60th Birthday Bash

Almost two months ago (oops) we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday!  She went on vacation with my sister beforehand, so Ernie and I got together to discuss the master plan and taste a few awesome small plates at Felice, a local place we all really like.  A few small plates wound up being about 10, with numerous glasses of wine.  Surprise, surprise!  My mom called during our secret mission, but we didn't reveal a thing.

The reason that we chose Felice was because they have a great third floor lounge that they were able to block off for us.  Check out the decor in the pictures. It's so difficult to talk at a large sit down dinner, so we went with the apps/drinks idea.  It was small- family and just a few friends.

She had NO IDEA.  She called my brother and aunt from the car on the way to her own party to chat because she thought they were going to the restaurant to check out a plumbing job for Ernie.  Little did she know that we were all together waiting to surprise her!

I think that the whole night was perfect.  We were even able to talk to Bethanne from France on Skype during the party, so we were all with my mom on her special day!

Doggie Bowling

This past weekend, a few of us went bowling for a WONDERFUL charity that is so close to my heart. The charity raises money for people who are blind but cannot afford seeing eye dogs. It's amazing how long it takes for a dog to become a working seeing eye dog. They train for almost a year and a half, with six months of extensive training towards the end. These dogs cost $25,000! Worth every penny to be your set of eyes, but not affordable for many people.

They had some young dogs in training there that were sooooo cute! We all bowled pretty horribly, but we had a great time and then went out for wings and beers after. A perfect Sunday afternoon!

Cleveland Wine Club

Well, it certainly took me long enough (over a month) to finally do something with this wine group that I joined, but I finally went to an event with the Cleveland Wine Club this week.  I really didn't know what to expect. I had no idea what kind of people would be there and if going alone was normal or weird. So I just sucked it up and walked in the door of a place a half hour away from home that I had never been to before, called Brother's Lounge.

It was really fun! There was a little bit of everything. Most people had similar "stories" about why they had joined. They were single and their friends had families and kids, they were interested in going out more than their friends, they were recently divorced, just moved here, etc. I met some really nice people and learned about some other fun groups. I joined a hiking club based on some suggestions I got while I was there, and won a bottle of wine!

Sunday Family Fun Day

Last Sunday was a FULL fun day! I decided in January that the Kubach/Sawitke/Fuller/Fiscos needed to set a date to get together since there are not any holidays or birthdays coming up. Being the cruise director that I am we all found a Sunday and decided to go bowling, and then out to dinner. Then Ernie let us know that he had bought tickets for a church charity event the same day.

My brother decided to sit the church event out, but Alisa and I said we would go. We didn't want the tickets to be wasted. Like my brother, I assumed we were going to the party room of some church for sandwiches and coffee. We show up at this huge German party center with a Mardi Gras theme, raffles, tons of food, music and pitchers of beer. I was thrilled!

We raced off to the bowling alley to meet everyone else by 3:30. I noticed that the parking lot was really full when we got there and as it turned out, it was totally insane inside. There was a bowling league that we didn't know about going on so after we rushed to make it on time, we had to wait about 45 minutes for that to end before we could get lanes. This turned out to be fine because I'm on the phone with my brother and the conversation goes like this:

Matt- Where are you?
Me- I'm in the bar with Alisa, Ernie, Mom and Heidi. Where are you?
Matt- Well I'm in the bar with Susan, Heather, Jeff and the kids, and you're not here.
Me- Maybe you're at a different bar. I think there's two.
Matt- No, I think we're at a different bowling alley.

Apparently there are two bowling alleys in this suburb. Who knew? Not me. So after a little confusion, we all wound up at the same place and had a lot of fun bowling. Minus the birthday party next to us with 20 kids and four adults to pay attention to them. There was a kid with "sticky fingers" who kept coming over to our lane and stealing our balls!

