Celebrating Todd's Birthday



This year has flown by incredibly fast and I cannot believe we just celebrated Todd's birthday.  Once his birthday hits, the rest of the year is over in a flash and I'm not quite ready for the holidays (and stress of the holidays) to be here yet!

 

Todd turned 34 on Saturday so we started his birthday celebration a little early with cake and presents on Friday night with my parents.  

 

Hard to believe just a year ago Lucy was still a little peanut and now she's a toddler

Helping daddy blow out his candles...

and helping him read this card...

and helping him open presents

She loved playing on Todd's new suitcase (his broke a couple months back so my parents got him a new one for his upcoming trip to California for my brother's bachelor party)

The rest of his presents from me included a bottle of bourbon, a movie, and a sweater

 

Part of Todd's birthday celebration was last weekend when we went to Cincinnati for the day so on Saturday, his actual birthday, we stayed local.  Our first plan for the day was breakfast at Der Dutchman in Plain City.  We'd been for dinner before and had donuts from there but never been for a sit down breakfast.  It was tasty and a good start to Todd's birthday.

 

Der Dutchman

 

On our way out with full bellies and a couple donuts for breakfast the next morning

The Ohio State football game was a noon game so we went over to Todd's friend's house to watch the game and have pizza.  They have a 6 month old and then another couple of Todd's friends were there with their 4 year old and 6 month old. It was kind of weird that Lucy was one of the "older" kids but she had a blast playing with the babies and trying to keep up with the 4 year old.  I should mention though that she had a great time playing with the dog toys too!  While the kids were playing (or napping in the case of the little ones), everyone else was able to watch the game for the most part.  Todd hadn't seen these friends in a few months so I know he was happy to spend some time with him especially on his birthday.

The only picture I got there was when Todd was reading with Lucy

The last part of Todd's birthday celebration didn't go quite as planned but I guess that's how it goes when you have kids, right?  We had dinner reservations at The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek, the newest Cameron Mitchell restaurant, so we dropped Lucy off at her grandparents' for the night with the intention of picking her up the next morning.  We were almost at the restaurant when my mom texted that Lucy had a 100.2 fever.  She had been totally fine the entire day except that her eye kept watering a lot all day (which is what happened the only other time she had a cold).  We were able to enjoy our dinner but picked Lucy up on our way home so we could take care of her and make sure she got a good night sleep at home.

Me and the birthday boy before dinner

The Barn...which used to be the old Hoggy's in Gahanna

Todd and his full rack of ribs

 

Todd's meal: Ribs & a loaded baked potato

 

My meal: Beef brisket on Texas Toast & a side of mac & cheese

Dessert: Apple pie with vanilla ice cream

The food was really good and the cuisine focused on meats since they have a smoker.  I will say though that the barbecue sauce was almost a bit too spicy for us but we're wimps when it comes to spicy food.  I didn't get a drink but Todd loved his bourbon which was a blended at Woodford Reserve specifically for the restaurant.

So glad we were able to get out on a date for Todd's birthday