Little Happies -- Carving Pumpkins

Hey, friends! Welcome back to the Little Happies link-up, in which we all share our small happy moments and things from the week past.

This week, I've got one Little Happy brought to you by a fun night with friends.

--one--

One night last week, John and I were just sitting around with no plans in sight. So on a whim we texted some friends who are kinda stuck in their house these days (they just had a baby) and asked if they'd be up for some pumpkin carving and cider sippin' later that evening. I offered to bring all the supplies and they excitedly said YES PLEASE! 

3 pumpkins, 2 carving kits, 6 bottles of hard cider, 2 jugs of virgin cider, 1 apple pie, and 1 big carton of vanilla ice cream. . . sounds like fall, doesn't it? 

We made our way over to our friends' place with all our supplies and just had a fantastic evening celebrating the turn of the season. They even lit their outdoor chimney for us!

Also, I was shocked to find out that the wife of the couple had never carved a pumpkin before!! What?! Crazy!! By the end of the night, she loved communal pumpkin carving so much that she asked if we could make a tradition of it every year. :)

We all agreed that our favorite moment of the night was lighting these bad boys after all our hard work. 

And then we posed with our pumpkin. We've learned over the years that carving a pumpkin, especially one that size, is best done as a team. When my arms would get tired, John would take over, and vice versa. Plus, I was able to convince him to do all the gut scooping while I did all the seed sorting. I think I got the easier job. :)

Hope you're all having a lovely fall, friends. Have you carved any pumpkins yet? 

An InLinkz Link-up

Little Happies -- Nachos and Go-Karts and a New Blog Header (Check It Out!)

Hi, friends! And welcome back to Little Happies... the happiest little link-up on the planet, in which we share all the itty bitty exciting things going on in our lives currently. Now, what could be happier than that?

--one-- 

Earlier this week, we had some dear friends over for dinner. As we all know, little social gatherings are almost always happies. But what made this hang-out session even happier was a NACHO BAR! We each piled tons of personalized yummies on top of our individual pyrex dishes full of tortilla chips and baked to perfection. We may have eaten just a bit too much, but that's what loose fitting pants are for, folks.

Also, that large bowl of salsa you see in the middle of the table is my currently my favorite salsa recipe. Check it out.

--two--

Upon returning from work one day, I was greeted by this. Stephi Refreshment Station, or SRS for short.

The husband had some spare time, apparently, and used it to make me these tasty treats. 

Strawberry Moscow Mule and a fresh Caprese salad. Don't mind if I do! 

How thoughtful, husband! Can this be an every day thing, please?

Also, take a look at his handwriting. It isn't as bad or unreadable as you'd expect. Actually, that reminds me of a funny thing...

--three--

You're laughing, right?

I wonder what they're so mad about. The world may never know. 

--four--

We rode some go-karts! (And John insisted I snap this fun photo while we were waiting to launch.)

I may or may not have also taken a 5-second video while driving. Is it still considered illegal if you're driving a very miniaturized vehicle (powered by a lawn-mower engine, btw) while on your cell phone?

The go-karts were part of our Saturday morning, spent at a golf and game center with my youth group kiddos. It was actually a barrel of fun! Go-karts, mini-golf, arcade games, and laser tag! I felt like a kid again!

--five--

Have you seen my blog's new cuteness? 

A HUGE thanks goes out to my friend, Katie, who digitized my calligraphy and then designed the whole banner with flowers thang around it. It's my new favorite thing to stare at!! Eeeee! Do you like?

When we were still trying to figure out which direction to take the new design in (flowers or polka dots?), Katie sent me the above image via email. I figured it'd be fun to share a snippet of the designing phase with you, so there you have it!

Have a beautiful week! Ta ta for now! 

An InLinkz Link-up

The Adoption Profile is...

... still a work in progress.
 

Just as I feared, it's taking us forevvvverrrr to get it done. And it's not just because we want it to be the perfect representation of who we are as a couple. We also were told we had to change the format after we thought we were almost finished.



