A birthday cluster

We have an August birthday cluster in our families, there's one at the end of February/early January too. It's fun to celebrate so many birthdays in a row, and this weekend we celebrated my Dad turning 50! 

I wanted to give him a vintage style picture of Max and Eli in a beautiful frame we found. So I snapped a few photos of the boys while we were at Chatfield Botanical Gardens. 

It didn't go so well. 

This was the first time we let Max hold Eli on his lap for pictures...it was cute until Max started to think it was funny to let Eli tip over. There were lots of funny faces and not a single pictures with both of them smiling at the same time.  We also happened to be there at the worst time of day for photos, which resulted in all sorts of annoying facial shadows...

 Where are the professionals when you need them?!?
Oh well, my Dad loved it anyway. 

 The flowers didn't disappoint :) 

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Happy 50th!

 We celebrated my Dad turning 50 at the Cheesecake Factory and stuffed ourselves silly. 

I really hope I am as youthful as he is at 50, he's still running marathons and climbing the world's tallest mountains. 

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We were walking around the mall afterwards when a sight stopped me right in my tracks. 

Through the window of Pottery Barn Kids, I saw my dream bedroom for Max. 

Max in his new bedroom ;) Thank you Dad!

 In addition to Maxwell's equations, the other reason we chose the name Max is because I love the little boy from the book, "Where the Wild Things Are." I was a cautious, rule-abiding child but I liked to read about that fearless, brazen Max who tamed the wild things.

 Once we had settled on the name Max,  I searched high and low for accessories for a "Where the Wild Things Are" nursery..at the time all I could find was hand painted murals, and I do not have the artistic talent for that!

So when I saw this bedroom, complete with sheets stenciled with the name Max, I was in love. It's dangerous for our budget to fall in love with things at Pottery Barn Kids...

While I stood there oohing and aahing my Dad hopped in line and grabbed us the decals. We are so grateful and excited to put up these new additions to Max's room :)

Our Max, he is right off the pages of that beloved book, a wild thing to be sure. 

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Hooray for 50 trips around the sun! Happy Birthday Dad!