Call Us Crazy: Celebrating our main man's birthday!

Our family's yearly holiday season does not kick off with Halloween, but rather a week prior, with Brant's birthday!! We took great care of him, between a picnic lunch, thoughtful gifts, a special night out with dear friends and an obligatory trip to Disneyland (in 95 degree heat)!

We've seem to make it a yearly tradition to have a picnic lunch at the park with Daddy, when his birthday lands on a workday. No complaints from Geoffrey! For Daddy's birthday, Geoffrey was pushed on the swing, chased around the playground, and challenged to races down the double slides! :)

Missing our little lady, but we made do!

Brant managed to get home from work about 30 minutes before the babysitter was set to arrive, so we showered him with hugs, kisses, and presents -- the kids practically opened them up for him before he even had a chance to sit down!

Reading the card she wrote for him, which she labeled, "To Daddy (Brant)."

Maddie came up with the idea months ago, that she wanted to give Daddy a cup with a pencil on it -- we tweaked it just a bit, and she painted a ceramic mason jar, labeled, "Daddy's Pencils" for him to have on his desk at work. It was so sweet to watch her excitement in giving.

Geoffrey also created a special gift for Brant; a piece of wood that he painted a picture of the two of them "waiting at the train station." Brant now has a beautiful piece of artwork in his office at work.

Everything about this is perfection.

And there they are - waiting at the train station!

Friday night, we went out for a long, relaxed, amazing dinner at the 4th Street Mill restaurant in Old Town La Verne, with our close friends, Micah and Hannah. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture, but the memory will always be there. It was a special request of Brant's to be able to have some uninterrupted grown-up time with friends, over delicious food, drink and dessert. The evening definitely delivered!

On Saturday afternoon, we headed over to Disneyland, where we were greeted with hot temperatures, crowds, and lots of Halloween decor. It actually turned out to be much more enjoyable than we led ourselves to believe when we were driving there. (Yes, it's true. We can talk ourselves into thinking it might not be such a good idea -- I mean, when you go as often as we do, its easy to decide to just go-another-day when the temperature is miserable, with one exception, and that is for any of our birthdays.)

And because I have limited my blog posts about Disneyland this year, I thought it was time to bring one back in the queue - so enjoy! :)

Riding the Zephyr in California Adventure

That birthday button has been around for several birthday trips to Disneyland, and he still dawned it and wore it proudly, as though it were the first time. I've trained him well.

Happy girl and such a happy place.

You can see a little marking on Geoffrey's cheek - he had his face painted earlier that day at his preschool's Halloween party.

Always the same decorations, and always the best.

We got photo-bombed by a whole slew of people. I didn't care. I requested the picture anyhow, regardless of the crowd! I should pull out all the picture we have in front of this pumpkin to compare how we've grown!