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...Make that men in uniforms.
Aaah, our first T-Ball season has arrived here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and that means the opening game was postponed due to rain.
(Which was like a little gift from God to me, because I was out of town, and hated that I was going to miss it.)
A couple of weeks passed and the sun is finally here.
(at least for the time being.)
Play ball.
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I got to spend some one on one time with number seven this past Friday evening, and he's at that cooing and smiling stage.
Such a dolly-baby.
I realized after looking through the 57 pictures I took of him that night, that he bares a slight resemblance to another sweet little dolly.
Do you see it?
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(This was supposed to post Saturday, but my pictures didn't get leaded, so today, we will have a double-post Sunday!)
....
Okay, back to the big birthday trip.
Oh. You thought I was done?
Not quite.
We experienced every season, weather wise, while in the Cleveland and Canton area. We arrived to sun and a warm afternoon, followed by a sunny, slightly cooler day, then winds, and, finally, we woke up to snow! (I had to check the map, because I really felt like I was back in the biggest little city!)
(That really has nothing to do with this post, but just a little FYI.)
Anyway.
The fourth day of our fieldtrip around Ohio was planned as a Wild Card Day, for Ralph to choose whatever he might like to do, and of course I had provided a list of ideas.
In the end, he chose to go to the Amish Country.
(Squeal! My own personal secret first choice.)
Previously, I had thought the Amish were only in Pennsylvania, but I was wrong. There are several sweet little towns largely populated with Amish and Mennonite families, just outside of the Canton and Akron areas of Ohio.
We first made our way out to Homestead Furniture, an Amish owned and run store that supplies the American Embassies around the world with Amish made wood furniture. We met and chatted with a very nice Amish woman working in the store, and she gave us directions to the Amish and Mennonite visitors Center.
It’s fascinating to me how the ordinary becomes extraordinary when seen through a visitor’s eyes. Case in point, we were en route to the Amish Visitor Center when we saw a grocery store over on our right, and the parking lot was semi full of parked cars……and horse buggies.
An everyday sight to locals, and a snap-your-head-around-for-a-double-take-open-your-mouth-and-gawk moment for the three amigos from the Pacific Northwest. Seriously, we were so busy shouting out to each other in the car, “ohmygosh! There's a buggy! Look! They park like cars do! Wow! Wouldyalookatthat!”.
Total tourists.
We stopped in at Der Bake Oven, aMennonite Bakery, (They lured us in with a sign that read "homemade soft serve ice cream.") and, oh my.
Adorable.
Notice the beadboard ceiling, and the cute ladders shelving? So charming.
The menu looked so good that we decided that we needed to stay for a late lunch.
The decor was cottage-farmhouse looking, with board and batten walls and ceilings, linen upholstered chairs, and some pretty creative lighting, and photos of their own baked goods with quotations as artwork. (Did you notice the colander lights above the menu?)
You know I had to take a bajillion pictures.
Loved. It. All.
Oh, and the food was delicious.
We chatted up the Amish sisters working the counter, and one of them was so kind as to even take a picture with the birthday boy.
I don't know if I mentioned it throughout the birthday saga, but there was one disclaimer, and that was that this trip was all about Ralph....
Unless we saw a thrift shop.
(I try to get my thrift on whenever and wherever we see a thrift store, thankyouverymuch.)
Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to add that disclaimer.
(Which Ralph is totally used to by this time.)
Here's why....One of the other kinda-cool-and-sort-of-surprising-to-me experiences from this trip was stopping in a thrift shop right there in Amish country, and finding Amish clothes, and bonnets for re-sale. (I have no idea why I found this so surprising. I think for some reason I figured that they since things were hand made, they never got donated, or I didn't think things like Amish Bonnets ever became truly "worn out".
In the end, I bought a sweet little all-hand-sewn Amish toddler sized dress and smock.
For three bucks.
That made my day.
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It's a simple case of more is more.
Oh yes, it's yet another installment of the Ralph's-seemingly-never-ending-it-took-on-a-life-of-it's-own Birthday extravaganza. I would like to tell you that this will be the last installment, but I am not making any promises.
So.
I shared with you that I planned, and planned, and planned some more. You've seen the unveiling of the dream-come-true vacation adn the pretty wrappings, as well as the uncorked merriment that ensued on the airplane ride.
I will try (try) to be brief here as I touch on some highlights of the trip.
