Tag Archives: Birthday

Friends, Music, Photo-A-Day

Allison’s Super Secret Birthday Surprise

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Ellis Paul Chasing Beauty
Photo-A-Day #4684

This year was one of the big ones as far as birthdays go. Allison was the one who had the big one this time around. I knew I had to do something special. I didn’t go for the big party or anything like that. Instead I set up a special night that I knew she would love.

I booked tickets for us to see Allison’s favorite singer-songwriter, Ellis Paul. We’ve been going to Ellis Paul concerts about as along as we have been together. His song, words was our wedding song and his children’s books came out the same year that we had Eva and then Andrew. Eva’s first concert was an Ellison Paul concert seven years ago at a Wareham Barnes & Noble.

When we were younger we would go to folk concerts all the time. Ellis was always a favorite. I saw that he was going to be in New Hampshire in February so I hatched a plan. I completely made a mistake about the venue I thought it was a venue that we had been to before, but more about that later. So, seeing as Ellis was going to be in New Hampshire I contacted Allison’s best friend, Michele and asked if she and her husband wanted to go to the concert with us. They were available and so the surprise’s awesomeness tripled.

Cut to tonight.

I picked Allison up after school and punched the venue into my Google Maps. It was then that I realized the venue was not the same one we had gone to back in October of 2005. that was the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, NH which used to be at the same exit that we would have taken to go visit Michele. Instead we were going to the Flying Goose in New London, NH. There is a big difference between the two places, namely an additional hour drive. I panicked slightly because I had figured on us getting up to the venue in about 2 hours even with traffic. And had we been going to Tupelo (where it was in 2005) we would have been there in those 2 hours. We actually stopped at that exit to grab Allison a Tea before getting back on the road for another 45 minutes north. I’m glad that I decided to punch the venue into the GPS program or else I would have gone to a building that no longer housed Tupelo (it moved to Derry, NH). Continue reading Allison’s Super Secret Birthday Surprise →

Family, Food, Photo-A-Day

Happy Birthday Allison 2018

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Allisons birthday
Photo-A-Day #4656

Today was Allison’s birthday. We went out to Park Street Ale House and Eatery. It is in the center of town and we have never been there. Allison saw at great pretzel for an appetizer and that hooked us in. They had a great selection of beers there, too. Allison tried a small flight and liked two out of the four of them. I tried one and it was terrible. It had way too many smells and flavors and the aftertaste was as if someone wrung out a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

The kid were enjoying the place, too. Andrew and Eva are so polite. They also loved the placemats, they had some of the best coloring pages we’ve ever seen.

I took the photo of Allison and posted it to Facebook while we were eating and when we got our desserts we got a big surprise. Our good friends, the Prestons arrived to have dinner, too. they saw the post and took a chance that we were still there. Andrew was so thrilled to see the girls. He dive tackle-hugged them from a running start. Too many times for my liking but he loves them and they are tickled by his antics. It was great to see them and it was a fun capper to our night out.