My Saturday Surprise

seated at the restaurant, watching the view go by

Saturday, Dode and I went to the Space Needle Restaurant for my birthday celebration.  My birthday isn't until Tuesday but if we wanted to see anything out the windows besides lights, we had to go on a weekend.  Dode had received a gift card at his 2010 employee Christmas party and we finally got around to using it.  My mom came up to watch the kids while we went. 

On the weekend, the Space Needle has a price fix brunch where you choose an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  I thought that eating in a fancy restaurant meant we'd get little portions and leave hungry but I was wrong.  We started off with a selection of quick breads: pumpkin, banana, and lemon.  Dode says mine are much tastier and don't feel like sawdust; I don't like dry quick breads so I always make mine moist.  I chose the smoked salmon appetizer and Dode chose a Caesar salad.  I think my choice was the best, the croutons in Dode's salad were hard enough to break a tooth on. 

For my entree, I got my traditional birthday splurge, Eggs Benedict.  I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a photo!  Instead of ham, it had crab piled high and it was really tasty.  Dode got the salmon special which was cooked to his liking (think over cooked).  He was absolutely not impressed with the slice of polenta the salmon rested on.  He doesn't like mushy things!  For dessert, I got the white chocolate macadamia bread pudding and Dode got apple cobbler.  The bread pudding was OK, but not worth the calories.  The macadamia nuts weren't chopped up so it was a strange clash of soft bread pudding with occasional marble sized crunchy nuts. 

The space needle restaurant slowly revolves around, making a complete circle in about 50 minutes.  We went around almost twice while we were there.  The traffic getting to the restaurant was terrible, it took us about 20 minutes to go two miles, but looking down from the restaurant, Seattle looked so peaceful below us.  After a quick stop on the observation deck one floor about the restaurant, we went over to the International Fountain.  Dode wanted to check out how it works because he's thinking of building one on a smaller scale. 

Since we were already down in Seattle, we stopped at what has to be the best name ever for a grocery store, Sidecar for Pigs Peace.  It's Washington's only 100% vegan grocery.  As we were driving there, I asked Dode if he thought anyone would notice I was wearing leather shoes.  (True vegans not only abstain from all animal products in their food, they don't wear animal products either.)  He just rolled his eyes at me.  It's a tiny store and they were extra busy since they were having a bake sale.  Poor Dode, every time he tried to stand out of the way, someone was wanting to get at the shelf he was standing in front of.  I picked up some things I'm not able to find around home or online and we headed for home. 

We pulled into the driveway and I saw it was full of cars.  I turned to Dode and said, "Why are all these cars here?"  His response, "It's your birthday!"  He and my mom had been planning a surprise party for months!  I had absolutely no idea it was happening.  Poor Dode, he'd been trying to get us home by 2:45 but I was in no hurry.  I figured my mom would be fine with the kids and if she needed to leave, she would.  I was enjoying my day of freedom.  We made it home around 3:15 and everyone was waiting for us.

My mom had made a slide show movie of photos of me growing up.  In some of my old photos, Miriam looks just like me!  As we squished together on the couch watching the movie, Jacob said to me, "Pretty typical, here you are surrounded by kids." 

Yes sir, that's when I'm happiest! 

After the movie, I got to open some presents.  Fun!  Some of those children crowded around me just couldn't resist helping.  Aunt Viv made me some earrings, Sharon got me a laminator, Matthew got me some fancy chocolates, my grandpa gave me $40 (one for each year) and my mom and Greg bought me a new computer, an iMac with a 22" screen.  (4 GB Ram, 500 GB Hard Drive I'm sure when the kids read this again in 10 years it will sound like such a dinosaur!)

opening gifts with plenty of helpers

Anastaya made me this bouquet of paper flowers, 40 of them!  She's been working on them secretly for weeks.

My mom and Millie had spent hours making huge tissue paper flowers to decorate the dining room.  While Dode and I were having fun in Seattle, my mom and Millie put the kids to work straitening up the house and decorating.

The table filled with beautiful flowers.

The girls have already claimed them for their room.  I'm thinking they'd go well with our jungle theme at day camp this year, if it doesn't rain!

Dode and I were still completely stuffed from our lunch but everyone had been waiting hungrily for a tasty potluck.  My mom was nice enough to buy two cakes, one regular,  one vegan.

look how we light our candles, a torch!

Grandma Dickson got a little crazy at the party and went down the fire pole

(Just kidding!)

1st use of the new computer, the kids watching Looney Tunes

I felt very blessed to have such a loving family.