Suffice to say that we made the most of every moment (literally) of this vacation. The first night (Saturday) we went into Kent (as in the home of Kent State) and partied like rock stars..okay, not so much, but what we did do was go to a very cool brew pub named Bar 145, (recommended by the darling little coed working the front dest at our hotel)and we listened to a three piece band that played original stuff, mixed in with some killer 80's rock. I got myself a sweet tee with their awesome tagline...
...and now I am jonesing for some red Chuck's. (You know I collect white dishes of any kind, right?)
We arrived the next day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just as they opened, and we were there until they closed. Ohmygosh, if you love rock and roll, put this place on your bucket list.
Now.
Not only are there the expected things (Elvis memorobilia, Beatles artifacts...) but the unexpected....
...things like Timothy B.Schmit's room key collection. (Think about it. Kids today do not even know of a time when hotel rooms used real keys, and he collected them from every stop on each tour.) and the ca-razy drum kit that Alex Van Hallen used in the 80's.
Heck, they even had Pink Floyd's, "The Wall" all set up to walk through.
I know. I'm surely dating myself. I wasn't exactly a giant Pink Floyd myself, back in the day, but...wow.
It was amazing.
Along with all of the mind-boggling items to see, and the oodles and toodles of videos to watch, they has some of the most interesting employee hosts I've ever interacted with, all along the way, sharing fascinating details and antecdotes about these legends.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame was a repeat of fabulous-ness, and did not disapoint. We were there from open until very nearly close as well, and as luck would have it, we managed to be there just one week after they had installed the newest NFL video in the theater focused on the fantastic Superbowl XLVIII, which was all about those Seahawks. This made some of us very happy.
Oops.
It turns out the third day of our trip is a post in itself, so I'm glad I didn't promise this was the last installment.
Tomorrow we'll be talking thrift shops, bakeries, weather, and horses and buggies, folks. Trust me, you don't wanna miss it.
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Why yes, I am still chattering on about the biggest birthday extravaganza I have ever planned. (so far.)
I've shared the wrap job for the presents, and the totally-Tracey way that I presented the surprise trip. Today I am going to share some of the details that started the trip off on a high note.
Because I started planning oh, so far in advance, I kept coming up with more ideas, for each and every moment of the trip, and I had a blast every step of the way. (The hardest part was not letting anything slip out in conversation during those long months!)
If you clicked on the link in yesterday's post to read the book I created, you know that one part of the big birthday surprise was that my Rock and Roll Buddy's best guy-friend came along with us on the trip.
You see, they were friends from way back, as well as band mates in their earlier days of rocking and rolling. While looking for something on my computer, I came upon two old photos of them setting up band gear in what appears to be a country field but was actually Ralph's sisters yard. A couple of years ago, his brother in law had given me a lot of old pictures and these were in the folder.
I printed copies of those photos, with rock and roll quotes below them to use as fun labels on one side of the goodie bags I made up for the long plane ride. On the other side I had a different fun quote about the birthday boy.
I somehow never photographed the goodie bags with my camera, so the only memento of the goodie bags that I have to share is the one and only picture I took with my phone to share with a gal-pal while I was organizing things the day before we flew out.
Sorry 'bout that. You'll have to picture the details in your mind.
Anyway.
When we got ready to board the first flight I gave them each their treat bag with the old photos facing away from the guys, and once we were air born, they both took a peek inside the bags at all of the treats. Now, Ralph is accustomed to having a lil' sumthin' sumthin' as a surprise (usually peanut M&Ms...) on pretty much every plane trip we take, because...well, that's what I like to do for him. His buddy Mike was a bit more gobsmacked by the surprises awaiting him in his custom goodie bag.
It was easy to make ordinary snacks special. I made simple tags and attached them with a hole punch and a small piece of ribbon - "You're all that and a bag of chips" on bags of chips (what else?) and "Sometimes you feel like a nut" on peanut M&Ms and chocolate covered peanuts. Ear-buds so we could all watch TV on the computer (I bought this way-cool amplifier/splitter thingamajig that allowed three sets of ear-buds to plug into one laptop for easy viewing. What will they think of next?!)
I also had a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Trivia calendar for me to test their rock and roll knowledge, and I have to say, they didn't disappoint. They knew most every answer, and it inspired lots of old stories and belly laughs.
I had the latest issue of Rolling Stone as well as a Seahawk themed magazine for some theme focused light reading, although we were laughing and talking far too much to ever crack the cover on either one of them.
They loved all of the airplane surprises and snacks, but when I told them to flip the bags around to see the photos, they both had a good laugh, (The groovy overalls, the long and possibly-even-permed hair, the vintage equipment...) and we took a mini vacation down memory lane.
