The Hamon Family: Daddy's 29th Birthday!

It's official! James is in the last year of his twenties! Whoo hoo! I kept asking him for weeks what he wanted to do for his birthday and he always came up with the same response, "Nothing. I want to do nothing." Well, after some delicate prodding, I realized that he was right. He didn't want to not celebrate, but he certainly didn't long for the responsibility of throwing a huge shin-dig together that would only messy our house, yet again. I can't say I blame him! So, as part of his birthday gift, I planned the whole evening and kept it a secret. :) He was THRILLED. His birthday is on June 21st, the summer solstice. James has always enjoyed telling people this because he gets to "celebrate longer than everyone else" because the summer solstice is the longest day of the year! What a cool happenstance! This year, we used every minute of celebration, starting with opening his presents at our house. ~~Mommy~~ Sadie saved her pennies and had the biggest surprise for Daddy. After opening a box wrapped in a box, wrapped in another box, he found a new ipad 2! Sadie napped through the present process, so he quietly shouted, "Oh yes!!!" as we all quietly cheered afraid to wake Sadie from her peaceful slumber.

New ipad 2!

After opening presents, I finally (and purposefully) "spilled the beans" and told James we were headed to Main Even for a night of family fun and bowling. James always loves having a great time and especially loves to bowl, so he was delighted. We packed Sadie up and headed out. She had a great nap and was energized and ready to go (so energized might I add, that she didn't actually fall asleep until close to 1:15 that night!). We welcomed Uncle Steve, Brittany, Leslie, Grant & Jill, Sara & Bill, Katy & Ross (first time out for Katy since Collin was born!), SuSu & Poppy, Granny & Granddaddy, and Great Granny. We bowled for two hours and James and Uncle Steve took the lead as the most seasoned and talented bowlers. Seriously, they were amazing! Sadie was less inspired by their skills and was mainly interested in the plethora of bowling balls every where she turned. She kept walking up to them and exclaiming, "Baaa!" (translated: ball) and then would say "Keeek!" (translated: kick). James has been teaching her to kick the ball (obviously priming her for soccer), so she was confused why everyone kept throwing these balls instead of kicking them like Daddy has been teaching her.

Add caption

Great Granny was the greatest of cheerleaders and cheered promptly for every single good shot. She even empathized with errant gutter balls. After one game of fun, we decided to stop and sing "Happy Birthday" to James so everyone could enjoy the delicious cake and cookies. The cookies were a special treat made by Brittany for James - triple chocolate cookies with peanut butter inside and fudge melted on top. YUM YUM!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

After cake, we continued our fun and Sadie meandered from person to person - soaking up the limelight no doubt and enjoying every ounce of attention shed on her tiny person. Some of her favorite events of the night were eating ice with Aunt Katie, Granddaddy, and Katy & Ross crawling on Uncle Austin like a lanky jungle gym, wearing her new pretty head wreathe that Great Aunt Leslie bought her in San Antonio, hugging Sara, and begging for pizza crust (through the helpful use of her sign language) from sweet Jill (Grant's sweet fiance' and newest member of our family!).

Do I spy bunny ears, Ross?

"Fun-uncle" Austin

Aunt Katie feeding Sadie some ice!

One of the nicest experiences of the night was just enjoying having conversation with everyone and taking pictures together. Granny kept running around trying to get Sadie to keep the pink flower wreathe on her head, while I peeled healthy snacks and worked on convincing Sadie that bananas and turkey are so much more tasty than pizza crust (hard sell!).

Oooooooooo. Pretty.

Sadie loved Grant and Jill for sharing their pizza and laughing with her!

Mommy and Katy

Eating Jill's pizza crust and sitting on Granny's lap

We had perfect timing as our two hours of bowling were up right as we finished our second game. We hugged everyone goodbye and were going to head to the house, when we were invited to join an after-party at Starbucks in honor of Grant and Jill's long trek over! Sadie LOVES Barnes and Noble, so we agreed. We ordered our drinks (James: grande iced soy chai latte, Me: grande extra hot decaf toffee nut latte with light whip) and made our way to the children's section with Sadie taking the lead. Let's just say this wan't her first rodeo and she knew right where to lead us. We all sat on chairs intended for children and enjoyed wonderful conversation with Grant and Jill, a wonderful new addition to our Houston life. We drove home from the festivities thankful for all that God has given us in James and stayed up late in the night doing exactly what James wanted - nothing at all. :)