All the Small Things...

Summer Days 2011 #10...

Today was Dan's 41st birthday!!!

41!  How is that possible?  We started dating when he was 21!  CRAZY!!!

 

So Dan's big day started off watching his boy take swim lessons.

 

Later that night we went out to dinner at

My crab was SO GOOD!!!

Then we saw

Loved it!  Took me right back to my childhood.

A VERY Dan date.  Give him some seafood and a movie and he's a happy boy.  Not too hard to please, huh?!?!?  :)

 

Now for the creative portion of the blog--

Instead of a cake, Scarlet, KK and I baked Dan some yummy lime pie.  This recipe is unbelievably yummy and unbelievably easy!  Yes, EASY!!!

 

If you don't want to make the tartlets, just use a 10 inch pie crust and bake it for 5 minutes more.  YUM!!!

Summer Day #9

 So today was not only Father's Day, but Dan's 40th birthday!!!  Poor guy- he kinda gets the shaft every 7 years having to share his birthday with Father's Day.  

This year Dan wanted to have his birthday/Father's Day lunch at Fox Sports Grill.  The PERFECT place for a Dad to hang out and have lunch.  Giant TVs on every wall, delish food and the World Cup on?!?!?  What more could a guy want?  

The kids loved giving Dan their gifts- a cup holder from Chandler that he made in wood shop, a fishing pole from me, a Big 5 gift card from Patrick, a Rick Riley book from KK and a yo yo from Scarlet.  Dan loved his gifts and we loved giving them to him!

Reason #8510 Why I Love Him...

During a quiet moment at home today (a rarity indeed), Dan handed this to me.  

He never forgets a holiday... no matter how small- 

even leprechaun small.

 

Summer Days #10

I was so tempted not to post any pics of today because it was SO non eventful, and we all looked horrible and we literally did nothing all day, but go to church that morning and then chill and play ping pong all day.

I also didn't cook because we had so many leftovers from the night before from Dan's party.  Oh yea, we cooked up some burgers and artichokes, but besides that... no cooking was done.

Anyway, a relaxing day, good food, movie line trivia, gifts, cards, Grammy & Pa & Gavin and ping pong games galore... a great low octane Father's Day!

Summer Days #9

I've been wanting to throw Dan a birthday bash for years now and I never seem to get around to it, but this year I was determined!!!  The tarp was still set up from Patrick's party, so we just added twinkle lights to it and made it a red, white and blue theme (since my whole house is red, white and blue now) by making a few red, white and blue floral centerpieces (which are now sitting pretty in my yard) and it looked great!

I used cheap plastic table cloths and weighted them down with popcorn boxes with soup cans in them topped with popcorn.  I then added a bunch of popcorn balls to the table for a sweet snack. Dan's favorite candy is a Heath Bar, so I added chunks of Heath to these popcorn balls and it was a hit!  My popcorn ball recipe minus the Heath Bar chunks can be found HERE.

I cooked and prepped for 2 days straight and it was TOTALLY worth the effort.  There was plenty of food for everyone with tons of leftovers for us!  I used all my tried and true FAVORITE recipes (Dan's favorites too) and all the food was a hit!  I've been asked for all the recipes, so I told everyone I'd post them here, so expect a recipe bombardment soon!

So, the menu was grilled artichokes for an appetizer followed by Cherry Coke ribs (I swear to you, you have NEVER tasted better and that includes in restaurants!!! They are amazing!!!  It's not my recipe, so I can brag all I want!), made to order sirloin burgers, my favorite baked beans ever, grilled corn on the cob, feta and strawberry salad, spinach and cranberry salad, fresh squeezed lemonade and the most delicious watermelon punch (I've never made this recipe before, but my friend Minette makes it all the time and it is the most delicious drink I've ever tasted and it was beyond a hit- thanks Min!!!) and lastly my mom's AMAZING potato salad (again, the best potato salad I've ever tasted hands down!).  I then had the popcorn balls, S'mores Kits, and a pineapple upside down bundt cake with cream cheese frosting!!!  YUMMMMMM!!!!!  Wow, what a food bragger I am!  I feel I can since I hardly ever make any recipes up, just prepare them.  But still, my bragging may be a tad excessive!  :)

So that was Dan's birthday!  Tons of food... his best buds... Name That Tune... laughter... and fire... the perfect night!  It was a pleasure to throw it for him.  Love you, Dan!