A screen shot of our masterpiece-in-progress.

At first we just though it was a typed 2-page letter with pictures interspersed. So I found lots of examples of "dear birthparent" letters with pictures and got to work. Once we put the mostly finishing touches on that, we found out it's supposed to be more like a picture book with lots of captions and little word blurbs. So our agency let us borrow an example from one of their couples (they've already adopted 4 children!!) as a guidline and we got to work again.


We're using SnapFish to make our profile. You like?

Let me give some advice to those out there who are thinking about adoption but haven't gotten this far yet:

Take lots of pictures! Lots and lots and tons and pounds of pictures!

Of all the components of our profile, pictures have slowed us down the most. I happen to love taking pictures, so we actually had a lot to choose from, but we still had "holes" in our story, pictorally speaking.


My dear husband, summed up in 2 pages.

So this past week has been spent taking the pictures we wish we had already taken.

We needed to take more pictures of our aparment, which wasn't too hard, but we had to clean it first.

Then we needed more pictures of us doing our favorite things: cooking, playing games together, going on walks, etc. Also, not too hard. It just took time to bake cookies and then play a game together and then go for a walk. Oh, and we also needed to find someone to take the pictures for us. More on that in a second.

Then we needed more pictures of us with babies, which has proven to be most difficult, as we don't really know many babies who are readily available as picture props. You'd think my husband, who works at a children's hospital, would have tons of pics with babies and kids, but (rightfully so) they don't allow the hospital staff to take pictures with kids without written consent. So that left us digging through all our old pictures and just settling with low-quality iPhone pics of the two of us with my niece. It's a good thing she's cute.

And unless there's anyone out there who'll let us borrow their baby for a weekend of photographizing in Memphis, that'll just have to do.

I kid mostly, as our profile is supposed to be an accurate representation of John and me. And baby stealers we are not. But it would be nice to be able to show birthparents that we actually do like being around kids.

Finally, we needed some updated "us" pictures. We have a bunch of beeeeautiful professional pictures from our wedding day, but those are 2.5 years old now. And John wasn't rockin' his hipster glasses, long hair, and beard that day. Plus, I'm sure birthparents would like to see me in more outfits that just my wedding gown, even though it was very pretty.

We didn't want to shell out extra money for new professional pictures. While I'm sure they'd be great, we would much rather save the money for pictures of us with our adopted newborn. :)

So we asked a good friend, Rachel, if she'd spend an hour snapping pictures of us using our decent camera and she said yes!! Sure, we bribed her with Mexican food, but I think it was a fair trade.

We thought a cute little park with a pond was a nice backdrop.

We started our photo sesh around 2pm, so the sun was very bright!

We had to face the sun so that we didn't end up with lots of shadows on our faces. 


You may think he's smiling super big, but really he was wincing in pain from brightness of the sun. Hehe.

After some practice, we started to figure out how to smile and keep our eyes open and look cute while staring into the sun.

Switch sides, stand in front of a tree, smile.

We faced away from the sun for a second to get the lake in the background, but the shadowy faces came back.


So we faced the sun again and came up with this cute pose.


Note the sunglasses.

And then we went for a little walk, hand-in-hand.

And then I danced a little because photography is fun, weather is beautiful, and life is good.



Allow me to introduce you to our talented photographer:

Thanks for your help, Rachel! We heart you!

So we're still not done with the profile. We've got some more picture placing and tweaking to do. And we still have to write a short and heartfelt "Dear Birthparent" letter for our first page. But we're hoping to have everything finished by the end of this week. Mostly because: 1.) I don't like this task hanging over me and 2.) SnapFish has a 40% off coupon for photobooks that expires after Friday. A silly reason to finish our profile? Sure. But at least it's motivating me.

And at least we have more pretty pictures to choose from now. One step closer!



Little Happies

Isn't it the truth that the day-to-day of life can be a little tough? Especially for us infertiles? Especially for anyone with a heavy cross to bear?

