We had a very special guest on Thursday the 17th. Aunt Deborah had a birthday! Andy called me the day before and asked what I was doing Thursday night ... I said, 'just going to work out' and he proceeded to ask me about an idea he had. He wanted to do something different for Deborah's birthday, something she wouldn't suspect. He wondered if he could bring her to our house for dinner and have my adorable little girls be their 'servers'. Such a cute idea! I was all over it! He said he would bring over the food, if I would prepare it and do dessert. So my party hat went on and I started brainstorming how I wanted this to go. I thought, the weather has been SO nice outside, it would be great if they could eat out on the patio. But then I looked out at the patio and realized...there is a lot to clean up out there! So off to work I went. I moved ALL of the kid stuff out of the way, cleared the fallen leaves and hosed off all of the sidewalk chalk and other debris. Then I put up our gazeebo tent and got out my icicle Christmas lights and strung them on the tent for ambiance! I hauled out our computer speakers and set them up 'surround sound' style for some nice instrumental background music. Then I rummaged around the house and found an old table that I used as their bistro table and decorated it with tablecloths and candle.
Andy told me that we could all eat together, but I thought NAY - this is for Deborah and the two of them should enjoy a nice quiet meal. So I set the table for two. I was so excited with how things were looking!
Andy brought me the food to prepare - a round rump roast and some fresh asparagus. I thought the meal needed a little more, so I went an got ingredients for my favorite Strawberry Spinach salad and some artisan bread for appetizer snacking with butter, I did baked potatoes and for dessert...some rich vanilla ice cream and fresh berries - blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Done.
The girls went straight to work on making homemade birthday cards and Evelyn and I created a menu. OH! By the way, when I told Evelyn what we were doing she was beyond excited and said first thing that we needed to name our restuarant. She came up with Utopia - yes UTOPIA - a place of perfection! WHERE she has heard that word is beyond me but I thought it was a perfect name for our fancy restuarant!! So we made these cute menus that said "UTOPIA" on the front and on the inside was our menu for the evening.
The guest of honor arrived - not knowing what awaited her in the back yard - and the girls were swarming the car before they would put it in 'PARK'! Then Claire was announcing LOUDLY "we made dinner for you! We made dinner for you!!" We were trying to hush her, but she was too excited! Thankfully Deborah had no idea what she was talking about! Andy went around back while Deborah stood on the porch holding Bonnie and saying Hello to everyone...then the girls took her hand and started to lead her back to the back patio.
The music was playing, the lights were twinkling and the candle was lit! She was soooo surprised and the girls went right into character..."please take your seat" and "welcome to our restaurant Utopia" and "here is your menu" and of course..."HAPPY BIRHTDAY!"
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