This week is my mom’s 83rd birthday. They’re going to be in California on the day of the birthday, so we celebrated it over the weekend. And since my parents have become frequent guest stars on all my blogs, I thought I’d invite all of you to her party. So you have about twenty seconds to RSVP. Okay, here we go. let’s do this thing!
Before the party I need to get a gift for her. I've decided to make Urban Artifacts my official MBIP gift shop.
Okay, let's take a look around and see what we can find in here.
I'm tempted to get this, because my mom went to Bradley, but let's look around a little more.
Hmmm...these framed pictures look interesting...
Ha! "Gable: Gassed But Glamorous," I love this, these are framed pictures of old magazine ads and articles.
This one looks cool...
I like this, and it's something they could hang up in their house. This is the gift!
I love that Urban Artifacts neon sign!
Okay, the gift is all wrapped up and ready to go with the card I got on the way home. I completely covered the gift in tape so it would be impossible to open because I'm an asshole. Oh the highjinks that will ensue!
Before the dinner, I stopped out at my parents house and we had a pre-dinner drink at the infamous Jerry's Bar. Cheers from all of us!
We're having the birthday dinner at The Fish House, it's been in this location forever and it's a great Peoria restaurant.
Let's go in and let the party begin.
A long narrow hallway leads to the dining room.
Here's our table, let's grab a seat. Look at the look on my dad's face, it says, "Are you going to be doing this all night?"
This is our waitress and I forgot to write her name down, but I think it started with an "E", so let's call her Enid. Or you could call her Kathy, it's really whatever you want.
There's a whole separate bar room in here and I talked to the bartender about doing a special Saturday Night Cheeseburger in here, so stay tuned for that!
And here's the whole gang: Up front is my nephew Greg and then clockwise from left is my brother Tom, by brother-in-law Phil, my sister Terry, my niece Mary Beth, her fiancee, Matt (yes, there's a wedding in this blog's future!), my dad, my mom and me slipping the bird in the photo.
I didn't want to bug everyone by taking photos of everyone's dinner, but I got the Neptune Platter which is a sampling of some of their finest seafood.
My favorite thing here is the au gratin potatoes, they're delicious.
After dinner we went to my sister Terry's house where my mom opened up her presents. Here she is opening my card, I put two bucks in there for her because I'm rolling in dough and I'm a bit of a big spender.
And now the challenge begins to open this tape-covered present.
Mary Beth lends a hand...
This isn't easy.
So far, not a dent has been made...
Now we're getting somewhere and Greg joins in with a pair of scissors.
Houston, we have a present!
Ta-da! (To quote Bifferoonie who will be commenting here once she gets her new computer.)
Happy birthday to the best mom in the world! And thanks to my family for putting up with my blogging shenanigans. And I just love it when you can work the word "shenanigans" into a post! Okay, see you all tomorrow. And hey...let's be careful out there.