Now I'm not saying I'm any good at this, but I try, and my husband encourages me, to find joy in the in-betweens. In other words, we can't just be living for the next big thing to happen in our lives: graduating, getting a new job, engagement, marriage, babies, buying a house, big trips, restored health, retirement. We'd spend our whole lives wishing our time away, just focused on our next "big thing" to happen... and then, after it happens, what do we do next? Go back to wishing and hoping and rushing through life for the next "big thing"? It's so easy to fall into that cycle and live that way, but it's not usually very joyful. Especially during those in-betweens.

The best way to stop ourselves from living life only for the "big things" is to fall in love with the little things. We've got to find stuff worth celebrating every day. We've got to find God in all good things, no matter how small. We've got to take time to savor all of life's little happies.

So, that's what I'm working on now: finding and loving all of the little happies in my life. And that's what I'd like to share with you here from time to time. 'Cause though it's fun to share big, exciting news with all of you, it's important to remember the "big things" are not all that's worth celebrating in life.

Here are 5 Little Happies I've experienced over the past few weeks:

-- one --

It was a normal Wednesday night at our apartment. John was still at work and I was about to start cooking dinner. When I went to the pantry to fetch the olive oil, I found this guy, staring back at me, hilarious as could be. And all I could do was giggle. Apparently John had gotten his hands on some googly eyes at work (he works at a children's hospital -- these things are common there) and decided it'd be fun to use them to bring our olive oil to life. He stuck the googlies on a few days before and just waited and waited and waited for me to come across them. And when I finally did, he wasn't home to see my great reaction, but he laughed his little tush off when I sent him this picture. The googlies are still on our olive oil to this day and they make me so happy whenever I see them. 

-- two --

Sonic alwayyyys makes me happy! I'm pretty sure my love for Sonic is based on the fact that I didn't discover it until I moved away from RI, post-college. I had a lot of slushies to drink to make up for lost Sonic time. That plus I just can't resist their happy hour drink discounts. Ever. If it's between 2pm and 4pm and I'm within a mile of a Sonic, you can be your bubble I'll be there. Even sometimes if it's not happy hour, I'm still drawn to it. Like a few weekends ago. I was having a girly day with my friend Rachel and Sonic was just there. So we just had to go. Diet Doctor Pepper with vanilla syrup is the bomb dot com, so obviously that's what I ordered. And then we posed with our delicious treats, because that's what silly-on-soda people do. 

-- three --

Cuddling with my love while watching the Winter Olympics opening ceremony (U-S-A, U-S-A!!). Oh, and couch selfies. Lots of happy going on there. 

-- four --

Remember that time I mentioned how horrible I am at waiting to give or receive gifts? Yup, happened again. And that's why you see me showing off my Valentine's day gift in the picture above, several days before Valentine's day. Oops! I just couldn't wait to give John his gift, and then he couldn't wait to give me mine! Plus, he felt there were several events I could wear it to before Valentine's day. And he was right. I'm wearing it right now! Love it, love him, and loving all the compliments I've received. He's a sweetie for picking out such a fantastic necklace. It brings me so much happy, most especially because it makes me think of him whenever I wear it. 

-- five --

Discoring new delicious foods is definitely one of my favorite little things in life. Before our date to see Wicked (which was fantastic, btw, but not featured here because it's more of a "big thing"), John took me out for a new-to-us cuisine: bibimbap (translation: mixed rice). It's a Korean dish served in a hot hot hot cast iron bowl. The rice and all its toppings sizzle as you eat your way to the bottom. Mmmmm. I can still smell and taste it now. It was wonderful! Makes for a very happy tummy. 

---

You know what? That was a lot of fun!! Knowing that I'm going to post about my life's little happies makes me stop and think about just how awesome these every-day little things are. Like I said before, I'm not always great at finding joy in the in-betweens, but I'm thinking this new Little Happies series will help with that. And if you think it'll help you out, feel free to join in!! I'd love to read about the little things you're celebrating in your life too. 

