Happy 41 Bowdie!

I asked Bowdie what he wanted to do for his birthday.

He thought just a second and then said he wanted to go out.

Just me and him.  And our friends the Hendersons.

Just the 4 of us.

This kind of surprised me, as Bowdie is a real people person.

He loves a crowd.

But I think as he's starting to get older,

he values relationship more.

So I immediately scheduled with Mandy 

and then had her tell me where we should go.

She and Chad are our foodie-est friends.

And we love that about them!

We chose Rathbun's Steakhouse in Atlanta.

It did NOT disappoint.

Not one bit.

Wow.

The cut was called 

The server made serving it look like an art.

Truly.

Those onion rings were divine.

Pretty much everything was.

Dessert was these little ice cream balls dipped in hard shell chocolate

with toffee sprinkles on top.

Ah - mazing!

Happy birthday to the best man that I know.

You deserved all this and more!

He's 12!

Good grief!  He's 12.

Twelve short months before the teen years officially begin.

Time is fleeting.

He's growing.

He's an amazing kid.

Crazy responsible student.

As in, he checks his grades online nearly daily.

He asks us to study with him.

Reminds me when something is due.

Expects nothing less than A's and works hard to get them.

Seriously ... a dream!

He continues to have an ever growing love of baseball,

which I think thrills his dad and granddad more than I even know.

He wants to excel and he works hard toward that end.

We are still working on heart issues,

what it means to be a devoted follower of Christ,

and choosing others before himself.

But all told, parenting him is a joy!

We celebrated his day with a group of his friends over to spend the night.

Parties have gotten so much simpler as the kids have grown.

We've transitioned from an all-out theme, with games, food, and cutesy invites,

to the ease of a group of friends, the great outdoors, and evite!

The food must be abundant, but if that's the most time consuming part,

I'll take it!

Jarrett wanted hamburgers, nachos, and some trail mix.

Lots of gift cards were received, along with some cash.

Love this hat that Will gave him!

Left to right:  Carsen Curry, Jacob Bolich, Will Warbington, Jonathan Koehler,

Austin Gusaeff, Andrew Beasley, Carson Plumadore, Jackson Childers, and Daniel Jackson.

Love his eclectic group of friends ...

athletes to academics to baseball friends to church friends!

Great job on the cake again Nana!

Happy birthday, Son.

We love you BIG!

GREAT days are ahead!!

Another Seven-Zero!!!

We celebrated another big birthday in the family ...

Bowdie's dad turned 70 too!

We celebrated with a yummy lunch and an even yummier cake!

Two peas in a pod right here ... dessert is TOP priority!

Thankful everyday for the man that Bowdie's dad is ...

kind, generous, helpful ... 

and all those wonderful traits handed down to my husband.

So happy to celebrate him and his special day!

Seven-Zero

August was a big month for dad.

The big 7-0.

Not a day that needs to go by unrecognized.

Because he is NOT a party guy,

I had the idea to email all his family & friends (with the help of Mom)

and have them simply send him a birthday card.

It was the perfect solution for him!

We still got to surprise him (just the immediate family),

but not in a way that would make him want to hide out!

Because he would hide out ... remind me to tell you about his 50th birthday surprise -

let's just say his friends brought the party to him,

because he found out and refused to leave the house!!

Dead serious.

I wrapped up a letter opener for him ...

'Oh!  Just what I wanted ... a, ummm, letter opener!??!'

And then we plopped the cards down in his lap.

Look at that stack!

And that wasn't even all of them.

They continued to trickle in the following week too.

He loved looking through at the return addresses ...

Then he picked out the cards from family & opened them first.

Love his face here.

Score one for us!!!

I truly think he enjoyed every single card.

Several times.

Birthday cupcakes.

Can you tell we were up at the lake?

Don'tcha love Blaine's bare chest??!

It was a great celebration.

Of a great man.

So thankful to call him Dad.

So blessed to see just a sampling of all who love him!

Jacob's First Spend the Night Birthday!

We promised Jacob when he turned 8

that he could invite some friends over to spend the night for his birthday.

It's all he talked about leading up to the big day.

And, in true Jacob fashion, he had a list of about 10 kids he wanted to invite.

Because baseball season has started and schedules are a bit crazy,

Bowdie made him limit it to 5 friends.

Which ended up being absolutely perfect because,

due to the extremely cold weather,

Blaine and Jarrett both had games rescheduled for the night of the party!

But you know the great thing about the ballfield?

It comes with a playground.

And what's more fun to 7-8 year olds than a playground

and buddies to play on it with??!!

So we just took a little birthday party field trip,

watched Blaine's game,

and then resumed the party when we got back home.

It was really quite fun!

Love this shot so much ... just having fun!

On the way home, I let them watch some of a movie.

They thought that was great!

Eating pizza once back in the house ...

Jacob Dickinson

Nicholas Wiley

Will Mock

Ty Warbington

Can he really be 8??!!!!

Another ice cream/cookie/double doozey cake by Nana!

This shot pretty much captures the personalities ... perfectly.

I bought the game Headbanz for the boys to play, if needed.

I ended up playing with them.  So fun!!

Snuggled up for Ice Age!

Saturday morning Jacob decided to change it up and not do pancakes ...

he wanted Krispy Kreme donuts instead!

So, so fun.

Such sweet boys.

I love this age ... I need time to stand still!!!