I nailed it on that one, if I do say so myself.
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Okay, are you ready for the rest of my story from yesteday? So far, I shared that I wanted to do something epic for my Rock and Roll Buddy's big birthday, and I was stumped.
That is, until my friend at work came up with the perfect gift...
She suggested I take him to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Wha...?!
"Where is that?!" I asked, realizing we had just struck gold.
"Detroit", she replied.
Well, not quite.
I googled it and it turned out that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland, Ohio.
(Of course, it is. Cleveland rocks, after all.)
...
And so, the idea was born, early last October. (It was a no-brainer, what with his background in music, and being a Beatles fan since the age of six...)
The real kicker came less than a week later, when I discovered a thing called a Hall Pass on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website. A Hall Pass is a ticket you purchase that gets you into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Shut the door.
Oh yeah, I knew then that I had the makings of an epic birthday present, and for once, I was planning things far enough out to leave no detail to chance.I decided it would be a total surprise, with us flying out the morning before his birthday, and I would give him his present the night before we would fly out.(Wow. I made that sound more complicated than it was. I gave him the presnt Frday night, we flew out Saturday morning at Oh-dark-thirty, and his birthday was Sunday.)
Anyway.
Week by week, I planned and plotted, becoming quite well acquainted with the folks at the Rock Hall via email. (They were the ones who recommended we stay in Fairlawn Ohio because it is halfway between Canton and Cleveland.) The trip became more and more elaborate, and all of the teeny-tiniest details became focal points for me. (Things like Goody-Bags for the plane ride, and printed movie schedules, and thrift store and brew pub maps...)
As the time for the surprise birthday trip neared, I realized I needed a fantastic-never-to-be-forgotten way of presenting his present.
That's when I found this company. (Thank you, Pinterest. And as it turned out, they are just outside of Portland, Oregon...I love this place.)
I designed and ordered a teaser slide show from them to get things started. (It's so easy! You can use photos, or colored backdrops, and you can add text over any of them!)
There were so many details I felt I needed to share with him before we took off, that I decided to create a book from my most favorite book design company.
I ended up crafting this book with all of the pages done in a chalkboard backdrop, and creamy letters, with pops of orange throughout. I answred the who-what-when-where-and-why's and then walked him through the day-by-day itinerary of the milestone birthday surprise. You can see (and read!)my book creation here.
Suffice to say, the presentation of my Rock and Roll Buddy's Big 6-0 Birthday present was spot on!
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My Rock and Roll Buddy just celebrated a milestone birthday, and I've been plotting and planning his birthday surprise since last October.
I'm a little over-the-top like that.
Here's the thing you need to know. Once his birthday passed last year, he mentioned (more than once) that he didn't want a big party with black balloons and over-the-hill banners, with a cake all ablaze with a gajillion candles and people singing.
And, because I know him well, I knew he meant that.
Still, he knows me just as well, and so he knows that I struggle to not make every occasion, big or small, a major event.
Anyway, I was determined to make his milestone birthday a moment to rememeber forever, in a way he would love, and I had an idea, way back last fall.
I thought I would take him to a fantastic concert. A band or singer he hadn't seen and would be gobsmacked to know we had tickets for.
Only, I couldn't find such a thing.
And so, I moaned and groaned and whined quite a little bit, and thought and thought, and still, nothing came to mind.
And that's when one of my gal-pals at work ignited an idea that exploded into the perfect present for Mister I-don't-want-a-party.
I'll share her nearly-too-perfect-for-words idea tomorrow, but for today, I thought I would start by sharing the birthday boy's present's wrap job.
(Are you wondering what she came up with?)
...
So, let's talk gift wrap.
And making your presents extra special by customizing the wrap job.
My signature wrap is brown kraft paper, and then I embellish things from there. In this case, there were two very special packages to be wrapped.
I wrapped the first present in my kraft paper. I added black and white gingham ribbon, and shred. I layered torn paper streamers, and followed this with some black satin ribbon, along with a homemade tag that I knew would make him chuckle.
The smaller present came to me in a small white box, so all I did was find a perfect picture online. (I googled electric guitars in "Images" online and then added my own text in my cheesy print program, but sites like PicMonkey can do the same thing for you.)
Once I printed the picture, I mounted it on black paper and glued it to the top of the box. Once this was done, I turned the box upside down and added a ribbon and another great little homemade tag with a small clue as to what might be coming his way.
(Can you guess?)
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