Update, July 21

Since I did just send an update on Monday, this one won't be as long as you all are used to. However, it is only fair that Matt gets pictures of himself sent out close to his birthday. We used the time while he was at work to make him brownies for his birthday treat. Enjoy the picture of the kids during this process - hilarious!!!! They were very into making them special for daddy, so they picked through all of the mini M&Ms in our house to find all of the oranges and blues (lesson there - don't eat any mini M&Ms from our house b/c they have all been touched by the kids now). We iced the brownies with orange icing and then sprinkled the M&Ms on them. The kids liked to stick their M&Ms on so that they got icing on their fingers which then, of course, had to be licked off!! It was so much fun to do this for him this year b/c they were very into surprising him with the treat and the gifts. I took them to Kohl's and let them each pick out a shirt for him. Then they got to wrap it up in tissue paper and stick it in a bag for him. They were so proud of themselves.

Matt's dad surprised him by planting a new bat in his bat bag. Matt had a game at 10:30pm on his birthday, so I asked my dad to come sit in the house and listen to the kids sleep so I could go take pictures. Matt didn't even notice that it wasn't his usual bat until someone else pointed it out. In his defense, it was white just like his old one, but still, it was in plastic, come on buddy!!! He was very surprised and excited and had a few good hits with it during the game.

Tomorrow is our anniversary so the kids will be spending some quality time with Aunt Shannon and Uncle Aaron. Then we are off to two Jimmy Buffett concerts (one Tuesday and one Thursday), so they will get some quality time with Grammy and Grampy (my parents) this week too...lucky kids AND lucky parents!!

Love to you all,
Gretchen