Sharing little happies with each other -- now that's a happy thought! :)

An Unexpected Announcement & My Expected Reaction

We know lots of couples struggling with infertility. Especially now that I have this here blog. It really helps me feel less isolated, less alone while it seems the rest of the world is out there pregnant or parenting without me.

But in real life, we only know of a few IF couples.

And of all the IF couples we know, only one lives in the same city as us.

A few months ago, while hanging out at that couple's house, they told us of their struggles with IF. I had briefly mentioned one time that we had been trying to get pregnant for a while, so that night, they felt safe opening up with us. They had been trying for over a year with no success. They hadn't sought any medical help yet, but were interested to hear what we had done so far.

We felt bad hearing that they were hurting from the same hurts we felt and knew all too well. But we also felt the news of their struggle draw us closer in friendship. We now had this big, bad thing in common and it made our connection with them feel even more special. They got us, ya know? And we got them. While I'd prefer that neither of us were experiencing the pain of IF, it was good to know that we were less alone in our big city.

Friends <3

Oh, and they're Catholic too. That made our connection even better.

Fast forward two months.

We were out celebrating the wife's birthday a few weeks ago with a big group of friends.

Halfway through the meal, she says, "We have a special announcement to make... We're pregnant!"

The table erupted in happy noises: excited squeals, clapping, loud intakes of air. Tons of joy.

The joy we thought we'd be bringing to a table of friends like that by this point in our lives.

Put on a smile, Stephanie. Be happy for them. This is good news. Smile. Say something!

I had to talk myself into properly congratulating them.

I went through the rest of the night in sort of a daze. While I wanted to be so, so happy for them, it was just so, so hard. Just two months ago we felt very safe with them because of our shared pain. And now, they were getting to experiencing the joy we've been trying, very unsuccessfully, to capture for what has felt like an eternity now. I felt so sad.

And then the husband of the couple, who I'm sure could sense I was a little uneasy from their news, leaned into us and said, "You guys'll be next."

Which was honestly very sweet of him, just to be considerate of our feelings in their moment of joy. In their moment in the spotlight.

But I still couldn't help the sadness I felt inside.

In the IF blogger circle, I've read many reflections about this situation -- feeling sorrow in the shadow of another's joy. Though I felt sad that evening, I know it had nothing to do with our friends and their news. It only had to do with the pain I feel over my own situation. Their joyful news just reminded us of our lack of joy. It wasn't them, it was me.

(Side note - thank you to all the IF bloggers who've written about this before, because I'm not sure I would have made that realization that night had it not been for your past reflections.)

But what made it even worse was that I had never experienced a public pregnancy announcement before, where a couple announces their pregnancy in a large group. And what especially threw me off was that it came from a couple we thought would have issues with IF for at least a while longer.

All other pregnancy announcements from friends or family (especially since we discovered we were infertile) have been private. Through a phone call or individual text message or something along those lines. Where we had an opportunity to process the news privately. And it helped immensely.

But there I was, stuck in a restaurant with a large group of friends and no room to truly process how I felt. It was rough. It took me a week to realize what was really going on inside my heart. Luckily, giving myself time to process helped me put a more positive spin on it all. Here's what I came up with...

We are so happy for our friends. 

Seriously, couldn't be happier. They overcame IF. And without the time, money, and energy of fertility treatments.

God is good. And He did a beautiful thing here. Making these two beautiful people parents.

But, unintentionally, in blessing our friends with a baby, God took our IF-buddies away from us. In fulfilling their dreams, He made us lonely again, leaving us without local Catholic IF friends to lean on in the tough times.

It's kind of like a weird version of the Principle of Double Effect.

(And if you know what the Principle of Double Effect is, you're probably thinking I'm being a little dramatic. And I am. But it sorta works here.)

Making this realization helped me feel a little less sad. And for two reasons:

First, because I acknowledged that God did good and only intended good in this situation. Babies are always a blessing.

