On September 7th Jake turned 35!
For almost a year I have been planning and brainstorming plans for his birthday. It's not 30, and it's not 40, but 35 is a milestone in my eyes! I knew there had to be friends, family, meat and bow ties involved. Some of his favorite things.
Jake wears a tie every single day to work (except for the occasional No-Tie-Tuesday), a far cry form my jeans and t-shirt work attire, so he really embraces the whole business casual thing. I give him credit, he manages to look sharp everyday and never complains about 'being dressed up' while I roll out of the house in jean shorts and a tank top. He has over 75 long ties and has recently been sporting lots of bow ties. I am all for the bow tie and not so much for the Christmas Rudolph or NYC Taxi ties. However, I cannot and don't complain, he receives ties as gifts from kids all the time and a lot of them are really special to him.
As far as the meat goes, Jake loves a BBQ joint or anything BBQ related. One of the first get togethers we had as a couple was New Years day 2012. Jake ordered some crazy amount of meat from Salt Lick, a BBQ restaurant in Austin Texas that he just dies over. We had some friends and family over and ate loads of pork, sausage, ribs and all the fixin's.
How do you combine barbecued beef, bow ties and a birthday?! Easy...
Friday, his actual birthday, The Cooper Boys drove in from Connecticut. I had already been planning on Union Pig and Chicken for dinner so when the boys decided to come to Pittsburgh I knew that was the right choice. They also love BBQ. Union Pig and Chicken is all around an amazing place. Great vibe, not too big, delicious selection for the meat lover (or the semi meat lover) and good drink selection. I decided on the brisket, cornbread and mac & cheese, of course! Jake and Steve went for the fried chicken... Jake a half and Steve an entire chicken! Mickey and Frank split the 2 meat dinner, ribs and brisket. We all dug in and there was not a complaint in the house. After dinner we went back to Jake's and made ourselves sick on cookies, cheesecake bites and cupcakes. BBQ birthday, check.
This brings us to the party! I like to have a theme and I like to keep parties small. I'll save his 60th to invite the entire town and rent out the local Elks club. Like I said, I had been brainstorming for quite some time about the menu, decorations, etc. I decided on pulled pork, pulled beef (made by my mom!), baked beans, cheesy potatoes and a bunch of dips and sides. I went to Pinterest for dessert ideas and stumbled upon bow tie sugar cookies, thank you Pinterest! I ordered the cookie cutters months ago and even did a test batch to make sure they looked and tasted ok. As for decorations, I asked Jake's mom for baby and kid pictures and did some bow tie garland. Among other things my time at AE has taught me Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator and what better use of my knowledge than to make birthday banners and invitations!
I had prepped pretty well the month or so leading up to birthday week so that allowed time to go to Youngstown Tuesday night and enjoy dinner with some of our best friends and see Hall and Oates at Stage AE on Wednesday night. Jake loves them - Hall, Oates AND Sarah, Natalia, Amanda and Jim!
Some birthday week highlights...
Jake told me it was one of the best Birthdays he has ever had. I love a party and love to give gifts but in the end we love to spend time together. We could have sat at McDonalds, just the two of us, I know he would have been happy and grateful for our time together. That's why I love him, he asked for and expected nothing. That's the thing, when someone puts everyone else first and never thinks of themselves... you want to give them the world.
Happy Birthday Jake. I love you, more than you love 10lbs of pulled pork...
Some wedding updates...
We got some awesome t-shirts from Hot Metal Studio Photography this week and booked our engagement photo shoot for October!
We got an awesome silhouette from a friend, it's framed and up in the house... my house... our journey to combine houses is for another blog day!
What a wonderful birthweek- yes, you know I'm a firm believer in stretching celebrations out as long as possible. You're lucky to have such a caring, giving man in your life, and he's obviously very lucky to have you to shower him with love too. Oh, and Jake may have turned a year older, but Piper found herself an older man (I'm pretty sure she gave Greyson her phone AND her number)
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