Suburbanites in the city or celebrating Donnie's dad's 70th birthday
On Sunday, we headed downtown (Dayton) to celebrate Donnie's dad's 70th birthday at Spaghetti Warehouse. Normally we stay in the 'burbs and celebrate his birthday at Marion's Pizza but for this milestone birthday, we deviated from the norm. We decided to meet at the restaurant at 3:00 pm for an early dinner slash late lunch. Abby had a solo dance practice at 6:00 pm so as long as we left the restaurant at 5:00 we would be fine. As it turned out, we had to rush the end part of our eating to make it out of the restaurant by 5:00 pm. Having to watch the clock (or the iPhone as it were) was the one downside. Well, there was one other downside: our bill. Dinner for five people- legit; then we picked up the tab for Donnie's dad's dinner- legit; then the waitress added both appetizers to our meal despite us ordering one and Donnie's sister ordering one- not what we were expecting; then the waitress added Uncle Doug's meal to our bill- not what we were expecting. So our bill ended up being "enhanced" by a few dollars :). We were too busy by the time we got the bill trying to get out of the restaurant and back to Springboro for Abby's dance practice to take the time to remedy the bill. Uncle Doug did try to give us money for his meal but we didn't take any. We didn't take him out for his birthday this year so we said that was his birthday meal from us :). The bill, one of so many large charges this month, is January's problem (or rather our problem in January!) !!
The upsides to the meal were many. I'd forgotten how good the food is at Spaghetti Warehouse and how big the portions are. Donnie loves the sourdough bread. The kids all really liked it, too (they'd eaten here before but it had been a few years and they didn't remember it at all). Between the bread, appetizers, and salad, no one was too hungry when our food arrived. Alyssa and I ended up boxing up most of our meals because we'd eaten so much before dinner. Donnie didn't finish all of his meal and boxed the remainder of his up, too. We ended up with four boxes of leftovers, between our leftover meals, appetizer, and bread.
It was also good to see people from Donnie's dad side whom we don't see too often. We will be seeing everyone who was at the dinner at our house on Christmas. The Christmas dinner/ meal is one that I prepare so being able to visit with family when I don't have to be in charge of the meal was appealing to me :).
The restaurant has a small area up front where candy is sold. Donnie got a huge kick out of seeing boxes of candy cigarettes for sale. The Spaghetti Warehouse didn't get the PC police's memo about candy cigarettes!! Donnie may have purchased a box or two or six for the girls... We would never encourage our kids to actually like tobacco products but buying a box (or six) of candy cigarettes and giving them to the kids doesn't seem harmful. My ultra conservative parents (they didn't use any tobacco products or drink any alcohol) let my siblings and me partake of candy cigarettes from time to time and they were not a gateway candy to the real thing :). Donnie also enjoyed cig candy as a child without harmful effects. So as an ode to the 80's and a slap in the face to the PC police, the girls found themselves with candy cigarettes. It is definitely not the 80's anymore. Donnie was telling the kids that he was buying the cigs because it's hard to find them anymore when Alyssa suggested that he could probably find them on Amazon and buy them.
We enjoyed celebrating Don's 70th birthday with him. He was a good dad to Donnie when Donnie was a child (despite buying him candy cigarettes) and still is a good dad to this day. He's very supportive of the all the grandkids' activities. We couldn't stay at the restaurant long enough to eat cake and so I didn't get any pictures of him :(. I was planning on taking pictures of Don with the cake and with family members but we had to leave before then.
I took a few pictures before dinner of our downtown adventure.
We didn't have to pay for parking in a lot we found near the restaurant. Free parking is one perk in an unrevitilized downtown. The downside- views like this:
Springboro suburbanites make their way to the restaurant...
Inside the restaurant- Abby wanted to pose :).
With her bestie :)
... and this guy
Candy cigarettes are cool!!
Not great cigarette holding technique but that's definitely a good thing!
This lasagna/ spaghetti meatball plate complete with little flag was too pretty not to photograph
A post dinner smoke...
Good times in downtown Dayton!!
The upsides to the meal were many. I'd forgotten how good the food is at Spaghetti Warehouse and how big the portions are. Donnie loves the sourdough bread. The kids all really liked it, too (they'd eaten here before but it had been a few years and they didn't remember it at all). Between the bread, appetizers, and salad, no one was too hungry when our food arrived. Alyssa and I ended up boxing up most of our meals because we'd eaten so much before dinner. Donnie didn't finish all of his meal and boxed the remainder of his up, too. We ended up with four boxes of leftovers, between our leftover meals, appetizer, and bread.
It was also good to see people from Donnie's dad side whom we don't see too often. We will be seeing everyone who was at the dinner at our house on Christmas. The Christmas dinner/ meal is one that I prepare so being able to visit with family when I don't have to be in charge of the meal was appealing to me :).
The restaurant has a small area up front where candy is sold. Donnie got a huge kick out of seeing boxes of candy cigarettes for sale. The Spaghetti Warehouse didn't get the PC police's memo about candy cigarettes!! Donnie may have purchased a box or two or six for the girls... We would never encourage our kids to actually like tobacco products but buying a box (or six) of candy cigarettes and giving them to the kids doesn't seem harmful. My ultra conservative parents (they didn't use any tobacco products or drink any alcohol) let my siblings and me partake of candy cigarettes from time to time and they were not a gateway candy to the real thing :). Donnie also enjoyed cig candy as a child without harmful effects. So as an ode to the 80's and a slap in the face to the PC police, the girls found themselves with candy cigarettes. It is definitely not the 80's anymore. Donnie was telling the kids that he was buying the cigs because it's hard to find them anymore when Alyssa suggested that he could probably find them on Amazon and buy them.
We enjoyed celebrating Don's 70th birthday with him. He was a good dad to Donnie when Donnie was a child (despite buying him candy cigarettes) and still is a good dad to this day. He's very supportive of the all the grandkids' activities. We couldn't stay at the restaurant long enough to eat cake and so I didn't get any pictures of him :(. I was planning on taking pictures of Don with the cake and with family members but we had to leave before then.
I took a few pictures before dinner of our downtown adventure.
We didn't have to pay for parking in a lot we found near the restaurant. Free parking is one perk in an unrevitilized downtown. The downside- views like this:
Springboro suburbanites make their way to the restaurant...
Inside the restaurant- Abby wanted to pose :).
With her bestie :)
... and this guy
Candy cigarettes are cool!!
Not great cigarette holding technique but that's definitely a good thing!
This lasagna/ spaghetti meatball plate complete with little flag was too pretty not to photograph
A post dinner smoke...
Good times in downtown Dayton!!
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