"Happy, Dad!"

John's second shift back at work since Ben was born happened to fall on his birthday… unfortunately.  But that didn't stop us from celebrating Dad!

Ben put on some special fire man pajamas for his first trip to the fire house

Rudy and Avery were able to go "way high!" - their favorite thing to do now when visiting Dad

Avery waits at the ladder for her turn

Ben was not participating in this event quite yet… 

And Rudy found the bat in the garage, his next favorite thing to do when visiting Dad is play ball (imagine that)

Proud Dad

I had intended to pick up a cake on our way there, but John mentioned wanting a homemade ice cream cake.  It was the least I could do!   What did people do before the internet??  I was able to find a recipe for a delicious peanut butter ice cream brownie reese's snickers ice cream cake (what a name, huh?)… it was surprisingly easy to make, took about 30 minutes and tasted absolutely amazing, if I do say so myself :) 

The kids got to eat dinner with "the guys," as Rudy says, and Rudy especially thought it was very cool.  Then time for dessert and signing to Dad...

Look very closely at close-ups of both of these pictures...

Notice anything extra that Rudy contributes to the cake??  We didn't notice until looking at pictures later… considering no one turned down a piece and the cake got eaten entirely, someone got a little extra special ingredient...

I was going to buy John shoes for his birthday, but couldn't settle on a pair and while looking got sidetracked … and Avery ended up with a pair of adorable cowboy boots for the fall :) Happy, Dad!

When John got home the next morning he was surprised to see all the decorating the kids and I did the night before (and thank goodness Gran was around to help with the kids while all this birthday prepping was going on - especially during the cake making!).

The morning started with a little dance party and balloon throwing...

presents...

and a breakfast casserole… for lunch… I also found a new recipe for cooking breakfast casserole in a crockpot the night before so you "awake to the smell of breakfast" - how beautiful… if you remember to start the crockpot after you put in all the ingredients!  (Still not quite back on my a-game yet, and at this point, not sure if I will be for another 18 or so years)

We spent the day celebrating Dad and hanging out as a family.  We had cookies and ice cream for dessert and were able to sing to Dad again… lots of "Happy, Dad!"'s 

A little lovin' for Ben before they leave the table (and Avery does everything Rudy does)...

The partying didn't stop there!  We celebrated the next night with Grandma and Grandpa Cicci with more cookie cake! (John isn't a big fan of traditional cake if anyone had noticed)

Rudy was happy to serve up his "cake"

A little video footage, including Avery warming up on our way to see Dad 

John had quite a week of celebrating -- his birthday, our anniversary, and Father's Day all fall in the same week!

The kids making a project for Dad and their Papa's -- popsicle stick frames with pictures of themselves.  Rudy and Avery were happy to make Ben's for him

I ventured out to Lowe's one day when John was gone to get him a gift card - he only wanted new tools, so off we went.  Lowe's is not on my approved list of go-to alone places with 3 kids (as it doesn't have carts big enough for all three kids to fit in) and I forgot the Baby Bjorn carrier… which meant one kid had to be allowed to run free.  Rudy was good, though, and rode on the back of the cart.  And thank goodness we were just running in to the register and right back out, because even that was work!

Father's Day morning the kids were so happy to play with Dad.  They love climbing and jumping on him, getting thrown in the air by him… being crazy basically… all things that are pretty exclusive to activity with Dad

Rudy running and laughing hysterically...

…because Dad and Avery were chasing right behind!

We went to visit Papa Ray and wish him a Happy Father's Day for lunch and a little relaxing for John with the best sleep partner… 

And after naps we went to Gran and Papa's for dinner and swimming at the Kramp's.  John was such a good sport - the kids were so happy to get to go swimming - but when we got there, the water was FREEZING… didn't stop John, though.  He dove right in!  Papa joined waste deep, which was pretty brave, too!

Avery wanted to jump in a few times, but was happy to sit with me on the edge with our toes in the water and play ball with Riley in the water or splash Papa.  Rudy on the other hand didn't want to stop jumping and was getting more and more brave by the minute.  He was also practicing his swimming moves from swim lessons awhile back.  All while Ben hung out pool side with Gran :)

Avery chopping her corn… she loves corn on the cobb!  Wonder where she got that from?? :)