happy birthday, nana!

we started the day with blueberry chocolate chip pancakes in honor of nana (blueberries are her very favorite food) and after much planning and debate among matt and i over what to do during the day in honor of nana, we couldn't come to a decision.  so papa decided that he would like to go to a restaurant we took them to last time for lunch. since the restaurant is part of a larger complex we spent the day there.  first was some browsing through the flea/farmer's market.  i think uncle derek carried someone the entire time.

then we headed over to the restaurant and we didn't have a wait for the first time (we have been about three or four times and the line is usually very, very long).

manning enjoying lunch

nana and papa at the birthday lunch

and just what every woman wants to do on her birthday - we went to the hardware store.  this is a very impressive hardware store and is along the lines of what disney might do in a hardware store so it wasn't all bad. (i actually can't wait to go again! they have a model home built in the middle of the store as an 'idea house'.)

uncle derek found a few things and to put in his cart...

our rowdy crew on the drive home.  since i had all of the carseats out and was starting to have trouble folding manning in half to get him in, i turned him around.  he is in heaven!  seriously, he has been SO excited to face forward.

since we had some time before dinner, we decided to give nana her presents.  maddux started singing her happy birthday (he kept calling her "grandma" instead of "nana" since nana is a grandma and we just came from seeing "grandma".  he also called "papa" "big pop".  oh well.)

and then he laid one of his signature "big kisses" on her! 

the monkey on my back

the three bigs made her cards (maddux' writing was remarkably good - i should have taken a picture before giving it to her).

we found a purple giraffe - two of nana's favorite things together

teavana tea set.

unfortunately, madelyn was not feeling her best and came down with a fever.  she took a nap on papa and then had a full blown fever and chills when she woke up.  but a dose of medicine, a wardrobe change to a fleece and jeans and she was able to join us for dinner.  she just had a smoothie but the rest of us had a nice quiet dinner at a restaurant. we went kind of early in the hopes of seeing the balloons but i think the weather was too bad for them to get off again.  bummer.

maddux ended up with two orange crayons and was quite happy

stinker face with uncle derek

i remembered to have the waitress take a group picture for us.  this is the only one we have with our whole group. 

more stinker face

and then we went home for cake.  i was going to make something but matt and the kids wanted the ice cream/cake combo we had for madelyn's birthday.

and then it was time to call it a day.  madelyn just wanted to get into bed as soon as possible but the two big boys stayed up for a while reading books.

we put all four kids in the same room during their visit (papa and nana were in madelyn's bed and derek was downstairs on an air mattress).  the thought was that if one of the older boys woke up, they would only cry in their room for a few minutes but would cry in our room for up to an hour - manning had a better chance at sleep in the room with all the kids.  it actually worked out fine and we are thinking about putting all the boys together sooner than later.  

i hope you had a great day, nana!  so happy that we could help you celebrate.  love.