Summer Days #5

SUCH A LOVELY SURPRISE...

I was standing in the kitchen doing the dishes today and Dan walked up with these GORGEOUS flowers and and a Nordstrom gift card.  He kissed me and thanked me for working so hard on Patrick's birthday party and for being his wife.  I melted...  

Dan's 20th High School Reunion!

Last night I went with Dan to his 20th high school reunion!  It was crazy!  We're not really that old are we??!?!?!

Quote of the night (said at least 200 times by me to Dan):  Do I look that old??!?!?!?!!!!  After awhile he just started saying, "YES".  Apparently, I have issues.  :)

Most of Dan's loser friends didn't go (YES, I'm talking to YOU!!!), but we still had a blast.  I swear, it was just like high school all over again!  It was VERY enjoyable observing everyone... especially when you're sober!

Dan's favorite part of the night was when all the Acacia Elementary kids got together for a class pic.  It was darling and I loved hearing all the funny stories about all of Dan's classmates.

All the kids knew Dan as DUCKY in elementary school.  How cute is that?!?!? 

A Few Husbandly Observations and the Miracle Baby

Hello to all of the Gillian blog readers out there. This is Dan, Gillian's husband, writing. Gillian has no idea that I am doing this (don't be mad), but I have had a few observations that I just felt like sharing with everyone and can perhaps explain Gillian's long blogging absence. Many of you may already know about the "6 months from hell" where she had a 12 week miscarriage followed by the tragic passing of her 27 year old brother followed by another 12 week miscarriage all within a six month period. Well as you could imagine, it left her quite empty among other things. Now, obviously she didn't post much during that time, but after the second miscarriage she became a blogging fool. I think blogging had become her outlet and a source of connecting with others without having to see people face to face and have to carry on small talk and answer all the "how are you doing" questions. I believe it helped her a lot. So thank you everyone for reading and commenting and "being there" for her. Anyway, sometime in August of 07 we got the great news of baby Keiran being on the way, but naturally were very guarded about getting excited. Eventually it became clear that all was well with the baby and a funny thing happened. Gillian stopped blogging. It was like the emptiness was filled, or at least patched up. Gillian became herself again and I had many people mention to me that she seemed to be glowing. Everyone assumed that it was due to the pregnancy but it was really just that she was back to the same Gillian that I have known for the past 17 years. Well then came the little (big) guy and what a blessing he has been to our family. He has individually changed each member of our family for the better. It is amazing to see our family's transformation so far and he is only 5 months old! So now Gillian is back in the blogging saddle, I think because she realized how much she enjoyed it and a little prodding by all of you.  So anyway, sorry for the rambling but I just wanted to give an explanation for the absence (at least in my opinion) and to say thanks to all of you. And to my beautiful wife, I love you, I'm happy to have my GuGu Bear back (sorry I know that is so overly sappy) and I'm glad that you are posting again because I too am a fan of "All the Small Things".

Bringing Home Keiran...

As I was walking up our front walk bringing Keiran home for the first time, I noticed that Dan had changed our planter around a little.  He planted 4 new hydrangea... 3 blues ones for our boys and one pink one for our Scarlet.  Okay, how cute is that?  Love that boy!

A Treat From Dan...

So as I explained forever ago, I had GESTATIONAL DIABETES.  Total nightmare, but thank Heavens that's  all over and done with.  So when you have this lovely disease, sugar is out of the question.  Are you kidding me?!?!?!  Sugar is my life.  Wa Wa...

Okay, so the second Keiran came out of me I was allowed to eat sugar again and my Dan made sure my first sugar high in 9 months was going to be a good one! 

My FAVORITE... Chocolate Chocolate Chip bundt cake from one of my favorite places on earth NOTHING BUNDT CAKES. 

Seriously, how GORGEOUS is that cake?!?!?!  If you think it tastes good, you should taste it!