Rudy's Surprise Birthday Party!

So last weekend, while sitting with our neighbors at our block garage sale, the ladies suggested that while I took Rudy out for his birthday, they could come over and decorate the place for a surprise birthday party. Just for Rudy, they decorated the place in all pink, over the hill, congrats grad, and happy 40th material! :) They know their neighbor and how much he'd appreciate the randomness as well as alllll the pink!! Haha:)

The neighbors rallied together and each brought over one thing after the other.... all the while, we were out to dinner and a movie. Rudy didn't suspect a thing! It was awesome! :) Here are some pics and a little video for ya.

These are our friends and my sister, who pulled it all off in about 20 minutes!

The group gift was a gathering of the random things left over from the garage sale. :)

And here's his surprised reaction:
http://youtu.be/YlX_WjEs9MI

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Rudy celebrated another birthday yesterday. The boys were so excited to decorate the house and sing to their daddy. Kyle made these headbands for us. 

 Waving good-bye to Daddy as he left for work.

 We "surprised" Rudy at work with some real, authentic deep dish Chicago pizza from this place... a new patient of Rudy's had recommended it as being the only deep dish pizza in SoCal worthy of being called "Chicago deep dish." This patient had walked in and within a few seconds they each recognized the other was from Chicago.  (I love that! :) After the guy had recommended this place and Rudy hadn't immediately gone to check it out, the patient "was personally offended!" and so we just had to see if this was the real deal...

We picked up some balloons and all of us wore our Bears shirts in honor of the deep dish/Chicago/Daddy's birthday.

 Surprise!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!

 Daddy's work is just so much fun!

And then... the presentation of the pizza pie!!! :)

And the verdict? It was AMAZING!!!!!!! True, Chicago pizza and the only place in SoCal worthy of the comparison. The owner of the Italian place invited us to come back to watch any of the Chicago sports teams play, saying that the house is full of Chicago spirit. We will definitely be visiting that place again and again. :) 

Later that night, Ru thought we were just going to have a quiet night at home, but I had invited the family over for dinner and dessert. They also loved the deep dish.

Happy 35th, Rudy!!

Later today, Michelle is coming over so I can take Ru out. She's even coming earlier in the afternoon so we can see daylight alone together. We've got the whole night!! Woot woot! And then ... another special surprise I will have to blog about later, just in case he reads this before it happens. :) 

San Diego Safari Park

My friend Tiffany invited us to join her and her boys for a little zoo time in San Diego. Because of her generosity in sharing passes with us, we were able to go without breaking the bank! :) Thank you, Tiff!! We decided to go to the Safari Park instead of the general zoo because we'd never been to this one and wanted to check it out. It was really fun.

A hit for the boys was this merry-go-round. This was a first for Gavin and he just loved it.

I love the way Gavin is looking up at his brother! True bliss!

Happy, happy boys!

"Mommy, it's going up and down!!!!" says Gavin.

I didn't get a shot of all of us, but here are our boys running a muck once we finally let them out of the stroller. :)

We rode on a tram through the safari part of the park. I don't know what Gavie's thinking here, but it was too cute/hilarious not to include.

We rode in the caboose which the boys loved.

It wasn't so fun for me as I was spending 95% of the time keeping Gavin from falling and staying inside the tram.

We ate lunch in this little playground area. Highlights of the day were visiting the elephants (and seeing "Dumbo") and the gorillas (and seeing an adorable baby "Curious George").

Thank you, Tiffany!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Traintastic Adventure!

Yesterday we got together with our good neighbor friends for a really fun train adventure. This time, we hopped on the northbound train to check out the new transportation hub in Anaheim and then ate dinner at a Ruby's right on the platform at the Orange station. This way, we hit 3 stations with stops at each for exploration or eating. The kids had a blast!! And I thoroughly enjoyed having a friend along.

Our adventure begins...

The night before, my friend and I planned our itinerary and typed up a detailed schedule with all our train stops so the boys could keep track of where we were and when we had to get back on the train. They loved being responsible and feeling in-charge. The boys eagerly checked off each departure and arrival. It was so cute!

I love the open landscape in this particular spot. Not easy to find. 

My boys. 

The Anaheim Artic

You can see the Honda Center (where the Anaheim Ducks play) and the mountains in the distance. It's really beautiful. We were especially excited to see this because we have watched it being built over the course of the school year and it is finally open for business!

Checking out where we are and all we have yet to explore. CA is a big state!

Dinner at Ruby's 

And back home with our checklists all checked off! 

Happy Easter!

Hello and Happy Easter! We have officially been on Spring Break since Friday afternoon at 2:40pm when I walked out of my classroom! :) We are loving it! Saturday night Kyle and I stayed up a little later to have a special movie night with popcorn. Sunday morning we were up super early (I blame a specific bird who loves to give us a morning wake up call right outside our windows!). Anyhow, later that day we headed over to Grandpa and Grammie's house for a yummy Easter lunch and egg hunt. 

Here's Kyle helping stuff some of the eggs with his Auntie Michelle.

 Love.

 So excited!!

 The Egg Hunt!!

 Squeals of delight!  :)

 Emptying the eggs and checking out the loot!

"Mommy, it's in there... the money for the ice-cream truck!"

 And a little egg dying...

Then, outside to catch up on a manly project Grandpa and Rudy were attacking. Gavie loved helping Daddy with the sander.

And that family picture I kept trying to get? Well, it didn't happen this time. :) Happy Easter, folks!