Lisa's 30th Birthday and My Dad's 60th

Friday (the 20th) was my wife's 30th birthday and my Dad's 60th.

I took the day off and we reduced our child-care responsiblites by 1/3rd early on, as YaYa went over to a friends house. The remaining four of us headed over to my Mom's in the early afternoon.

It was a nice, simple affair. It began wtih the fun part: opening presents.

She'd been asking for a pepper mill/salt grinder forever, and the kids bought one for her from Bed Bath & Beyond

She really loved it! A bullseye for once! She really, truly loved it.

We bought my Dad a Donald Duck T-shirt (he's a Donald fan) and a book of essays from the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Here's a funny moment. While Lisa was opening her gifts I looked over to see my Dad, king of all that is shy/quiet/wallflowerish most of the time,busily opening his own presents while no one was watching.

"Dad!," I said. "What're you doing? Where are your social skills?!"

His sincere and loud response:

"I don't have any social skills!"

Here's a shot of all of Lisa's gifts. A pedometer and a Jordan Knight CD from me, the salt/pepper set from the kids, some candy, Diet Coke, a calendar, and clothing gift certificate.

Then came the (cheese)cake.

After the party my folks took the two little one's overnight, and we picked YaYa up and took her over to my in-laws. We visited awhile and they took her overnight.

Then I took Lis to a new (to us) italian restaurant, maybe the best Italian place where we've ever eaten. My God, I must have gained 5 pounds, and no regrets; it was too good for guilt!

At home again we settled down to watch The Office Season 1, then we, uh . . well, the kids were gone :)