The Dad's Night Out

As I mentioned yesterday, it was The Dad's birthday.  Pocket fours, as he referred to it.  My sister and brother-in-law said they'd take care of making plans, so we were just along for the ride.  They arranged for my mom to watch the kids, so we dropped them off around 3:00 and headed out.  We met up at a restaurant for happy hour.  They had an hour wait, so we went next door to an oyster bar to start.

The boys got cocktails and oyster shooters.

Because of my lack of a car (still) and legal ID (wow, that makes me sound like a loser), I didn't think I'd have much luck in a liquor store, so I had my brother-in-law pick up a bottle of something fun from me to The Dad.

He brought it to the restaurant wrapped.

This is what he picked and the note he had attached to it.

Goof.

I'm pretty excited to taste it though.

Cucumber and vanilla?  Yum!

 From there, it was back to the restaurant for some more drinks and happy hour food.

If you're in my neck of the woods, the restaurant is called Tasty and Sons and it was GOOD.

We'll definitely go back.

Plus, happy hour early on a Sunday?!  Can't beat that.

They own Toro Bravo as well, also amazingly good food.

These peanuts were on the table and they were super yummy.

 

Look at this Bloody Mary!

For food, we ordered a little bit of everything and shared.

They had one of my favorite things in the world.

Almond stuffed dates, wrapped in bacon and drizzled with a maple glaze.

I could have eaten 40.

Fries and, according to the menu, Damn Good Chicken Strips.

They were damn good and the garlicky sauce that came with them was amazing.

Hush Puppies with a side of really good butter.

A delicious burger.

Fried cauliflower with a red pepper sauce.

Sauteed spinach with an egg on top.

They have this dish at Toro Bravo as well.

I don't do eggs, but whatever they do to the spinach is soooo flippin' good.

On top of happy hour food, they have happy hour beer.

One dollar people.  

One dollar.

A couple shots of my sis and her hub with The Dad.

And, as usual, I had my brother-in-law take a solid 10 pictures of The Dad and I, KNOWING that I suck and I'd be lucky to get one good one.

Well, "good" is relative in my case.

These are the two that didn't go to the burn pile.

I'm telling you, it's a disease.

And another shot of the bro-in-law.....paying the bill. 

Woot Woot.

Thanks for dinner guys!

From there, the boys stopped in for another oyster shooter and then it was off to Pix, a dessert bar.

Uh-huh.

We had a mug full of molten chocolate goodness and a plate of mini goodies that my sister picked out.

All good, but ya see those macarons?

Salted caramel heaven.

Another shooter for the boys and then off to pick up the kidlets.

And it was only 7:00!

I'm tellin' ya, that early happy hour is a parent's dream.

Thanks Holly and Sherwin for a fun birthday out for The Dad.

And me.  :o)

Can't wait for mine!

Happy Birthday Chachi!

I'm just poking my head in to say happy birthday to the world's best daddy and husband.  The kids and I are so lucky to have him.

Happy birthday Chachi - we love you to the moon and back.

Had A Wife And Couldn't Keep Her: A Kid Lunch

The lunch that I sent The Kid with this morning was sponsored by Sir Sucks A Lot.  It was ugly.  He thought it was cute, but there was no way I was posting pictures of it.  The Girl and I were out of the house unexpectedly when she normally eats lunch, so hers was thrown together in a hurry in order to still get a nap out of her before picking up The Kid from school.  Point is, today's Silly Kid Lunch ain't all that grand, but at least I still got them put together.

For both of their sammies, I did a cream cheese and orange marmalade pumpkin sammie with the center cut out so you could see the orange.  On The Girl's, I made a face out of olives at the last second.  It's more creepy than cute.  Should have left well enough alone.  The Kid's had another sammie shaped like a man.  For The Girl, I used a girl cutter on a fruit strip, then made hair out of shredded carrot, a shirt from cheese and drew on the face with edible marker.  The Kid got carrot sticks, cheddar cheese circles with really bad pumpkin faces drawn on them and a pumpkin sugar cookie that we made and decorated yesterday.  The Girl got jello for her treat and pear and cheese leaves around the rim.

Again, there will be no sharing of The Kid's ugly creation, but here's The Girl's lunch on her plate:

And just because it tasted so dang good to me today, here's a picture of my lunch.....bagel with cream cheese, fig jam and fresh sliced pears.

Man, was that ever good.