Weekend Recap: Beer Garden & Birthday Fun

I'm late on the post, again, but that means we're that much closer to the weekend, again!  Woohoo!  This week has been busy, but I am currently enjoying a glass of wine and some "Friends" with my super hubs, so I cannot complain.  Now to see if I can remember what we did over the weekend.  Friday night was pretty relaxed.  We went to the park for the second night in a row.  Ben LOVES the park.   He cannot get enough of watching the kids play basketball next door, so as soon as the kids were done shooting hoops at the park, we had to let him run up and down the court.

We have been having picnic dinners at the park for the past several Thursdays, but we are so much fun that sometimes we have to extend the celebration another night.  In fact, my mom and John and Auntie Anna caught wind of our wild Friday night plans, so they had to crash the park party.   Ben showed them how it's done.

We do the same things every time, yet somehow it never gets old.  And we also learned that it is much quieter on Friday night than Thursday nights.  I'd say we could switch our picnic in the park night but we found a new gem that we are planning on visiting on a regular basis--a beer garden!!  More on that in a moment.

Daddy looks like he is in pain after momma got off...hmmm....

Saturday morning brought a lot of productivity at our house...I wish I could say that it was thanks to us!  We actually owe a HUGE, GINORMOUS thank you to my mom and John for all of the yard work they did on Saturday morning!  If there is one thing, yes, only one thing, that we are less than awesome at, it would have to be yard work.  I just do not enjoy it, but I do like it to look nice.  Go figure.  We had approximately one million weeds, sticks, and logs to get rid of, and it looked SO much better after they left!  Thank you!!!  We appreciate it so much!  You're the BEST!

For the record, my mom and John did all of the work.  Andy was gone and Benji and I watched. 

I actually met up with a coworker (at the bar) to work on an educational conference we are hosting in the fall, so I wasn't totally worthless on Saturday.  :)  After this, I came up with the brilliant idea to go the new neighborhood beer garden!  I unfortunately did not take more pics, but that is only because I was too busy stuffing my face with food and wine.  There are a bunch of picnic tables, strands of lights (my fave), and you can bring your own food.  After a quick stop at Trader Joe's, we were set.  We met up with some friends and then ran into other friends while we were there.  It was essentially the perfect evening.  You can even bring your own beer stein and the BEST part---HUGE SOFT PRETZELS!!!  Those are probably on my top 10 list of favorite foods, and although I did not get one this time around, I see one in my near future.   Last, but definitely not least, I have to mention that Saturday was my dad's (aka grandpa's) birthday!  Benji wished him an extra special day in preparation for our Sunday celebration.

On Sunday it was time to celebrate my dad's birthday.  We went to our favorite outdoor dining location for brunch.  The air and water show was in town, but thanks to the state fair traffic, it was so late by the time we got there that we did not have time to watch the show too.  We did get to see the planes write in the sky though!  Despite having a good nap, Ben was not that interested in enjoying a nice relaxing brunch.  After he played musical chairs with Uncle, Auntie, Andy, and me, he ultimately ended up with the birthday boy.  He was not digging the food we were offering him, but he grabbed a pickle and much to my dismay (pickles gross me out), he was LOVING it!  Unfortunately, this is the only pic we got with gramps, but needless to say, this was the highlight of Ben's outing.

Thanks to my dad for taking some pics of Ben and me!  I'm trying to take more of the 2 of us because I feel like I didn't take enough with him when he was a teeny tiny baby.  Ben was able to pull off his classic trick on Auntie Anna.  Just when she thought Ben was moving in for a smooch...off go the glasses!  Gotcha, Auntie!!!

As busy as he was during brunch, he still had time to give momma some love.

And a few more pictures from grandpa.  Happy birthday, dad!  We love you so much and hope you had a great day!! XOXO

We wrapped up our Sunday with a walk.  Even though Ben was more interested in Rosco peeing for the 87th time, he still made time to smile for a pic with his momma.

Happy hump day, from my clean little Alphalpha!  Thanks for the 'do, Nana!