Kendall's Surprise Birthday Party

So way back in January....

Kendall had a birthday, where he turned...

31. 

Old man.

Last year when he turned the 30 I had REALLY wanted to throw a surprise birthday,

but we were in the middle of finishing our basement and our house was a mess!

So when this year rolled around I was determined to throw my man the best birthday ever.

I debated on whether or not I should tell Madeline and have her help me with the surprise.  Six year olds aren't the most reliable at keeping secrets.  Especially juicy surprise birthday party secrets.   But I knew she would love to help.  So I told her and asked for her help in distracting Dad on the big day.

She was game! 

The problem came when I realized that Kendall works in our back yard and comes home at random times. 

How can I plan a party when I never know when he is comin?

  Plus I had over 40 people planning on coming!  That means I need a serious amount of chairs and tables, all of which I USUALLY have Kendall to help with.

So the Saturday before his party, Kendall went skiing with Madeline and I called my mom and sister to come over and help me bring over tables. 

I hid them downstairs in a bedroom and hoped that Kendall wouldn't find them.

The day of the party.

Kendall took Madeline to school that morning and Madeline's job had been to find something to keep him at work until 6... Party Time!

She told him that we had something special planned and he couldn't come home until 6. 

Ahh I hope he didn't catch onto anything.

So at lunch  Kendall told me what Madeline had said.

I acted all nonchalant and said she must have something cute and special planned for him and he had better listen and not come home until 6.

Next I asked Kendall's mom if she could help with chairs.  So she snuck all of her chairs over the day of and I set them up downstairs and hid some in Madeline's room and hoped he didn't find those as well.
I picked Madeline up from school and we started preparing the food.
I had Madeline call Kendall a little earlier and say "okay come home.... oh wait I forgot one thing.. I will call you when I am ready."   Just to throw him off, in case he was figuring things out.

At 6:00 pm almost everyone had arrived and so I called Kendall and told him Madeline was ready and he needed to come in through the backdoor ( so he didn't see all the cars in front).
We shut the blinds and when he walked in we yelled Surprise!


I wish I would've had someone take a picture because he was so surprised!  It was the best.  We had so many friends and family there to support Kendall.   He has had quite the year and it was great to give back to him.
We had a blast eating and visiting with everyone!  I was so thankful to everyone who could make it.
Kendall kept saying "I can't believe you pulled that off, I had no idea!"
I was pretty impressed we pulled it off as well.  I was sure he was going to know something was up.  And there were so many times I almost fouled up and told him, because I tell the guy everything...it is so hard to keep a secret!

Oregon Day 2-5

After we left Portland on Tuesday we headed out to see the beach.  We also had to stop and see the Roloff farm.   We were pretty big fans of their show "Little people Big world."   So we had to stop and see the farm.  

As you can see this was as far as we got.  

It was a beautiful area and I would love to live there.

We also went to the Tillamook cheese factory.

They had a little sandwich shop so we ate lunch and then toured the factory.

After the tour we had some delicious Tillamook ice cream!  Yummo!

We are going to have to search the stores here for some because it was so good.

After the ice cream we went to the Tillamook Air Museum.   They had these huge hangars that they stored blimps in during WW 2.  They no longer use it for blimps but they have quite a few old airplanes in them, for you to look at.

After the museum we continued our drive to the beach.  It as warm but rainy. That is if you consider 40 degrees warm.  Which we did because when we left home it was 8 degrees.   So this was as close as we got to the beach.

We spent the night in Seaside and we are definitely going to return there with the kids when it is warm.  It was such a cute town and we had an awesome room with a view of the ocean.  

The next day we toured Astoria.   It is a cute town that is very old.  

We toured the Flavel house.   It was built in the EARLY 1900s and it was gorgeous.  

It is 11,000 square feet and it cost $30,000.   Can you believe that?

We also found a pamphlet that had a movie tour on it.

Apparently Kindergarten Cop, The Goonies, Free Willy, and a few other movies have been filmed there.

We started the tour....Kendall got tired of me giving directions  so we ended the tour.  ;-)

But we saw what we wanted to see.

This is the Astoria tower.  It is 164 steps to the top.

Here I am starting the climb.  It makes you dizzy and if you don't like heights it makes you REALLY dizzy.

About 3/4 of the way to the top, I almost quit.  But then Kendall pointed out that we were almost there and I gathered whatever strength my thighs had left and continued the climb.   My thighs have been SUPER sore since, and that was 3 days ago.   

Here is Kendall at the top!  

 It was SO windy and rainy that we stayed there for about 2 seconds and went back down.  

Don't you love that water droplet on my mouth!?!

That night we headed back to Portland and went to China Town.  

In China Town they have this awesome little restaurant called  Old Town Pizza.

Old Town Pizza has the best Pizza!

This is where the girl died that haunts this restaurant.   

I was a little freaked out when Kendall left to place the order and I was alone in the hall way.

China Town!

Portland was SO fun!

Kendall and I had a great time with just the two of us.  It was fun to just get up and go and not have to convince the 6 year old that she wanted to go or pack a diaper bag.  

Although we did miss them...

 We get to go back in June and we will take the kids so they can see the coast and Madeline is pretty dang excited about it.

Hello Kids- from Portland

Hi Madeline and Max!

We miss you and love you.  Here are some pictures from our trip. 

Portland at night.  I had a better picture but couldn't get it to post.   But here you go!

Isn't it cool?

Here is a mansion we tried to see.  We just saw the outside.

Here is the view by the mansion.

Here is a trail we went on.  It was so green and pretty.

This is one of the cool bridges that goes over the Columbia River. 

There is Dad.

And me surrounded by cool trees.

We love you and hope you are having fun!