Tag Archives: happy birthday

Jun5

Johnny’s Birthday Shenanigans

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Johnny’s Birthday Shenanigans

Hello!! This past Saturday was Johnny’s 35th birthday and the kick start to our birthaversary season. Our respective birthdays and wedding anniversary felt like forever away. Then, before we knew it, May was done and it was time for your two favorite Geminis to take over! For my birthday this Friday, we are going to the Olive Garden and renting the new Strangers movie at home. Johnny requested a birthday dinner too and wanted some of our friends to come by on his big day. Although his original dinner spot was a bust, it was still a banner time indeed!

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Our Plan A for the birthday boy was to go out to eat at Outback Steakhouse on Friday. Despite there being literally nothing for this vegetarian at Outback, it’s not every day your husband turns thirty-five! After work, we made our way to the restaurant and we were both verging on hangry. We were leaving early enough that we assumed we would get seated right away. However, as the old saying goes, assume makes an ass out of U and ME lol. Apparently, everyone and their brother was graduating from school that day and the parking lot was filled with people ready to celebrate. With a line out the door, we had to pivot to Plan B and went down the street at an Akron staple restaurant called Rockne’s.

Rockne’s is one of Johnny’s favorite restaurants and we finally ended up going together. It’s not like I didn’t want to go with him before. But, like Outback, there is literally nothing for this vegetarian to eat at Rockne’s! On the bright side, we got seated immediately, drinks were served, and we were both beyond ready for our meal. Johnny got a gigantic sub and I went for their Cajun pasta. It was no TGI Fridays (Their Cajun pasta is the BEST!), that’s for sure but at least my hanger was satisfied! After our dinner date, we went home to play some games and tuck in early for Johnny’s big day.

On Saturday, we spent the first half of Johnny’s birthday preparing the apartment for our guests and hanging out. By the time the evening rolled around, it was SO on! My brother and our bestie, Cliff, came over first and we had a blast playing some Mario Party all together. Then, my brother headed home and our friend Ty joined as shortly afterwards. It was so nice to catch up because we have all been so busy that we haven’t seen each other in what felt like ages. About an hour into our get together, I couldn’t wait to go to bed and Johnny set me up with a bowl of cereal and put Tarzan on TV upstairs. From our room, I could still hear the guys playing music, games, and laughing constantly. It’s safe to say that the party definitely was still going without this sleepy gal!

On Sunday, Johnny and I spent the day recovering from all of the birthday fun. It was a small price to pay for the best time celebrating my amazing guy!

How old are you turning this year? How do you like to celebrate your birthday? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Jun1

Happy Birthday, Johnny!!

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Happy Birthday, Johnny!!

Hello!!! Today is a fantastic, wonderful day because it is my darling husband’s thirty-fifth birthday!! Johnny’s big day kick starts our month of birthaversary celebrations and it is, truly, the happiest time of the year. I celebrate my main squeeze every day, but it just hits different on his b-day. Johnny is the absolute best. He’s my A1 ride or die bestie and everything feels better since we have been together for almost five years. And, of course, he is too cute to boot too:

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Johnny makes everything in life so much more fun. Whether we are going out or staying in, it’s nonstop laughter, goofing off, and silliness every step of the way. Even though he is five years older than me, he keeps me young lol. The simplest things like going out to dinner or a movie feel like an adventure while video game or TV marathons on the couch are like a cozy cocoon that I never want to leave. Johnny has such a bright, outgoing, and joyous personality. Most importantly, though, he is so genuinely kind to everyone he encounters and it is always beautiful and refreshing to be around.

I remember mine and Johnny’s first date like it was yesterday. Drinks on the patio of our favorite bar on a random Thursday in late summer. I am pleased to report that in our extensive tenure as a couple that the first date feelings haven’t gone away. If anything, they have only intensified the longer we’ve been together. It sounds cheesy, but whenever we are reunited after work it feels like I am seeing him for the very first time even though it has only been eightish hours! I am clearly getting all sentimental on my hubby’s birthday, but we really were a “love at first sight” situation and that is SO worth getting in the feels for. ❤

Happy birthday to my Johnny! I can’t wait to celebrate our birthaversary and many, many more together. I love you!!!!

