It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating my Mom’s birthday here at MBIP. Well, believe it or not a full year has gone by and once again it’s time to let the yearly celebration of my Mom’s birth begin! But first, we need to get some presents for her, to the MBIP mobile!
I thought I'd do my shopping at some of the stores here around Main Street. First stop, The Art Garage.
Wow, it's busy in here, lots of art is being made in here today!
This is Cindy who's making some coffee art (a day late as it happens!) and told me she found out about The Art Garage from this post on the MBIP blog. Very cool and it's also means that we have to cue up, "It's A Small World After All." Sorry about that!
I saw this "Smile" art the last time I was in here and I really like it. I think this is what I'm going to get my mom here since I've made her smile and I've also bugged her plenty in her life. It's perfect!
It turns out that Jessica, the owner of The Art Garage is also the artist who painted this cool piece of art. Here she is with her daughter, Olivia. It appears to be lunch time as Olivia has started to eat her fingers. Okay, one present down, two to go!
The Art Garage is located right next door to the Costume Trunk. It's been a while since we've been here, so let's stop in and see if we can find another gift for my mom in here.
Here's MBIP pal and owner of the Costume Trunk Steve Spain and he said he had the perfect gift in stock...
Yes! After a long drought, the Comedy Rubber Chickens are back! And I always love how they specify on the label that they are indeed Comedy Rubber Chickens as opposed to Dramatic Rubber Chickens or, God forbid, Terrorist Rubber Chickens!
I got two chickens, one for my mom and one for me. And yes, Steve is choking both of these chickens, I thought I'd be the first to say it.
Okay on to the third and final stop for my gift-buying tour for my mom here at Urban Artifacts. This is where I got my gift last year, but this year we're getting something really special here...
Here's artist Margaret Walker who's artwork is on sale here at the store and I've purchased some of her art here in the past. Well, I asked Margaret if she would do a special piece of art for my mom and she agreed and here it is!
I told Margaret a few facts about my mom including that her first name is Anne, her (my grandpa), Leo Seitz was a regular at Mike's Tavern and that she liked to laugh. She was also a stay-at-home mom and from these few facts, Margaret made this piece of art for my mom, how cool is this? It couldn't be more perfect!
Check this out, Margaret said that she wanted to give me an early birthday present as well, so she made this piece of MBIP art for me as a gift! I love it! Check it out, there's pizza, beer, a hot dog (with deli mustard no less!) a cheeseburger, beer taps and of course the Urban Artifacts logo! Thank you so much, Margaret, this will be placed in the MBIP Headquarters and I'll look at it every day!
Alright, time to let the party begin! Here we are at...
The infamous Jerry's Bar! A place where I've had over 17,979 drinks, let's go see what's happening at the bar...
Well, there's Anne, the birthday girl herself, at the end of the bar along with my brother Tom and my dad and owner of the bar, Jerry!
I got a beer and the party has begun! Cheers!
A clown looms in the darkness as the party continues on. He's a crying on the outside as well as on the inside clown. Well you're not going to bring this party down you sad clown because we're on our way to...
The Fish House, our family's favorite place to go out for a birthday dinner!
And speaking of family, here's my niece, Mary Beth and her husband and my nephew-in-law, Matt. Time to let the party begin!
Once inside we were greeted by our cute and friendly waitress, Emily, who was our waitress last year. She not only took our order...
She took our photo too! Here's the entire birthday party, clockwise from left: my nephew Greg, my dad, the birthday girl, Yours Fooly misbehaving as usual, Tom, my brother-in-law Phil, my sister Terry and the aforementioned, Mary Beth and Matt.
After the photo I snuck back to the bar to say hi to MBIP pal, contributor and legendary Fish House bartender, Paul T. O'Connor.
When I got back to the table my dinner was waiting for me, I love it when that happens! I got the Neptune's Platter which is a sampling platter of shrimp, scallops, lobster, a deviled crab cake and Tilapia. It is so good!
And of course I got the au gratin potatoes, I think they're the best in town. It was a wonderful dinner as always at The Fish House!
After dinner we went back to my sister Terry's house where my mom opened up her presents.
She loved the Comedy Rubber Chicken, but my dad was a little confused by the gift.
As you can see, Jessica's "Smile" painting brought a smile to my mom's face, she really liked the painting!
And she absolutely loved the artwork that Margaret made especially for the occasion! The Mike's Tavern references really cracked her and everyone up! My dad: Still confused by the Comedy Rubber Chicken gift!
And now we gather around the table to learn that Matt, our newest addition to our family is a pyromaniac!
I just wanted to have dessert, but he insisted on setting this flower on fire...
Then the thing lit up and I thought the whole house might go up in flames which would be horrible, but even worse, I wouldn't get any dessert! Sheesh!
Luckily the flames died down and it turned into this lovely little lit up flower. We took the matches away from Matt...
And cookies were passed around. Trefzger's...mmmm!
My mom loves ice cream, so Terry made some delicious homemade ice cream sundaes for dessert. Before eating my mom did her best Sam Wong impersonation before diving in to her dessert. My dad...still confused about the Comedy Rubber Chicken gift. We'll see you all tomorrow!
Related Posts: Happy Birthday To My Mom!, Sunday Suds and Swizzle Sticks—Stupor Bowl Sunday @ Jerry’s Bar and Happy Birthday, Michelle!