Last weekend I went to Oak Creek to celebrate Jessica’s 8th birthday. Jess wanted pizza for lunch. Instead of just buying pizzas or getting them delivered, Richard and Amanda bought all kinds of toppings and individual doughs. Each person made their own custom pizza and then my brother grilled them outside. Turned out great. Same goes for the dessert we had. Jess wanted ice cream instead of cake. Amanda got all kinds of toppings and we all made our own sundaes. Jess is holding her sundae in the photo above.
My brother also had a growler of beer from St. Francis Brewery nearby his house. I’m not sure which it was, but it was really good. Glad to finally try it.
Jason
It was a really nice day outside so we all sat out on the patio. I even got sunburned on my arm. It was so hot! Jess opened a bunch of gifts. Brian came over with his kids and they all played. Pretty laid back day.
Since it was just Mothers Day a few weeks ago, I gave my mom her Mothers Day gift. There were some prints she wanted from the wedding, so we gave her those and we also made a wedding photo book. I think she liked it.
Mom & Dad
Finally, yesterday was my mom and dad’s 37th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary!
In grand family tradition of playing bar games for 40th birthday parties, we all gathered last weekend to celebrate Chad’s big birthday and played Jeopardy: Chad Edition. Remember, for Brian’s party there was the Pub Crawl Olympics and for Jill’s there was Survivor Wrigleyville.
Brian setting up the Jeopardy board.
Jill explaining the rules.
Jeopardy Team Representatives: Carrie, Limey, Ted
For Chad’s 40th birthday Jen rented out the beer garden at Fizz, but since it was raining, we were in a heated tent. We paid $35 for all the drinks we could drink for 4 hours and Jen arranged for some really delicious food to be served as well. At the appointed time, we all gathered to play Jeopardy. When we arrived Jen had given us each a number: 1, 2 or 3. This was to sort people into 3 teams. I was on Team 2: Team Burrito House. We chose Limey to be our team representative. When the answers were presented, Limey had to yell Burrito House to buzz in with the correct question. The other teams and reps were Ted for Team Guthries, Team 1, and Carrie (and later Danny) for Team Syracuse.
Chad
Getting intense!
These were the categories – For the Jeopardy round there was The Man and His Bans, Potent Potables, and Movies & Music. In Double Jeopardy there was Chad’s Sports Follies, Brushes With Fame, and He’s Had a Job or Two. The Final Jeopardy category was Location, Location, Location and the question was about how many places Chad has lived in Chicago. Jill and Brian constructed the Jeopardy board. Jill played Vannah White, flipping the answers open, while Brian did his best Alex Trebec, reading the answers off. Jen was the scorekeeper.
Chad had to charade out one of the Jeopardy answers.
Jeopardy crowd.
Final Jeopardy
Chen-Je with two winning girls, Caroline & Loden
The game got really heated with everyone screaming to ring in and shouting answers. Before Final Jeopardy my team, Team Burrito House, was in the lead by far! We could not mess this up! Well, leave it to Limey…. he wagered something like $4,000 more than we even had, which seems to be breaking the rules to me, and then we lost everything, and then some, when no one on our team know how many places Chad lived in. Wah wah wahhhh…
Cousin & Todd
Baltimore Bomb
Baltimore Bombs
Jill & Dallas
Chad’s high school friend Todd flew into town from Maryland and introduced us to a new shot called the Ravens Bomb. Well, when he’s tailgating at football games he calls it that, but we were opting to call it the Baltimore Bomb. In Baltimore they drop a grape vodka shot into a cup of Red Bull energy drink. At Fizz they only had Monster energy drink, so we used that. Check out the awesome custom shot glasses Fizz had. Perfect for bombs. As for the Baltimore Bomb? It tasted awesome. The grape vodka tasted just like grape soda. Todd did warn me that they will sneak up on you if you are not careful, but I only had two. They were flowing pretty readily, though. I think they did sneak up on some people. Or… it could have been the other bombs…
Chad’s Birthday Cheesecakes
Dessert: Carbombs or Cheesecake?
Of course a night out with all these guys is not complete without Irish Car Bombs. Right as Trent was ordering a round, Jen was in the other room gathering people for cake! Ed (remember The Baked Escape) made two white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecakes (with a chocolate cookie crust) for the party. So delicious. I’ve had this one a few times. It never disappoints. Just as the cake was being cut the Irish Car Bombs arrived. So, choose your poison: Cheesecake or booze. Or both. Why not? Actually, I only had a tiny sliver of the cake and passed on the bombs.
Todd & Brian
Dancing around the birthday boy.
After this, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel very drunk, but there was a lot of dancing. And Ed sent me photos of things this week that I only vaguely remember happening. So yeh. Kind of proud that us old people can still have a good time!
Sunday was HOT. Like 90+ degrees outside. But it was nice that it was finally warm. We sat around outside and visited. I hadn’t seen Amanda’s family or Brian and Sheila for a while. I’d met Ashley, Brian and Sheila’s daughter, when she was a baby, but they have since had another, Jason, who will be a year old in July. Actually, I think I saw Brian last year, but without the kids. They grow up fast!
My brother grilled hotdogs and hamburgers. Jess had a ton of gifts to open up. She didn’t really talk the whole time, but I think you could tell she was happy and excited for all the nice presents. She tried on the outfit we got her soon after she opened it, so that’s a good sign.
Amanda made a Barbie birthday cake. There were a lot of jokes made about ladies jumping out of cakes, but it was really well done and a unique idea. Amanda is now on the hook to make two cakes for our wedding. One a Barbie and one a Hawaiian guy. haha
You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
Killian and Liz are surrounded by very artistic family and friends so it was no surprise that the music at their wedding was fabulous. Liz’s brothers Greg and Bill are really talented musicians. Greg has even toured with and recorded albums with Liz Phair, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Jewel, to name a few. For the wedding the brothers reunited their old band called Touche and played a whole set of 80′s crowd pleasers. You better believe that Dallas was their biggest fan!
Also, a few of Killian’s friends are really great DJs and took turns playing throughout the night. Imran (DJ Skor) played at dinner and before the band went on. Max played after the band and then Imran played a little more at the end. Everyone was so great. All of the guests danced like crazy.
After the wedding ceremony while we were getting photos taken, there were cocktails and hors devours inside the yacht club. The dinner and reception were on a lower, outdoor deck that luckily was covered with a big tent because just before dinner it really started coming down! Dinner was delicious, of course. Killian’s friend Imran (DJ Skor) is a DJ and played music during dinner. After we were done eating, it was par-tay time!