Second, because I was able to recognize where the sadness was really coming from. I was glad to discover it wasn't because our friends were experiencing something very happy while we weren't. No, the sadness was really coming from: 1.) feeling like we were losing our trusty companions on this stinky IF journey... 'cause we sorta did. And 2.) feeling like we were alone in our big city again... 'cause we kinda are.

So overall, we really are so happy for our friends. Babies are always a blessing. And we realize God didn't mean for us to feel lonely when He blessed our friends. That was just an unintended side effect.

Also, our friends are still so awesome. And that's not going to change. It's not like them getting pregnant is going to stop them from being stellar and supportive friends. Just the other day, the husband of the couple was hanging out with John and asked him how I was handling the news. Now, isn't that a thoughtful friend?

It also helps that we still have this great, big online community of support. Even if we never find another IF couple in Memphis (which would honestly be a good thing!), we'll still feel very loved and certainly prayed for.

27

Just a few weeks ago, I turned 27!

It was a fantastic birthday, one which I hope to remember for years to come. Hopefully, this photo-journalized recap of my birthday weekend will help with that. :)

It all started the Friday before my birthday with a dinner out to my one of my favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot, with three of my favorite people.

Fondue for four!

The next morning, my friend Rachel joined us for some Ethiopian food and a trip to the theater to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Finger food. (We were trying to eat like Hobbits. Does this
count?)

That night, the husband and our Melting Pot friends made our way to the Starry Nights drive-thru light display at our nearby park.

Our view from the car.

On my actual birthday, I awoke to a plateful of delicious (gluten free) blueberry waffles, topped with blackberries and coconut oil.

Mmmmmm.

We slowly got ready for the day and eventually headed out to do our one non-fun task of the day: a background check at the downtown police station. I don't think I was expecting how blahhh this experience would make me feel, though we didn't have much of a choice. It was either do it on the birthday or wait several weeks 'til we had time again to do it together. And I didn't want to wait because this was our last piece of necessary paperwork before our adoption case worker can do the walk through of our home.

So, we ventured downtown, ended up getting a bit lost in a series of overcrowded police buildings, finally ended up where we belonged, only to find we needed money orders in order to get the background checks done. Bah! So we gave up for the day (because the birthday princess had a hungry tummy) and left in hopes of being able to do the background checks another day at a different, less crowded and less downtown-ish police station. (This never happened, as it turns out that police station is the only one that does background checks, but that's a tale for another time.)

Though our background checks were not a success that day, seeing the poverty around us -- the lines and lines of poor folks in and around the police station; the young mother carrying her baby in a car seat near her knees, severely knocking the baby's head around with each step she took; the negative attitude of everyone we interacted with -- it all helped to encourage our decision to adopt. To be able to possibly help, in a very small but significant way, to break this cycle of poverty. To hopefully give a better life to a helpless little babe that would otherwise be destined for a life of poverty, abuse, neglect, negativity. Earlier that morning I wasn't sure I how felt about adopting a child of a different race from us; I just felt like it would be too foreign for us. But after our short time at the police station downtown, my heart was softened and I felt called to open our home to any newborn, any race. What a special gift to receive on my birthday, and in the strangest of places.

(Edit: What I've written here is just a short reflection on a situation that encouraged me to continue discerning transracial adoption. Please see the comment section of this post for a little bit more information regarding our thoughts on adoption.)

With these thoughts stirring in my mind and a very empty tummy, we headed to our lunch destination: a Venezuelan restaurant called Arepa & Salsa.

Instead of bread, they used smashed, fried plantains
for their sandwiches (called tostones). Be still my
gluten-free heart!

From here, we ventured to the Pink Palace, an old mansion in midtown Memphis that was turned into a museum once the owners couldn't afford to finish building it.

In the grand entrance hall of the Pink Palace.

Next, we went and bought an ornament, which I'm hoping turns into a yearly birthday tradition.

Handblown locally.

Followed by a quick pick-me-up of coffee and Trivial Pursuit.

And then on to dinner! Mmmmm. Sushi!

