quarter century.

we had a birthday--an important one--'round these parts yesterday. :) i was ambitious & made these cupcakes (which turned out fantastic if i do say so myself!!...i did substitue hot chocolate for cocoa powder & they were still very yummy! never going back to boxed cakes after how easy these were!).

we've decided to celebrate jon's birthday on the actual day, moving our valentine's day to august 20 (chinese valentine's day).

he gets a real birthday....we both get a real day of LOVE!

and speaking of LOVE, my how i have fallen in love with this man...all over again. we had so much fun together this weekend :) makes me even more excited for our future... his day started off with a typical breakfast--ketchup heart & preparation compliment of me (Gay, i did add a heart to his day....just not on the cupcakes). we had a few errands to run, so our late morning to afternoon hours were spent running from place-to-place just getting things done. Rusty & Gay (jon's parents) planned a scavenger hunt to lead him to his birthday present (which had been stashed in my closet all week, unbeknowst to him). i non-chalantly handed him the envelope as we were pulling out of the pharmacy parking lot...

our first stop was Starbucks where we learned some very random facts about Fayetteville & found a new place to visit on a free weekend!

we were sent to our "Hometown Eiffel Tower" that sits oddly in the parking lot of a run-down grocery store...we stayed in the car since it was rainy :)

we drove to our first apartment here in NC (no interesting pictures there).


then headed back on post to visit "Iron Man"...
...& took a picture (well, more like 15 pictures--i had a double chin in all the others)...

our last stop was supposed to be a swingset but since the school playground didn't have one, we opted for the Zebra.

i made jon find his gift in the house...which was strategically placed in my closet (there'd be no reason for him to go looking in there...or would there??!!)

& thanks to his parents, he now has a guitar to take on deployment...which can be scratched & dinged & filled with sand, without guilt :)

we had a humble little birthday party--just the two of us. and my lack-of-planning ahead left us without birthday candles to blow out. at least the cupcakes were cute, yes?

the night was topped off with yummy pizza from one of our favorite local restaurants...having a birthday on valentine's day certainly doesn't bode well for a quiet evening out. our movie plans were botched due to a night of completely sold-out showtimes...but we did catch a few snuggles on the couch :)

it is hard to believe that jon has been part of this Earthly world for a quarter century...almost three years of which he's been part of my life.

i like to think it's the best part.

Happy Birthday, Handsome ;)