birthday + anniversary + a sneaky man = awesome weekend

First of all, I would like to excuse my relative silence as of late. We have been too busy having lots of fun to even stop and take pictures worth sharing, and generally if I ain't got a picture of something, I ain't gonna be posting about it. Good for Mike I took pictures this weekend, because otherwise he wouldn't be getting his due credit on the blog today!

Our anniversary (six years!) was Saturday, and my birthday was/is today. All week long Mike had been telling me he had secret plans hatching that I wasn't to be snooping into or knowing about, and that on Saturday morning I need to be ready to leave the house at 9:30am, and I would find out more then. So, Saturday morning I was all ready to go and Mike handed me some directions and a GPS all programmed to go and informed me I would be going to a spa to get a "deluxe" manicure. He had made the appointment for me and it was all paid for so I just needed to go and get beautified.
This is a picture of the foyer area of the spa he sent me to. It was very nice, and I want to go back and get a pedicure sometime soon! ;-) The manicure was an hour long, and it had taken me 30 minutes to get there, so by the time I was done it would've been about lunch time. We had planned to do some car shopping that afternoon, so Mike and I agreed that I'd come home and pick them up, then we'd get lunch and hit the dealerships.
Well, I come inside to collect my people and Mike was like, "Megan's just playing in the backyard, let's tell her you're back." So we start heading back, and I notice that there are these diaper bags sitting on the window seat in the dining room. I go, "whose bag is that?" (We had some friends over for dinner the night before, and they had forgotten their baby carrier, so I thought maybe I had just missed the diaper bag and they had left that, too.) Mike just kind of ignored me and said, "well, come on, let's go..." and it was only then that I began to suspect that my husband was truly a diabolical man.
Sure enough, I round the corner and there are like TWENTY people there yelling "Surprise!" He totally got me. I had no idea he had that planned, and frankly I didn't know he had it in him! Usually I can tell right away if he is lying to me about planning something secretive because he gives me a lot of in depth and unnecessary detail when I'm not even acting suspicious. Example: part of my surprise was that I got an awesome new patio conversation set for our back yard. Mike and my parents went halfsies on it, and I had a pretty good idea they were getting it for me. Mike had to have a friend take him in their mini van to go pick it up, and also to help him assemble it and hide it in our shed. So, Mike keeps telling me about how he and Eddie are going to go do some man things, and how Eddie is going to help him get somethings done on post (after post is closed, mind you), and how Eddie needs help moving a new entertainment center he got (Eddie whose family doesn't watch tv)... And with the number of detective and mystery shows I watch, my mind is always scheming! So I pretty much saw right through all of that, but it was so dear and sweet to see Mike try so hard to surprise me (because he knows I love surprises), that I would just smile and act like I totally believe him and not ask probing questions that I knew would catch him.
After all of that, I was pretty sure he was going to surprise me with the patio furniture, but I had no idea that my friends would be sitting on it! I have to give him the utmost credit too, because he had EVERYTHING figured out. He had ordered a cake, balloons, there were streamers, drinks, little "happy birthday" plates... he had even arranged for one of the families to come a bit early to help him finish assembling the furniture and set it all up. So here are some pictures of our little bash... we only caught a few because there was much visiting to be done.

The party-- there were 5 other families there sharing in the fun

After the dust settled...

I told Megan to smile for me, so she hid her head in the cushions.

But I got her anyway!

I sadly failed to get a picture of my cake, so here's what was left at the end of the day:

Our neighbors and good new friends the Hall's couldn't make the party, but we barbecued with them that night. She brought me this really cute quilt decoration she had made. She knew I missed the enrichment when they made it, so made one for me. Isn't that sweet?

Here's the newest editions to my crime library... bwa ha ha! I'm in heaven!

Here's my conversation set... there is another single chair, but it came with a slight defect so we're going to have to order a replacement part before we can have it out, too.
I also got the candle you see on the coffee table, another candle which I am currently enjoying the aroma of, a hummingbird feeder, and a can of "OFF" spray... Mike told my friends I'd be getting the new patio set, so they got me some things to go along with it!

It was a really fun party, and it was so neat that we already have so many good, sweet people to be our friends and our children's friends. These nice sweet friends even brought me gifts! I was so amazed and surprised at everyone's generosity. Not Mike's though, that's the one thing that never surprises me about him-- he is SO generous. He will honestly get me anything I want. For example, he bought me this:


Yeah. It was a good birthday/anniversary. And now I'm tired. I'll post more on that last baby tomorrow. If you're LUCKY! haha.