And the evening ended with some cupcakes, cuddles on the couch, and an episode of Doctor Who. A perfect day, if I do say so myself. And very delicious too! Can you tell I like food? :)

Oh, I almost forgot! My birthday gift from John this year was an AeroGarden! He was so sweet to let me open it two weeks in advance so I could have real, live herbs growing on my birthday. It's been so fun watching them grow each day. And since they've been growing about a month now, we've been able to use our new herbs in several recipes. What a treat - fresh herbs growing in our home in the dead of winter!

Just after planting my little herblings. 

My herbs pose for me on my birthday!

My herbs as of yesterday! Parsley, chives, genovese basil
thai basil, mint, and cilantro.

What a lovely birthday! It couldn't have been any better. I'm so blessed to have good friends and one great husband to thank for that.

See ya next year, December 16th!

The Grass is Just as Green on the Other Side

This time last week, I was feeling pretty low. So I posted about it, got some support and prayers, felt a little better, and spent some time trying to recover spiritually.

I'm certainly not 100% healed. Re-reading what I wrote last week, I notice I still have some of the same feelings of anger and abandonment stirring inside me, which makes me realize I carry this stuff with me every day, whether or not I'm aware of it. The infertility world is just a bummer of a world to be a part of and I will likely spend every day wishing I wasn't in it until the day we become parents. I know that sounds horrible, and honestly, it pretty much is, but I made a realization after I posted about my bummer of a day last week that made me feel less abandonedment, less anger. And it was related to this question I asked...

"Why do I have to suffer while others out there are getting exactly what they want as soon as they want it?"

The answer is: They don't.

Though the question was supposed to be broad (i.e. wasn't just related to babies), since I have a pretty one track mind these days, I started reflecting on all of my friends who have children or who have gotten pregnant easily. And I quickly started to realize that not one of them have actually had it easy. They may not struggle with infertility, but they all have some sort of cross they carry.

One friend had two miscarriages (and was told by a doctor she needed to have three miscarriages before they could help her) before she got pregnant with a little one that stuck. She also struggles to make ends meet financially and really dislikes her living situation.

Another friend got pregnant when they weren't trying, ended up nearly going blind during her pregnancy because of a disorder, and only retained some vision because of an emergency surgery during her third trimester. When her babe was only a year old, she ended up in the hospital again with very serious blood clot. 

Another friend was extremely sick during her entire pregnancy and had to have an emergency delivery. She may not be able to have children in the future.

A few other friends have gotten pregnant very, very easily but have turmoil in their marriages. Or have struggled in being faithful to their spouse. Or have a close relative who is sick. Or have massive debt. Or have no self esteem.

The more people with children I thought about, the more I realized no one has it easy. And when I did finally think of a few people who "had it easy" I realized I didn't actually know much about them. They were the people I once knew in real life, but now only know through Facebook posts. And we all know that people can paint a pretty picture of their lives on Facebook without actually having a pretty life in real life. 

The point here is we all have our crosses.

Yes, I already knew that. I think it's one of those things we all start to become aware of while we transition from adolescence into adulthood. So it's not like I'm sharing anything new here. 

But what helped me in all of this was realizing that no one is getting exactly what they want when they want it. Sure, they might be able to get pregnant easily, but there's very likely something else going on in their life that isn't going exactly the way they want it. 

So I guess that's one less thing to be sad and mopey and bummed out about next time I'm in a funk. Not that I'm happy that everyone's suffering. I'm just happy that I've realized jealously is never fruitful. 

(Duh! Isn't that something we all learned in grade school? Sorry... sometimes I'm a little behind with these "life lessons.")

On a happier note...

One of the messages I texted my husband on my day of sadness last week was, "I just want to get away. I don't want to be in Memphis living this life right now. Can we please just go somewhere else and be someone else for a while?" While I admit now that that was pretty dramatic, he took the hint that I just needed a little getaway, a little break. So this past weekend, we drove about 3 hours west to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and enjoyed ourselves a one-night getaway from reality. I've got some pictures and some stories to share of our adventure, but I'll save those for next time. :)

Party Like A Superhero

My sweet husband turned 30 last week.

