Rob's Birthday

Friday, September 5, 2008

Rob's 32nd Birthday fell on a Friday this year. Sadly, he had a rough work week. When he got home from work, he said he wanted to keep his celebration "low-key". Unlike me, Rob is not a big birthday person.

So, we started out with his favorite brew.

Then, we went out to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant. Our buddy Kevin came along for the ride.

Sanamuluang Cafe
5170 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027

If you click on the photo of our feast, each dish is named.

CIMG1421, originally uploaded by RobisCooking.

Because we ate year old cake for our anniversary and felt cheated, I ordered this for Rob's Birthday.

Cupcake Collage, originally uploaded by RobisCooking

I custom ordered it from Leda's Bakeshop. They were delicious, but a teeny tiny bit pricey. Of course, we had to snap a few pictures with the oh-so-cute cupcakes.

I have Rob in the palm of my hands... MUHAHAHAHA

And then we decided to play with our food. We came up with this...

and this....

It's all about Janice;)

Saturday, April 23, 2008

After all the preparation, the day of Janice's Shower finally arrived. Wendy, Debra, Debra's husband Nate, Jordana, and I began setting up for the party. As I am not gifted in the kitchen, I left food prep to Wendy, Debra, and Jordana. My contribution to the food was a mixed berry salad that Rob made. I arranged the menagerie of flowers that I had purchased the day before at the Flower Mart.

Here is the day as told in pictures.

Janice - the guest of honor with the first of many cocktails.

Martha Stewart Favor Box with the tag I designed

Flower Arrangement with the Favor Boxes

The delicious spread

Cheese platter, Bruschetta, and Rob's Mixed Berry Salad

More Flower Madness

The Pink Lemonade Cocktail that was so strong that I only had 1 glass

Pomanders

What's a shower without gifts?

More Flower Love

Me, Wendy, & Joe

Janice & Jordana

Our shower hostesses Wendy and Debra decided to spare us the agony of too many boring shower games. No toilet paper dresses here! Thank God! Instead, we were split up into two teams and played "Janice Jeopardy". The questions were divided up into categories based on different periods of Janice's life. This allowed everyone to participate.

Wendy says, "Let the Games Begin!"

To keep things interesting, Janice had to play "Do you Really Know J.D.?". Among all the categories, there were 4 blank categories. If she selected a blank one, she had to wear a gag article of clothing. This game was also fun because it gave us all some additional insight into J.D. and his life.

Debra was in charge of Janice's trivia questions about J.D.

Jordana wants to know how anyone is supposed to know the answers to some of these questions.

When the games were done, Janice looked like this

Janice models her Disney Princess tiara, Big Mama Bra, Granny Panties, and Trailer Trash Bandanna

At the end of our game, we looked like this

Ernessa with her Victoria's Secret Lip Gloss

Carrie, Carrie, and Jennifer check out their winnings

Apparently, Joe like the lip gloss AND the bow that came with the box

After the game, there was dessert.

Leda's Cupcakes, Chocolate Covered Cheesecake Bites, and Jordana's Homemade Cannoli and Scones

Jordana is popping in to say "hi"

I'm trying to run away with the Leda's cupcakes

The Granny Panties made the rounds.

Joe decided to try them on.

... as did Michelle

Then Janice opened her gifts.

Janice got some sexy pieces in addition to her game prizes

Janice opens her gift. My co-paparazzi/ partner-in-crime snaps a pic

A Hula Hello Kitty in honor of her Hawaiian Honeymoon

She also received gifts from her registry

and some other things that no one else could appreciate;)

At the end of the night, we were all pooped. Janice was tipsy and happy. And, I'll take that as a sign that it was a good party.

Celebrating the One Year Mark

photo of Jalama Beach from Rockhoundblog

For our anniversary, we jetted out of town for a short little trip to Jalama Beach. Sorry kiddies. No pictures. I forgot to charge my camera battery. We had a good time nonetheless.

Upon our return to L.A. we had a small celebration.

First, Rob bought me these.

I have a fondness for button mums.

According to tradition, 1st Anniversary gift is paper. So, we bought these.

A handful of lotto scratchers. The only thing we won was a free ticket.

We purchased this print from husband and wife illustrator team Kozyndan.

It's the last print in a series of prints we've been collecting. We originally started buying the series because I love ukiyo-e prints. These are not your typical ukiyo-e prints because if you look really carefully, there are bunnies throughout the piece. The bunnies are small homage to the fact that I was born during lunar year of the Rabbit.

Lastly, we ordered a customized version of this print by Jennifer Ramos of MadebyGirl. Instead of the highlighted letters spelling "Love", it will spell "Anne and Rob".

Of course, Rob made dinner.

Bone-in Ribeye Steak with Roasted New Potatoes, Carrots and Asparagus

We opted to do one more traditional thing. We had year- old wedding cake for dessert.

This is what our delicious cake from Leda's Bakeshop looked like last year at our reception.

This is the slice that I vacuumed sealed in a Foodsaver bag

Here it is with the seal broken on the bag

I defrosted the cake in our refrigerator per instructions I found on the internet. Sadly, it still tasted horrendous. I suspect it may be because I waited a tad too long to vacuum seal and freeze a piece. Thankfully, there are no photos of us actually eating the cake. The faces we made while eating the cake would probably horrify people and scare small children. I ate one bite and called it a done deal. Rob was braver than me and ate a good couple of bites. We then used the sad wedding cake as an excuse to get ice cream.

This is how we celebrated our 1st anniversary. No big fanfare, no fancy gifts. Although, I told Rob that he still owned me a kickass trip to somewhere exotic;)