May31

Blogging Bestie Birthday Gift

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Blogging Bestie Birthday Gift

Hello darlings!!! This past weekend, I received the most fabulous box of birthday greetings from my blogging bestie, Kate, of Live In The Nautical. Kate and I became fast friends when lifewithlilred came into existence almost a decade ago and my life simply wouldn’t be the same without her. She is the absolute best friend a gal could ask for and even though we are in opposite states, I always feel like she is right next door when we are texting or FaceTiming. For my Dirty Thirty, Kate spoiled me with my favorite thing – spooky surprises from Brightside Organics! Check it out:

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Kate and I are Gemini twins and our June birthdays are only six days apart. Just like me and Johnny! This is a time of year that we revel in and it is so much fun to celebrate each other together – even more than we already do every day lol. Our siren call when gifts are on the way is “you’ve got mail” and it is most exciting. Kate is one of my all time favorite people to shop for and she shares the same sentiments about me. I always know that her gifts are going to be on point for her horror loving BFF and this gift was no exception.

For my birthday, Kate treated me to all kinds of enticing products from Brightside Organics. Body butter, soaps, candles, and a bonus surprise. The skull candle doubles as a lidded glass. I was wondering why a plastic straw was included in the gift box and then it all made sense lol. I love the tombstone shaped bar soaps and they smell exactly like a crisp autumn day. The scent is called Magical Brew and is the same for the skull candle and body butter. My You A Spooky Bitch (And proud of it!) candle is of a lovely lavender and sage and it will be perfect to burn while winding down at the end of the day. I also thought it was such a cool touch that a little vial of matchsticks were included.

Because I get so much free product from Bath & Body Works, bath and body care is never on my agenda to buy for myself. And, while I like the idea of having candles in my apartment, I never replenish them once they have burned out. Regardless, Kate knows that I love stuff like this and makes it a point to make sure I get some for my big day. We both are all for the pampering route of self care and I always look forward to seeing which products she enjoys for herself that I would like by default. What can I say, her and I are insanely similar and, as per usual, this gift set knocked it out of the park!

I can’t wait to test out all of my new goodies and begin browsing for gifts for Kate’s upcoming birthday too. I am so lucky to have a BFF like her! ❤

What is your favorite thing to be gifted with? Are you and your BFF really similar to each other? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May24

Bowling Bonanza

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Bowling Bonanza

Hello!! On Sunday, I did the impossible. What is it? I went bowling with fake nails! Lol, granted, I employed the rolling/throwing technique to protect the talons but I still think it counts! For my brother’s birthday, we want bowling at Clutch Lanes, a cool little bowling alley down the street. It was the perfect atmosphere for a party and they had phenomenal pizza, which I feel like you can’t say about many bowling allies. This was the first time I had gone bowling in close to a decade and even though I wasn’t bowling properly and getting hella gutter balls, it was still a blast!

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Bowling is one of those things that Johnny has suggested before and I had no interest in. It definitely takes me back to the dreaded years of middle school when the classes would go bowling before summer break. I always hated it lol and the last time I went bowling was on a date with an awful person. Needless to say, bowling is never high on my list of potential weekend activities. Until now, that is. I guess you just have to go bowling with the right people because that made all of the difference!

For close to two hours, Johnny, Andrew, and I dominated the lanes. Well, Johnny and Andrew did really good and I was humbled by my score of 27 on game one. I am pleased to report that I improved during our time and had a high score of 51. Not too bad for someone who is basically just throwing the bowling ball lol. Regardless of if we did well on our turns, we celebrated hard. Victory dances, cheering, whooping – the whole nine yards. And, whenever a strike or spare was scored we celebrated harder. If this is what bowling is, I deeply regret waiting this long to try it again.

During our time at the bowling alley, we all decided that this is going to be our new thing. The way Johnny and I see it, there is no other sport that encourages you to eat and drink booze while playing! Our plan is to start doing monthly or bimonthly trips to the bowling alley with Andrew and our bestie Cliff to form an informal friendship league. Maybe we’ll even shoot some content for a fake bowling documentary we made up called “Ballz: A Bowling Story”. We have several ideas for this and I think it would be hilarious if we turned it into a web series. We’ll see what happens. 😀

Not going to lie, I was sore AF the following day after hurling a bowling ball for two hours straight. But, it was so worth it and fun and I can’t wait to go again!