30!

A week or so before he said to me: "I'm going to be 30. Cavemen didn't even live to be 30."

Not quite sure I fully understood what he was going for there, but I chuckled. I think maybe he's feeling old? 

A month or so before he said: "Let's not have a party or anything. A party is too much work. Let's just go out to eat, you and me. Something romantic."

"Sure, kiddo," I said. But, ohhhhhh, I'm a sneaky wife. I just had to plan a party! I mean, 30 is a big deal, right? It needs to be celebrated properly. He needs to be celebrated properly!

And what better way than with a super-hero-themed surprise party? 

I messaged a handful of our older church friends (who have taken us under their wings since we moved to Memphis... we think of them as our Memphis parents, they're just so good to us!) and asked if I could use one of their houses for the big celebration. And they said yes!

Then I called his parents to see if they could make it out for the surprise. They said yes too! They live about 8 hours away, so a visit from them is a big, awesome deal! We decided to tell him they'd be visiting so he could get the most out of their time here. But the rest stayed a surprise.

It took about a month to get the whole thing put together: from invitations, to decorations, to menus, shopping, and set-up... let's just say, there was a bunch of love that went into it. And even more lying. 

I have never lied to my husband so much. I mean, you have to in order to throw a surprise party. But it felt so weird. And I almost gave away the secret about a million times. Not because I wanted to, but because I'm so used to telling him everything. I caught myself one night almost telling him about some of the decorations I had purchased earlier that day. Shhhhh, Stephanie! The thrower of the party can't ruin the surprise! Hold it together.

We made it to the day of the party and I told him one last lie - that I had to drive an hour away to clean up after a diocesan youth retreat I had been on the day before. In reality, I was just down the street setting up decorations, creating a photo booth, cutting avocados, and putting out the ladder golf. Sneaky, sneaky.

In order to get him over to the surprise party house, I told him that our friends had invited us and his parents over for dinner. He totally bought it too, because when his parents lived here in Memphis several years ago, they were really good friends with the lovely folks hosting this little surprise party. There was nothing out of the blue about them inviting us all over for dinner.

We pulled up and he didn't even question the bajillion cars outside their house. He thought our friends had invited a little bit of a crowd for our dinner. I love my gullible boy.

So we walked into the house and...

SURPRISE!!

I think he was more confused than surprised.

After he figured out that all the people were there to celebrate him, the birthday boy ended up having a most wonderful time! 

He wore a handmade superman cape the whole evening, played ladder golf, ate some of his favorite foods: hot dogs and french fries, blew out candles on a most delicious irish car bomb cake from Muddy's Bake Shop, hung out with good friends, played a silly and hilariously inappropriate card game, took photo booth pictures, and even got to hand out ice cream from an ice cream truck that our friends rented for him for an hour. 

That boy sure was celebrated! 

He said the whole thing just made him feel so loved.

And to that I say, with a big smile on my face, "Mission Accomplished." 

Some of the decorations.

Cake & wall of photos from his birth to today.

30 years of SuperJohn in the making.

"A preview of John's 40th bday."
I hid this little gem in the corner. (Made using the BaldBooth app.)

Waiting to surprise my birthday boy.

More surprisers in waiting.

Right after the surprise, the ice cream truck pulled up!

The birthday boy serving ice cream to his guests.

Guests hanging out by the ice cream truck.

Enjoying some ice cream and balloooons!

The hot dog topping bar, or as I called them... wonder dogs.

Irish Car Bomb Cake - chocolate Guinness stout cake and Bailey's
buttercream icing. SO. GOOD.

Blowing out his 3 candles (duh, one for each decade).

And from the photo booth...

Friends.

Friend and current seminarian. Please pray for him :)

Cape made with felt, fabric glue, lots of time, and lots of Stephi-love. Anything for my big 30-year-old superhero!
(But seriously, that S was hard to make!)

Friends.

His parents, my in-laws, SuperMom & SuperDad :)