A few weeks ago, I asked Dad what he wanted to do for his birthday. He said because everyone has been so busy, we will just meet up for some food. I asked him what kind of food he wanted, and he said lasagna, garlic bread and salad. I asked when he wanted to do it and he said Sunday at noon because it should give people enough time to get up and get ready to come over. I told him I would let everyone know.
The day before was very busy. Ben was on shift, and I finally had time to get some new beauty bark for the front yard. I made sure to purchase the bark from my hometown community, Old Town Bark. I drove the truck into Rainier and stopped by the senior center for a bit to say hi to Mom and Grandma who were at Saturday sew. I stayed for about 40 minutes or so. I got the bark and drove it home. I spend time scraping off the old bark and fir needles into the street, unloaded the new bark and threw the old bark and needles, along with some tree branches, into the bed of the truck to take into Rainier.
I drove it over to Grandma's house with the intention of unloading it onto her debris cliff and got the truck stuck because the hill was so dry. Doug and Dad stopped by (Doug was helping Dad with a project) and helped me get the truck unstuck. I was frustrated because I wasted a good hour doing this. I picked up Mom from her house so we could go into Yelm to get gas, pick up a few things at the store and drive the truck through the car wash...but sadly, it was closed by the time we got there. Bummer. I will have to do it another day.
I dropped Mom off, stopped by Grammie and Grandpa's house to drop off some bricks I borrowed, chatted with Dad for a few minutes and went home. I unloaded stuff I bought at the store, ate some dinner, put the lasagna together (so we can just cook it the next day), made the dirt cups and got in a shower. I was disappointed to hear the Cougs could have won today but lost because of dumb mistakes they made in the 4th quarter. I finally went to bed because I knew the next day was going to be busy as well.
Ben came home the next day and took a short morning nap. I got up around 9:30ish and started getting the house ready for everyone to come over. I took a couple tables and chairs outside and got them set up and by 11 a.m. I threw the lasagna into the oven so it would be ready the same time everyone showed up. I got the Texas toast on the sheet pans to heat up once the lasagna was done, and Ben helped me cut up the salad once he got up.
It approached noon and the lasagna was done, and some people started to arrive. I put foil over the food that was done and took it out to one of the tables outside. We hung out and chatted while we waited for the bread to get done. I had everyone go outside to the back yard and place their presents on the other table. We took advantage of the patio furniture Rhonda gave us last spring. I brought out the bread, the plates and silverware and the dressings for the salad. I told everyone to dig in.
We ate, shared stories and hung out before I brought out the dirt cups and presents. I did dirt cups this time because I was getting tired of cake or pie all the time. I wanted to change it up. I tried to make it less bad for you by making it with sugar free chocolate pudding instead. I soon found out that I put too many ingredients into each cup, so eating it was difficult. It was good but I got full quickly.
Dad opened his presents; we took pictures, and he smiled a lot. It was nice to make someone happy on or near their birthday. His, this year, was on a Thursday so we celebrated it on Sunday when everyone could. The only one who couldn't make it was Zach because he was down in Vancouver with Shane and Linda. Dad thanked us for his gifts and some good food.
Everyone helped me bring in everything from the backyard, I packed up some leftovers for those who wanted some and everyone went home so they could continue their weekend before the work week started. It was a nice afternoon.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Next Adventure: A Day in Westport: Geocaching and my 13,000th Cache Milestone
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