Surprise!

Now that the Asia scrapbook is finally done, I can move back into my normal scrapbooking which I'm now 27 months behind on! The first thing after a trip to Asia was to surprise Elizabeth for her 30th birthday!

Mollie's Birthday

In June we went out for Mollie's Birthday.  We got to try a really good new restaurant, Oh Yumm Bistro and enjoy an amazing chocolate raspberry cake that Carmen got for Mollie.  What a fun night!

 

 

St Lucia - Kim's Birthday

On Thursday was Kim's birthday.  We thought we should go out to celebrate instead of hanging out at the resort.

The dessert was amazing and beautifully plated.  Michelle's chocolate cake.

Creme Brulee and Kim getting surprised with a sparkler in her cake!

Happy Birthday Kim!

With these pictures, this concludes our trip to St Lucia.  What an amazing trip with some of the most amazing people!  Love to you all. Thanks for making it awesome!

My Dad's Birthday Weekend

The weekend in between my Dad's birthday and Father's Day, mom and dad came up for the weekend.  We spent the day at the art fair. I'll have to share our purchases at a later date, when I get around to taking pictures of them and framing some as well.

Since mom and dad didn't have much on their list for Mother's Day or Father's Day, plus in honor of my dad's birthday, we decided to do dinner at a nice restaurant, Harry & Izzy's. Mom and I decided to split a steak and ended up with a bone-in ribeye.  It came with this gigantic bone! Steven convinced mom to gnaw on it and I snapped this picture. 

No birthday is complete without dessert with a candle in it.  Steven chose, vanilla bean creme brulee.

Always happy to get some updated family pictures.

Michelle's 30th Birthday

Michelle's Birthday fell over Memorial Day weekend.  It coincidentally fell the same day as the Illiana Mayfest which included a NW Indiana Beer Fest.  We were able to convince Jason, Michelle, Marlene and Jerry to join us at the beer fest.  It was small and we were able to try a lot of different things but that building as HOT!

 

 

That night we had a BBQ back at Jason & Michelle's place and of course there was cake!

 

 

Then on Sunday we continued the celebration with lunch at Cooper's Hawk and a trip out to Hollywood Casino.  Glad to have a little luck back and leave with more money than I arrived with. :)

The "Ballard" ladies.

Surprise Success

Our successful surprise for Erin on her 30th Birthday. One none of us will soon forget!

Jason's Birthday

During one of our trips to Chicago to work at Darren's dad's house, we went out to dinner to celebrate Jason's birthday.

Here he is with Michelle.

 And with the amazing dessert we got!

Surprise!

Phew it seems so great to be done blogging about Asia but now I'm 5 months behind in life blogging.  Hopefully I can catch up quickly!

Right after Asia I made a surprise trip down to Atlanta to see Elizabeth on her birthday and spend the day with her!

Steve got Elizabeth the most gigantic carrot cake for dessert. It was huge and delicious!

Happy Birthday to my sometime-to-be sister-in-law Michelle!!

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Grab Cake

I stole some of Laura's pictures of Madeline enjoying her grab cake.  They were just too cute not to share!

Madeline's 1st Birthday

April 22nd was Madeline's 1st birthday.  How can she already be 1!  I can't even believe she has gotten so big and has really started becoming her own person.  It's amazing to watch.

Here are a few pictures from our mini birthday party!

The lotion and for that matter the remote the mail and anything else was far more entertaining than her birthday presents!

With mommy!

What is a birthday without cupcakes??  Madeline wasn't sure at first but then started gobbling it down!

She is so funny and fun loving until the camera comes out.  Then she gets as serious as can be!  Hope you had a great birthday Madeline!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful friend!  Can't wait to celebrate with you!

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Surprise!

The original reason for our trip to San Francisco was to surprise Erin for her 30th birthday!  I'm not sure how we pulled it off but I've never seen anyone so surprised.  I even spotted a few tears! Erin was so excited to see us and that we flew all the way to Cali just to surprise her on her birthday. What a great feeling!

I just wish I had a picture of the look on her face. I'll never forget it!

The free gigantic piece of pie the restaurant gave Erin.

Happy Birthday Erin! So glad I got to spend your 30th with you!

Happy Birthday Marlene!

Darren's mom's birthday was this past Sunday.  Since we were already in Chicago, to celebrate, we took her out to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  Darren's sister made sure to tell our waitress that it was her mom's birthday so they could do something to embarrass her!  At the end of the meal, they rolled up a saddle and made her sit on it and wave her napkin in the air so everyone could see her.

If the embarrassment of sitting on a saddle in the middle of a restaurant wasn't enough,  the waitress had asked how old she was and the proceeded to announce to the entire resteraunt that she just turned 66.  This is her face as the waitress was announcing her age to all present.

Fortunately she took it in stride and I think she had a really nice birthday lunch with her whole family present!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I was out of town this weekend and wanted to throw out a happy belated birthday to mom!  Love you!

Last week Emily and I went out to celebrate Sarah's 28th birthday at Big River Grill with Brice and some of her other friends. Fun times, good food and great people! Hope you had a great week of birthday celebrations!!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday!!