2 Day Celebration

Since Bill's birthday fell on a Sunday this year AND it was a milestone birthday, we decided to celebrate on Saturday as well. He's been wanting to visit the Houston Museum of Natural Science and this was the perfect opportunity.

{Of course we loved the dinosaur exhibit!}

After we looked at the African animal exhibit we found ourselves in the hall of gems. As we entered I told the girls to admire every stone & then pick their favorite where I would take their picture. The girls' true colors came shining through here: Caitlyn kept asking when we could go see more animals and Madisen asked if she could have 3 favorites! I agreed & then she invited Caitlyn to be in the other 2 pictures with her. SO SWEET!

We sat for a break after the gems and made a few silly faces for the camera. Do you see a common theme with our tongues sticking out?
We worked up an appetite at the Museum so we headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I knew (thanks to some inside info. from Cindy) how they celebrate birthdays, so I suggested this restaurant. Bill strongly considered a few other options, and I did my best not to sway the vote. Lucky for me, he took my bait! He was M-O-R-T-I-F-I-E-D when they asked him to sit on the saddle. He mumbled some threat to me under his breath as he timidly met their request. I was ALL SMILES to know that I was able to pull off one (small) surprise for the weekend! The topic of our dinner conversation was "30 Things Bill Loves About His Life". Madisen got a kick out of helping me count to 30 with our fingers.


Sunday Morning we let the birthday boy sleep late (since he was up late working on his talk!) while we put the final preparations on the crown (in a home full of princesses, there is a definite need for a king!), hung a few streamers & worked on breakfast.

{Daddy's Girls}

The girls and I made a jar for Bill that included 30 reasons we love him. He was equally delighted and surprised with this gift. He was also pleased that the girls had thoughtfully included meaningful reasons they love him. One from Caitlyn was; "You take us on skateboard rides."

{Madisen: "You play tickle torture with us."}

After church we set out to decorate the cake. Carrot cake needs sprinkles, don't you think?

{Professional candle placers}

At church we discovered that the father of a new family in our ward shared the same birthday with Bill, so we invited them for a spontaneous dinner/cake celebration.

{The candles were so hard to light that they had to blow at the same time.}