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.