After two games of almost everyone scoring under 100 we headed to Red Robin for dinner. Nothing fancy, but great for the kids. We called ahead because we had 12, which wound up doing us no good when the young hostess gave our table away to another party. Red Robin was a bigger zoo than the bowling alley. Suddenly we realized that the next day was Presidents Day and there was no school. Bad choice of Sundays to pick for kid-friendly activities!

The day was a lot longer than we thought it would be, but everyone had a great time!

Alisa and I celebrating Mardi Gras

This guy totally made me think of my grandfather- he loved this kind of music! Jeff getting ready to show us all up
Pretty sure Brooke might have had a higher score than me thanks to her ramp and bumpers

This is some serious stuff!

The little bowling clown!

Family photo opp

Brendan found the "biggest chip ever" at Red Robin

Christmas 2011

This was the first Christmas in a while that I didn't have to travel to get home, and it was SO nice! No red eyes, no cancelled flights and rental cars, no last minute shopping. However, it was still just as busy and crazy as recent years. In two days, I had about five places to be.

I had the Fuller family over on Christmas Eve. Last year we did a big sit-down dinner at my grandfather's house, but I honestly just don't have the space for it. Everyone brought something, and we just did a little buffet-like dinner with pizza, sloppy joes, salad, apps, and mac and cheese. Nothing fancy, but we were all happy with it! We do a White Elephant gift exchange, and I wound up with some really nice things from Williams Sonoma. After the Fuller clan left, Alisa and Pearson came over to hand out with me, Matt and BA, and we might have had a few too many drinks and stayed up a little too late. Oops.

Christmas Day we went to brunch with my Dad at McCormick and Schmicks, and then headed to my Mom's house to open an insane amount of gifts. I can't imagine what it will be like when we have kids around one day. Actually, the adults will probably just have less gifts.

After THAT, we all piled in cars and went over to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas night with the Kubach's (and a few extras). More gifts, more food, more games.

All in all, a successful Christmas here in Cleveland!

My tiny fake tree and all of my gifts (to give).

Matt, my mom, Bethanne and I at a family Eve of Christmas Eve dinner.
Too many Christmas Ales and Whiskey?!

My mom opted out of the tree tradition and went with a Santa this year.

Fat Guy In A Little Coat! (JK, he's not a fatty, but it was a little coat).

Getting ready for our big gift exchange on Christmas at Susan and Denny's.

Brooke, all dressed up in her butterfly gear!

Brendan, AKA Ralphie.

Vegas Photos!

No, I didn't go to Vegas. Still here in Cleveland. But here are a few fun pictures from the photo booth that we had at our work party for the holidays!

A Night Out Downtown

Why is it that fun things always overlap? You're invited to a few things on the same night, and then nothing for two weeks.

That is exactly what happened a few weeks ago, but I made two things work! My step-sister Alisa, and her husband Eric (but we call him Pearson) both turned 30 around the same time. They decided to have a joint party here in Cleveland, and rented out a room at The Velvet Dog, a bar downtown. Their friends came in from out of town, and everyone was going to be there. I then get a phone call that I have been given tickets to an amazing party at Playhouse Square to unveil their new theatres. Since that is right up my alley, I couldn't miss it.

I invited my dad to be my hot date at Playhouse Square. We went down and checked out their new theatres, mingled with some people we knew, and had a great sit down dinner right in The Palace theatre. My plan was to leave very early and go to Alisa and Pearson's party, but there was a show after dinner so we stuck around for a little of that, and then my dad dropped me off at the party. Just like when I was 15.

Like usual, Alisa and Pearson threw a great party. They had food from some of the local restaurants, and a little room that was blocked off for us with a great atmosphere. After their bar closed, a lot of us headed out to party the night away downtown. Needless to say, my brother and I took a cabs home, and I didn't feel so hot the next day. But it was a FUN night!

My dad and I at Playhouse Square

With the fam- Ernie, Pearson, Matt, Alisa and I

My cousin Heather and her husband Jeff

Sara and I love Pearson!