Happy B'day Dad

Last Saturday was John’s 32^nd birthday. According to him he now has 3 “good years” left, because it’s all downhill after 35. Wa wa. Anyway, we’re not huge birthday people… I mean we’re over 30, so I don’t think it is necessary to have a whole week dedicated to yourself, parties upon parties complete with bedazzled head wear. But we did find an excuse to have a little “Beer Tasting Extravaganza” to celebrate the occasion. John has been hording a collection of craft beers to crack open on a special occasion, so I suggested we have a beer tasting party on his b’day and crack them open. Well, while John loved this idea, it backfired a bit… he decided that instead of opening the beers he has been holding onto he would instead just buy more "specials ones" for the party (I sort of knew this would happen….any excuse to get more, right?!).

Ian loved getting all the beers for the party. It took John like an hour at the store to pick them out, but thankfully Ian was having a blast in the cart. It was his first time sitting like a big boy in the cart and he loved it...he was scream out & shrieking in excitement.

We decided to take the beer tasting theme to the max. I prepared dinner for the event and every recipe included beer in it….(ie: slow cooked pork in an IPA, or beer glazed black beans). Oh, I also forgot to mention that I had the challenge of finding beer recipes that incorporated tacos (John’s favorite food). Well, we made it happen! I also modified this recipe and made some chocolate stout cupcakes made with Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti from Great Divide... While getting ready for the party I didn't have time for breakfast and lunch so instead I just sampled my cupcakes. What is wrong with a cupcake for b'fast? Nothing. It was so delish I had another for lunch. We've all done this sort of thing before, right? 

Per Krystal's suggestion, Baby Ian worn his special "my daddy is
an arrogant bastard" onsie... seemed very appropriate for dad's b'day :)
Oh, and Arrogant Bastard is a beer for
those who don't know.

The beer tasting was a huge hit! As you can see we sampled more than a few. We really enjoyed doing the tasting and have had people asking when the next one is going to be ... I can promise we're doing it again for sure, and it will be before John turns 33. 

Yes, his cowboy hat was worn all night

Happy Halloween!

Ian celebrated his first Halloween in style as a Monkey! 

I failed as a mom when I brought Ian to daycare costume-less that morning. What was I thinking?! Of course everyone would be dressed up. A little boy (Mason) in his daycare came running up when I walked in the door with Ian that morning and looked up at me with big puppy dog eyes and asked "Um, where is Ian's costume." When I explained that he would wear it later that night...Mason told me to go home and get it right now. So, I did....and as you'll see in the video, the kids loved the lil monkey, but when I shared this with John he told me that Ian was obviously terrified by the kids waving in his face. Ha.

Aren't they all so cute! 

That evening we went over to Krystal and Gretchen's to hand out candy, because we don't get any trick-or-treaters at our house. Literally, we haven't had one in the past 5 years. Though that is about to change... Click here to see a time lapse video of one house in Stapleton on Halloween. They had 1200+ trick-or-treaters, and gave out 28 lbs of candy. Holy crap...that's a lot of kids.  Yeah. Guess we better start saving for Halloween candy now.  John is already working on planning the McG Family Annual Halloween Party.

Monk'ing around with Auntie Em

Auntie K and Baby I

The McG's

Awe! My Babe