JOHN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

God
Family
Ohio State

that is the priority list for John. :)

so, for his big birthday I wanted to surprise him.

We haven't visited Ohio (where his dad's side of the family live) since before we were married.....his 1 uncle and aunt have visited us, but that was when Becca was a few months old.

so....back in February I contacted 1 of John's uncles who lives in Columbus and has access to OSU football tickets. Over the course of a few months, he was able to secure 2 tix to an OSU football game for me to surprise John with.

I have been DYING for months now, waiting to give this gift to John.

on top of his new OSU shirt, I printed out the 2009 football schedule with the game highlighted on it. He was pretty clueless until I explained to him that we were going to finally get to visit his family in Ohio AND fulfill a life long dream of his....going to a Buckeye football game.

He's hard to surprise... I'm so excited I was able to keep this one a secret and that he's just as excited about it as I am. :)

I'm also excited cuz we should be able to hang out with a long time bloggy buddy of mine!


my mom spoils John. :) she knows him well and so my parents gave him gift certificates to his 2 favorite restaurants and then 40 cans of B*rqs rootbeer. :)

He loves B*rqs so much, and my mom loves him so much that there is ALWAYS a can of it in their fridge in case John stops by.
the gang watching the present opening
when our "little" family gets together -it's 17 people....6 adults and 11 kids!

John asked for a lemon jello cake and homemade ice cream ~ super yum-o and summery!

after dessert the kids and dads went out to our side yard for some ball.

aren't these the cutest little punkin's?!

the girls were playing "store" while everyone else played ball. :)

not the most organized game as you can see our dog laying in between the pitcher's "mound" and the batter's box and kids running everywhere. but who cares?! they had a blast!

and no family gathering is every complete without a picture of Becca and the baby. "the baby" is getting so big!! she just adores him and would sit and hold him all day if she could. :)

*******and just so it's clear :) John's family doesn't live close but they all either sent a little something in the mail or called him for his big day. didn't want to leave them out!***********