Birthday Dinner

This weekend, we got together for dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday. I chose one of my favorite restaurants - Joe's Farm Grill. I love their food - everything is so fresh. Plus, when my family gets together, it can turn into quite a crowd. At Joe's Farm Grill, there is plenty of seating. There are picnic tables out and about in the yard of the restaurant. We were fortunate enough to get a table with the exact number of seats needed for everyone that was able to come. It was right up against the building and under the heating lamps to help keep us warm. I enjoyed my half of the grilled Ahi Tuna Sandwich and the sweet potato fries. Yummy! It was nice to enjoy an evening with my family. Thanks to everyone that was able to come!!!

Enjoying the evening:
Kelly and my dad enjoying their meals:

A table full of family:

Honor Roll Reward

For the second quarter in a row, Ryan made the honor roll at school! Congrats to Ryan. He decided for he reward, he wanted Abec 7 bearings for one of his skateboards. He replaced his Abec 3 bearings on his very first skateboard, a Kryptonics board. That is quite an upgrade.

With his certificate and his reward:

The skateboard that is getting the upgrade:
Getting started:
The Abec 7's. I like the packaging - very pretty color:
The first wheel:
Hard at work:
This skateboard has been very well "loved":
Almost finished:
The last wheel:
A greasy nose - the sign of some work accomplished:
Testing out the new bearings. Ryan says they are much faster and will take some getting used to:

My Birthday

I celebrated my birthday this past Tuesday. I will not tell how old I am - although I've never shied away from my age. I spent the day at work - having a rather stressful day. After dinner, I chose to go to Cold Stone Creamery for a goodie. I love ice cream. And since I have given up chocolate for the year, my sweet treat choices are a little more limited. I do love ice cream.

Here is my treat - Banana Caramel Crunch - yummy!

I used to tease my mom because she always was talking in pictures. Well, here I am . . . talking in the picture.

Anticipating a sweet bite:

All in all, it was a fun evening. Thanks to my family for having fun with me.

Breakfast Bowling

Really, we aren't big bowlers. Although, I guess we have become that way here lately. The bowling alley we've been going to has started something new - Breakfast Bowling. For only $9.99 per person, you get to bowl for 2 hours and your choice of French Toast Sticks bacon or a Sausage and Egg Biscuit. They were small looking breakfasts, but they filled us up. We got in 3 whole games - and each of us were ready to call it a day after the third game.

Under one of the counters are hooks to hang up your jackets. Ryan decided to hang up his shoes. Pretty funny.

After hanging up all of our items - jackets and shoes. My shoes just wouldn't hang up:Ryan & Doug before bowling:

Scott loves bowling!

Ryan got to play on his DS between his turn for bowling:

I don't get photographed very often. Doug took a couple pictures of me bowling. I decided to include them because I had one of my best games ever!


Doug getting ready to bowl:

Ryan enjoying his breakfast:

"Mmmmm . . . bacon . . ."

I'm not a big fan of breakfast foods but I do LOVE bacon! Especially crispy bacon.

As I said earlier, I had the best game I've ever had. I am not a very good bowler, I go for the fun of it. Look at my score (I'm listed under Me - the second score). I actually got a Turkey - three strikes in a row!!! The scores are in this order R for Ryan, Me for Melissa, R for Doug, C for Scott. I know that Doug & Scott don't make sense, but they are listed under nicknames Rojo and Chatte.

Later in the day, we went to the mall. Here is Ryan trying on some sunglasses.

This is a fun shot - Ryan has a great sense of humor and has already learned how to laugh at himself. He had fun trying on these crazy glasses.

Trying to break out of this paper bag. He spent a bit of time trying to get his arms to burst through the bag. It never happened.

Dinner after Twister

After our fun Twister session - we played until my mom & brother, Kelly, came over - we all went out to eat at a new favorite restaurant. This is the third restaurant opened by the same family and we have enjoyed every one of them. Doug & I are the only ones that have eaten there, so we decided it was time to get others to find out how great the food is. Everything is so fresh and the workers are so friendly. I love going here.

I couldn't resist the opportunity for an "artsy" shot. I really love neon against a black sky. Beautiful, just beautiful.

The restaurant is decorated so neat. There is the cutest little window at the corner of the restaurant. If you notice, I actually have to bend over to be able to see through it. It was right at the end of our table.

All the tables have single light bulbs hanging above them. The table we sat at was big enough for 8 and featured this beautiful light bulb chandelier. LOVE IT!

The family trying to decide what to eat.

Ryan & Doug. Ryan enjoys his DS everywhere we go. Other than Wal-Mart (and yes, the DS went there too), this was Ryan's first time out of the house in like 4 days:

I think Scott is dreaming of his food:

After dinner, we waited outside with my mom for Kelly to bring the car to her. They came over to our house and stayed until after 11pm playing games. We had a lot of fun playing Last Word and laughed and laughed all night long. Bullwinkle still makes me chuckle.

Twistin' The Night Away

Ryan came home early from school during the week with a sore throat and 101 temperature. He then got to spend the next few days at home with fevers getting up to 103 and strep throat.

Fun! After his antibiotics kicked in, he was going a little "stir crazy". He's not one to sit around for very long. He wanted to go to Wal-Mart to get Twister. I'm not sure what prompted him to want to get it. So, we came home and played Twister for at least an hour. We would take turns - two people played, one person spun and the fourth person got to "take a break". It was fun. The person that won stayed in until they lost. After 3 matches or so, your muscles would start to burn a little. I don't remember Twister being as challenging when I was Ryan's age! And I enjoy doing yoga! We did have fun until my mom & brother came over to go out for dinner.

It was all smiles in the beginning of the evening:

Even our dogs thought it looked fun. (They always try to "join in" when I do yoga in the morning.) Sam snuck in under Doug. That's right Sam, it's right paw on yellow:

Ryan took this picture. Great view, don't ya' think? Um . . . not really . . .

Ryan starting out all twisted up:

Not sure what the face is all about - doesn't this look like the standard position for crab soccer? I remember playing that during gym class in Elementary School. Oh wait, I remember playing that just a year ago in Karate class.

Scott just chillin' with his left hand on green and his feet on blue. Too bad he couldn't get those feet switched around.

Ryan and Scott waiting for the next set of instructions.

Bowling Fun - Again

Last weekend, we decided to go bowling. We paid for the lane for an hour and had fun rolling that ball down the lane to knock down those pins. We play just for the fun of it, and don't really pay too much attention to the score - thank goodnes, because I'm not a very good bowler. This time we had more room to actually spread out & enjoy being there. Last time we went, it was so crowded. There was nobody on the lanes next to us this time, it was much nicer.

Scott, Shawn & I watching Ryan taking his turn.

Ryan relaxing on the couch between turns:

All of our balls, waiting for their turn:

Ryan's turn:

Shawn getting ready for his turn:


Doug aiming for the last two pins:

Scott's turn:

Getting ready for my turn:

Of course, what is bowling without pizza? The pizza was really good. We also had the sampler appetizer platter. It was quite tasty too.

Doug, Melissa & Scott, getting ready to leave after completing our hour of bowling:

The boys couldn't resist playing on this bike rack as we were leaving the bowling alley. Well, actually, they were patiently waiting for me to take a picture of a bench in front of the building.
Always on the "look-out" for interesting photos, I saw this bench set against beautiful tiles and immediately wanted to photograph it.
Scott offered to help with the photograph of the bench by posing on it for me. What do you think, better alone or with my model on it?