A Beautiful Day for a 25th Birthday!!

Saturday, September 8th, was my 25th birthday.  I awoke with the sun shining, Nolan laughing, and my customary pancakes from Bill.  Every year since Bill and I have been married, he prepares pancakes in the shape of the year I am old, 25.  He is the pancake master!! Along with my pancakes were two very loving cards, M&M's and Flipz.  Yummo!  Bill knows the way to my heart.

After we all finished our delicious breakfast, we decided to take a walk down to Miner Park, so Nolan could play outside in the beautiful 75 degree weather.  Nolan had a blast at the park as usual and I was glad to be able to stretch my legs (cankles).  We were exhausted from playing so hard, we all laid down for a nice nap when we arrived home.

I awoke to Nolan in my facing saying, "mama rock."  This is his new ritual.  Every morning he comes to my side of the bed and asks me to rock him in the recliner.  Oh well, I will take any snuggle time he has to offer!!

Bill decided it was time to mow the yard and work outside.  All the rain we had acquired in the past week brought everything back to life.  Bill, Nolan, and I all worked outside in the yard.  Bill was a little overzealous with the trimming of the shrubs, but the leaves will grow back.  I cut anything off at the base that looked remotely dead.  Did I mention I HATE gardening, but it felt so good to be outside working.

 Nolan "mowing" with his mower

 Silly boy

"HOT Mama"

I did have a little bit of a scare while we were outside.  I looked over to see Nolan holding something in one hand and licking his lips.  I raced over to him and swatted out of his hand a little berry, which was on one of our shrubs in the front yard.  I freaked of course!  I ran inside called the Poison Control Center and they informed me since the leaves weren't in the shape of an Evergreen needle, a Yew shrub, he should be okay, but if I wanted peace of mind I should go to a local nursery and have them identify the plant.  You guessed it, I drove to one nursery down the hill and the man could not identify the plant, so he directed me to another nursery.  The second nursery wasn't for sure, but said the same thing as the Poison Control Center and assured me, Nolan would had to have eaten a BUNCH of berries to make him sick.  Also, he asked me if birds live/eat from this shrub and I said yes.  He informed me birds wouldn't eat a poisonous berry, which made sense.  I was relieved.  I came home to Bill and Nolan laughing........this child is going to give me a heart attack some day.

A picture of the actual plant and fruit

I finally calmed down when Nolan didn't show any signs of illness/poisoning after 20 minutes and so on.  Bill wanted to take me out to eat and to see a movie for my birthday, so we called Grandma and Grandpa Funderburk to come and watch Nolan for the evening.  I wanted to take a family picture since it was my birthday, but of course Nolan didn't want anything to do with the camera.  He wanted to play.  

Bill and I went out to eat at Andria's in Edwardsville and it was amazing as usual!!  After I finished my dessert, an oreo cheese cake, we went to watch the movie, The Words.  The movie was interesting to say the least.  We made it home a little before eleven; way past our bedtime!!  Thanks Grandma Donna and Grandpa Rick for watching Nolan, so Bill and I could have some alone time.