sticking to tradition

celebrating the old lady's entrance into her 20s continued on after the bean and the hub got home from their daily activities.  when we got home, she found a fun surprise waiting on the doorstep from her special friend:

speaking of her special friend, he'd also had a lovely little blue box delivered to her a few days prior.

on our way out to the valley to have dinner at her favorite place, she opened the other presents that were waiting for her.  one of the things she'd asked for was a pair of these hideous things:

and the bean had picked something out for her sister that she'd been planning for ages - a cat.  alas, not a real one as mollydog would definitely not allow such a thing in the house.

having birthday dinner here has become quite a tradition.  despite the hour-long drive, the old lady always wants to have pasta at good ol' chi-chi's.

i'm not gonna lie - i won't ever fight her on this one.  it's an old favorite, and i'll pretty much never turn down a chance to grub down on fresh rolls and some house made shells and meat sauce.

the hub decided to go the healthier route and tried the whole wheat rigatoni instead.  while we teased him about how turd-like his entreé looked, it actually didn't taste much different from the regular pasta.

everyone's happy at chi-chi's.

also a birthday tradition is dessert afterwards - hawaiian-style shave ice from this place that started out as a food truck:

i suppose it doesn't matter how old you get - a full day of birthday shenanigans will always put you to
sleep, especially when you're comfy in the backseat of a moving car.  and cuddling a stuffed animal.

seems like just yesterday, huh?

sigh.