Happy 35th Birthday, Jeremy!

We celebrated Jeremy's birthday on June 28th with buckwheat pancakes (his favorite!). He had picked out his own birthday present (two mini model tugboats) on Craigslist a few weeks prior, but we hadn't let him see them in person until his birthday. Since he didn't get a surprise gift, the kids and I crafted other surprises for him. He got sticky notes and a fun "scavenger hunt" of sorts. He had to follow cryptic instructions to the garage, where he was blindfolded and led outside. As he walked along the sidewalk, he walked through a "tunnel" of Pop-Its the boys had prepared just for this occasion. (For the record, the little pieces that bounce up from Pop-Its thrown at your feet HURT!) It was quite a surprise! We led him to our ladderball set, where he was told the winner got to give him his 35 birthday spankings, unless he won, in which case EACH of us would get to give him 35 spankings. For the first time since we've owned the ladderball set, Jeremy did NOT win. 

For lunch, I made a favorite recipe we hadn't had in probably 10 years: grilled watermelon and halibut skewers. It was still as delicious as we remembered (but my food photography had to take a backseat...everyone was sitting at the table impatiently waiting for me to bring the food post haste!). 

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In the afternoon, we went to the lake as a family and brought Pepper with us for the first time. It wasn't the warmest day, but that meant there weren't crowds of people. The kids enjoyed tubing and Pepper enjoyed running and playing on the shore. I wouldn't say he enjoyed riding in the boat, but he didn't dislike it, either. He sat under Jeremy's feet and was very well-mannered.