIG day. A big, BIG day! How else to celebrate our husband/daddy that we love but in a BIG way?

(Disclaimer: We strive very hard to live our lives in a healthy, balanced way. Not too busy of a calendar...a nice, balanced, healthy whole foods diet. ALL of that flew out the window on Saturday. This was not a typical Saturday for our family!)

It all started with the usual "Parade" of kiddos coming into our bedroom...but this time they donned hats, sunglasses and blow toys (but PRAISE THE LORD, I found the kind that just unfurl, but don't make any noise!):

Just look at our precious view from the bed...

...and the other cutie was already in bed with us (I'd scooped him up from his bassinet beside my side of the bed):

You just never know what to expect when unwrapping presents from these kiddos!

Jas unwrapping his 4-pack of Starbuck's Vanilla Frappucinos. Do we know what our daddy loves, or what???

Next daddy unwrapped a flip-flop notepad and a little "maze" game.

Can you tell he was still tired? How could he even see out of those slits?

The "Box 'O Stuff" that Noah gave Jas had a little of everything in it: legos, trucks, a pool table, fake money, a sleeping bag (just in case Chippyye spends the night with Jas), etc....

I loved the card that Elisabeth made Jas:

LK has "Big" tails...and I'm wearing Gabriel in the Moby wrap! We're in "age order", which is why I'm first...because I'm the "older" woman.

While we did have "presents in bed", we did not have breakfast in bed, because Lao Lao wanted to take us out for Jas' birthday. Jas got to pick where, of course, so we headed to a favorite breakfast place:

Looks like Gabriel and Lao Lao coordinated their outfits!

We headed straight from breakfast to a special event that our church hosted for the children of our church. It was a fun, wet, crazy event, properly titled "Organized Mass Chaos" that included such things as....

...spraying one another with shave cream...

...and wearing crackers and a wet sponge on your head.

Needless to say, the children had a blast!

From there we headed straight to Firehouse Subs, which is new in our area. Jas loves it - and he was entitled to a free sub since it was his bday! (During our lunch at Firehouse, Gabriel had his first poo in a cloth diaper. In a big way. A big, LOUD way. YAY! And that wasn't even part of the planned fun we had on Jas' bday, that was just thrown in for some extra, un-expected fun!)

After a short rest-time at the house...we headed down to "The Big City" to meet some friends at the airport, but we headed down early to get some other stuff done also.

Jas had it all mapped out:

We hit Gander Mountain Sporting Goods store, where he bought himself some new hunting boots. SCORE, they were on sale! I corralled kids who thought it was so fun to try out all the tent displays in the store - of which there were many!

Then we headed to Michaels and purchased a new large picture frame to go above our fireplace, that will always hold our most current family picture.

Then we had supper at Cracker Barrel (a first for 60% of our children)...and a big hit with everyone.

Then we walked across to Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase some new bedding for mine and Jason's king-size bed. The bedding we had on their we purchased when we bought the bedroom suit 14 years ago. We've been looking on-line for months, but when we found ourselves in the same city as a BB&B, we took advantage of it. We like what we found,btw:

And then, it was finally time to head to the airport to meet not one, but TWO, families of friends just arriving back from China with their new children:

First up, Anna and Hank, just home with precious Kate:

Anna describes her as "a mess"...and my friends that live in the south know that that is not a derogatory comment. I can't wait for us to get to know her better!

And we had just enough time to love and hug on that family, then they left to go pick up their luggage...and it was time to re-assume the welcoming position...