January birthdays

January is a full birthday month for us. Mine starts out the month on the 3rd, then my MIL, Linda's bday, is on the 17th, and following right on her heels is my dad's bday-the 21st. Sometimes it's hard to hit the parent's parties so this year Bryce and I decided the best thing to do would be to take everyone all out to dinner together. Kill 2 bdays with 1 stone.

We called all parents and said we wanted to take them out to dinner Saturday night, but that we were picking the restaurant and it was a SURPRISE. They are so brave and all agreed. On Friday Brody, Kelsi, and I went shopping and got decorations for the house and ingredients for a Red Velvet Cake (a family specialty, coincidentally in both Bryce and my families). The kids and I got to work making the cake and trying not to make too big a mess. Two bottles of red food coloring is a lot for 1 cake and the batter itself is worse staining than non-washable markers. But we made it through without a spill anywhere!

When Bryce came home he did a great job hanging decorations. We bought helium balloons, tied them to the bar chairs and we were good to go. Saturday evening everyone showed up and we proceeded to take them to one of our favorite, hidden little gems here in Olympia. The Speedway Brewing Co for the best BBQ I have ever had! Their menu claims, "We are the reason Tony Roma's left town," and I have to agree. It is fantastic food. We weren't sure how it would go over, as neither of us have ever seen our parents devour BBQ before, but all we got were rave reviews all around! Even several days later, they were still commenting on it.

Happy Birthday you guys, we had a great evening!