jamess birthday surprises.

funny story: a few days ago, when i was writing saturdays post, james looked over my shoulder, saw the tiny little sentence about it being his birthday, and said "thats really all youre going to say about my birthday? gee, thanks", which, on the one hand made me feel kind of bad that i wasnt making a big deal about our birthday plans, BUT on the other hand, i really couldnt say too much because, they were surprises. and i can NEVER pull off surprising james. 

now, long time readers (and i mean REALLY long time readers) may know that while im a big fan of birthdays, theyre not as big of a deal to james. you also may have read about how last year was the first time ive ever been able to take james out for birthday dinner, AND the first time id ever gotten to throw him a birthday party. well this year i miraculously managed to pull of something that i never thought id be able to do. i SURPRISED him. 

with a WHOLE DAY chock full of surprises with the express purpose of spoiling him and making a huge deal about it being his birthday. this only made him really uncomfortable, but i think he warmed up to it in the end. 

we started the morning at our churchs pancake breakfast (it was a fundraiser to help some of our kids go on short term missions):

which wasnt really so much of a surprise for james as much as he forgot that it was on his birthday so he was surprised on friday night when i told him we had to get up early to go. also, i never actually cook breakfast, so james and alice were pretty stoked on having pancakes. then alice went over to my moms for the day so that the REAL surprises could get started. 

and by that i mean, we went home to our suspiciously clean apartment (james later told me he noticed that it was REALLY weird how clean the house was on friday), where i made james help me move ALL THE FURNITURE because i had booked us a couples massage from soothe (which would ordinarily be WAY beyond what im willing to spend on something frivolous BUT i had gotten a half price coupon a couple months ago), because on the list of "things james wants to do that i always say we cant do", "couples massage" is probably #2. 

obviously (if you know me at all) the #1 thing on that list is "steak dinner". so, obviously, that was the next surprise:

(everybody please notice that james ordered steak and steak alone, giggling about his order was probably the highlight of the day for me)

now, OF COURSE in my post-massage stupor (in case youve never had a deep tissue massage, the first day or so after feels like youve been hit by a truck) i forgot to get any pictures of the two of us together. but if i had one, this is where id put it. 

and right when james thought the party was over because it was time to pick up alice, there was dessert and friends waiting at my moms house:

and, since i dont have any cute pictures of james and i together, heres alice and her bestie sharing a sundae instead:

so, happy birthday to my dearest james. alice and i love you so much and are so glad you enjoyed your birthday surprises. and im sorry i didnt make a big deal about it beforehand, i just really, REALLY didnt want to ruin the surprise.