PJs Birthday 2009
The plan for PJs birthday was to gather the siblings and their significant others together and go to Kennedy School McMenamins for the night. Since that wouldn't work for the kids and Grandma we decided to have a birthday celebration dinner tonight as well.
First the plan was to go to Fultanos because I knew everyone (well pretty much everyone) would like it. PJ was fine with that and so was Erik. I didn't count on Ingrid being the opposition to this since she doesn't like the alternate location Vernies. However because of some issues with Caleb and driving at night Ingrid asked if we could stay in town.
The plan then switched to meeting up at Vernies. I was happy because I would most likely get to see Ray. :) When PJ and Erik arrived I passed on the news and both were fine with it. Neither had been to Vernies yet so that would be a good time. :) Erik said that Darren wasn't far behind them so we decided to wait for him.
It took some doing to get everyone out the door in some semblance of time but we did get people moving eventually. I ended up picking up grandma as I only had my son, my daughter and Danielle in the car with me (Bo rode with Darren and Erik).
We parked right up front and headed inside. Erik and Darren had beat us there and had found a place for us to sit. I was pleased to see that Ray was still there though he shouldn't have been because he was already off work. He was glad we had come in and gave us the sodas on the house. :)
It was just before we started to order that I realized we would have at least 15 people in the party. O_o Thankfully the restaurant wasn't too busy and they were able to accommodate us well. I decided to get a Meatsa pizza for my group and some bread sticks. Grandma wasn't sure but ultimately told me to order her a half chicken and half Hawaiian pizza. Darren and Erik picked out a fairly large pizza for themselves with custom toppings on it. We figured that was enough to start with and people could order more as they arrived.
Because of the number of people attending I designated the table over for the kids. In retrospect this wasn't a good idea because the whole point to the pizza gathering was for PJ to visit with grandma and the kids. I will have to keep that better in mind for the future. I don't know that it would have helped anyway because as they arrived my sisters attempted to monopolize his attention anyway.
Bo and I were seated at one end of the table with grandma next to me. The way it was set up all of the adults should have had a seat but Butt-dan invited himself to the table and insisted that Michelle told him he had to be there. That might have been true (I don't know) but it still wasn't fair to the other kids who had to sit at the other table and it took up room at the end of the table. In fact the also left the chair next to Bo open so two people crammed at the end of the table instead of dispersing the seating more evenly.
The pizza's started coming out before my sister's arrived and almost immediately grandma had a problem. She swears she asked for half the meat pizza and half Hawaiian. -_- I argued a little with her but ultimately just let it go. Ray was right next to me when she started up and offered to bring her out medium sized of the correct kind. It helped solve the problem and other people were more than willing to eat the chicken pizza. It's things like this that are going to drive me crazy because I know she said Chicken pizza and Hawaiian at the counter. _~_
Ray was awesome in that he gave us all the drinks (the sodas) free of charge. :D He was also very happy to see us. I guess he needed a boost that night and us showing up was just what he needed. He kept things going smoothly and everyone, even Ingrid, was happy with their food. I am glad we were able to have a good experience there to counteract the fluke bad one. :) Plus PJ had a great time with everyone there to see him. ^_^
Grandma was ready to go around 9pm and I was getting tired too so I headed out with my kids and grandma (I also had Danielle with us). Bo hung around to get a ride back from Darren and Erik (which apparently took them some time before they left the parking lot even. Hehe
I dropped grandma off at home and then headed home to go to bed. It was getting late for me and wanted to get rested for the next day's endeavors. :)
First the plan was to go to Fultanos because I knew everyone (well pretty much everyone) would like it. PJ was fine with that and so was Erik. I didn't count on Ingrid being the opposition to this since she doesn't like the alternate location Vernies. However because of some issues with Caleb and driving at night Ingrid asked if we could stay in town.
The plan then switched to meeting up at Vernies. I was happy because I would most likely get to see Ray. :) When PJ and Erik arrived I passed on the news and both were fine with it. Neither had been to Vernies yet so that would be a good time. :) Erik said that Darren wasn't far behind them so we decided to wait for him.
It took some doing to get everyone out the door in some semblance of time but we did get people moving eventually. I ended up picking up grandma as I only had my son, my daughter and Danielle in the car with me (Bo rode with Darren and Erik).
We parked right up front and headed inside. Erik and Darren had beat us there and had found a place for us to sit. I was pleased to see that Ray was still there though he shouldn't have been because he was already off work. He was glad we had come in and gave us the sodas on the house. :)
It was just before we started to order that I realized we would have at least 15 people in the party. O_o Thankfully the restaurant wasn't too busy and they were able to accommodate us well. I decided to get a Meatsa pizza for my group and some bread sticks. Grandma wasn't sure but ultimately told me to order her a half chicken and half Hawaiian pizza. Darren and Erik picked out a fairly large pizza for themselves with custom toppings on it. We figured that was enough to start with and people could order more as they arrived.
Because of the number of people attending I designated the table over for the kids. In retrospect this wasn't a good idea because the whole point to the pizza gathering was for PJ to visit with grandma and the kids. I will have to keep that better in mind for the future. I don't know that it would have helped anyway because as they arrived my sisters attempted to monopolize his attention anyway.
Bo and I were seated at one end of the table with grandma next to me. The way it was set up all of the adults should have had a seat but Butt-dan invited himself to the table and insisted that Michelle told him he had to be there. That might have been true (I don't know) but it still wasn't fair to the other kids who had to sit at the other table and it took up room at the end of the table. In fact the also left the chair next to Bo open so two people crammed at the end of the table instead of dispersing the seating more evenly.
The pizza's started coming out before my sister's arrived and almost immediately grandma had a problem. She swears she asked for half the meat pizza and half Hawaiian. -_- I argued a little with her but ultimately just let it go. Ray was right next to me when she started up and offered to bring her out medium sized of the correct kind. It helped solve the problem and other people were more than willing to eat the chicken pizza. It's things like this that are going to drive me crazy because I know she said Chicken pizza and Hawaiian at the counter. _~_
Ray was awesome in that he gave us all the drinks (the sodas) free of charge. :D He was also very happy to see us. I guess he needed a boost that night and us showing up was just what he needed. He kept things going smoothly and everyone, even Ingrid, was happy with their food. I am glad we were able to have a good experience there to counteract the fluke bad one. :) Plus PJ had a great time with everyone there to see him. ^_^
Grandma was ready to go around 9pm and I was getting tired too so I headed out with my kids and grandma (I also had Danielle with us). Bo hung around to get a ride back from Darren and Erik (which apparently took them some time before they left the parking lot even. Hehe
I dropped grandma off at home and then headed home to go to bed. It was getting late for me and wanted to get rested for the next day's endeavors. :)