Evening and weekend projects

I haven't seen my grandpa for over a year or so now, but the last time I saw him we chatted for a while about how he really regretted not knowing more about his family's history. He never knew his mother's father nor did he know where his last name came from. I set out trying to answer these questions for him and really am still not able to answer them concretely, but do have some theories to go on. However, I digress. The search for his family history did bring forth a lot of interesting facts. I've organized them all online through ancestry.ca, but when your grandpa is turning 85, that doesn't really mean much. I'm hoping to go visit him later this month and so tonight I worked on an artistic representation of a bit of what I've found. Here's what it looks like so far:

There's a few options to develop it further, including writing in the children's names in reallllly tiny print and/or making it a little prettier art-wise. We'll see what I come up with, but I'm happy at the very least that I have something to bring now.

This weekend we put together Lenny's new BBQ. Look at how itsy bitsy our old BBQ on the right looks next to the one on the left. Ha!

Lenny got a BBQ, so I bought myself some flowers. I don't remember ever seeing these before and thought they were nice and spring-like.

This is two thirds of our first dinner using the new BBQ. Delicious delicious steak and roasted peppers. Nom nom nom :)

Tonight Sally has really missed Lenny. He was out at a cooking class and she kept wanting to go outside for walks to look for him. We never did find him on the walks, but at least they did wear her out. Here's what she's doing right now: curling into the tightest little ball and resting her favourite antler chew toy on her nose. Probably doesn't get any better than that!

Well that's it for now. Time to clean up after the art project...

Lenny turns 25

Lenny got the pleasure of turning 25 this past week. What a lucky guy!

We began celebrations on Sunday with a dinner at Pastos Grill. It was a really tasty Italian restaurant neither of us had ever heard of because it was just outside of town. We were pleasantly surprised by delicious bread, homemade butter, A-mazing bruschetta, pastas, and pizzas. Nom nom nom.

On Tuesday night, Lenny expressed a strong desire for some birthday cake so while I was out grocery shopping, I picked up the ingredients for a vanilla cake as requested. I got the idea to include some cookie baking crumbs while I was icing and, man, that was a Great idea. Lenny loves Oreo anything, and this cake was along those lines. Nom nom nom. :)

All week I had been telling Lenny that I Really wanted to go out for ice cream on his actual birthday (Wednesday). In reality, I had been planning a little surprise shindig at a bowling alley attached to a Dairy Queen nearby. The plan went off without a hitch and he was genuinely surprised to encounter six friends waiting to enjoy bowling and ice cream with him. Mwah hahaha!

It's very difficult for me to keep exciting secrets from Lenny; I get soooooooo excited I just can't contain myself and end up sharing it. I'm glad that this plan was able to remain hidden though; the look on his face was pretty priceless.

Friday afternoon we headed off to his family's in Toronto for their birthday celebration with him. We had yet another amazing meal with his mom & Mark at The Keg on Friday and a lovely get together with all of the extended family on Saturday.

Saturday morning I went with his mom to help with groceries before the party started. We also stopped by the most awesome bakery, St. Phillip's, to pick up a cake that Lenny's mom Silvana had ordered. My first thought when I saw the picture-transfer cake was: "Ah! He's naked! He's going to be so embarrassed!" To which his mom replied: "He's not naked. He's wearing floaties." Lol. A priceless moment of embarrassment was looming; how fun!

Out of respect for Lenny, here he is with the cake in a tastifully cropped version suitable for the Interwebs ;)

Poor Zac (Lenny's brother), had a rougher weekend. On Saturday just before dinner he chopped (well sheared, with garden shears) his fingerpad off of his finger while pruning outside. It looked Quite painful and after 12 hours of continued bleeding, warranted a trip to the ER Sunday morning. Zac's in good spirits and we wish him a speedy recovery for all those upcoming exams...

Well there you have it: some highlights of a week-long birthday celebration for Lenny's quarter-century birthday. He deserves every bit of happiness and I hope that the next 25 are great ones for him filled with more tasty meals, fun celebrations, and well-timed trips to the ER (just kidding about that last one). :)