What is your favorite sport to play with friends? Do you go bowling often? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

May16

Super Early Birthaversary Presents

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Super Early Birthaversary Presents

Hello!!! June is a banner month for Johnny and I because it marks our birthaversary. Johnny has his birthday on June first, our wedding anniversary is the fourth, and my birthday is on the seventh. It is such fun to be able to celebrate all of these special occasions and in true us fashion, we have already given each other a majority of our gifts. What can I say, we’re both horrible at keeping secrets lol. While I was perfectly content with waiting for June for a gift exchange, Johnny picked up some prezzies for me this past Friday and didn’t want to wait to give them to me. As luck would have it, I brought home his gifts that day too! Check it out:

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One of my biggest gripes about our apartment is our lack of shelves. We have so many awesome knick knacks and Lego sets and they need a home. Granted, we can’t do much about it with the minimal space we have. This is where the shelving unit that Johnny got me comes into play. His plan is to haul out our broken record player desk with a friend, build the shelf, and add a few more to fully display our collections. I am beyond excited for this because it is something that I wanted to happen for a long while. I think it’s going to be so much fun to rearrange all of our mementos in a more pleasing fashion and I can’t wait to see the end result.

Johnny also gifted me with a new Harry Potter Lego set – Dumbledore’s Office. We haven’t built Lego together since the wintertime so we were definitely due for a new set! Building Lego with Johnny is one of my favorite things and if they weren’t so damned expensive, our apartment would be full of them. Although it would be amazing to have an infinite supply of Lego, I quite like the sporadic sets we give to each other. It keeps the novelty of building alive and I love when we plan an evening in to complete the set together. And, yes, it will look lovely displayed on our new shelves! 😀

I have had Johnny’s gifts planned for a while – probably the past two months which is when we last watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It is one of our all time favorite any time movies and it’s our tradition to watch it every Christmas with his family. Whenever we have a viewing, Johnny always brings up two things without fail. 1) He wants a moose mug SO bad. 2) He wants the dinosaur pajamas that Clark wears in the attic scene SO bad. So, of course I had to make it happen! His reaction to these gifts was the absolute sweetest and it was literal kid on Christmas Day level. I was so happy to have given him something that has been on his wish list for forever and he looks adorable in his jammies. 🙂

Even though our birthaversary is still several weeks away, I am so okay with this early start to the festivities. We have a few more gifts in mind for each other and I can’t wait to celebrate our upcoming week of us!

How do you like to celebrate your birthday? What is on your birthday wish list? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr29

Turning Thirty (Ahhhh!!)

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Turning Thirty (Ahhhh!!)

Hello!!! June is an exciting month for Johnny and I because we celebrate our birthaversary. Johnny has his thirty-fifth birthday on the first, our three year wedding anniversary is on the fourth, and I will be turning thirty on the seventh. While this is a banner time to be us, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t a tad nervous about turning the dirty thirty. There’s something about not being in my twenties that just doesn’t sit right with me lol!

On Wednesday, my sister came over for a quick visit. She told me that she showed the pictures of my new hair to my niece, Val, and lil bestie had an interesting response to it. She said “Wow, TT looks so young“. And just when I thought I couldn’t love her any more than I already do! This was actually the third or fourth time I have gotten this compliment over the past month when people find out I’m turning thirty. I’ve got to say, I now understand why people love to hear it because it has definitely helped soften the blow of my milestone birthday.

Thanks to the handful of “wow, you don’t look thirty at all” that I have received, I am feeling more okay about June seventh. Yes, it was nice to hear that I don’t look my age. But, it was nicer to hear that my personality doesn’t reflect it either. In my head, I am still a twenty something and I think that’s the most important thing. This is something that I have been reminding myself of because the cliche is so true – you’re only as old as you feel. I think once the initial shock of entering a new decade wears off, I will feel much better. But, for now, I will be using these positive affirmations to get me through and they are already working wonders!

Normally, I am psyched for my birthday. It feels strange to have anxiety about an exciting day, but I think a big party will ease the nerves so I have that going for me!! 😀

How do you feel about your birthday? Which age were you nervous to turn? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Apr6

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!

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Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!

Hello everyone! Today is a fantastic, wonderful day because it is my dad’s birthday!! Although my dad is not the fondest of another year around the sun, I am most fond of celebrating him every day. He deserves it! My dad is one of a kind. He is freaking hilarious, smart as a tack, brave, and you will never find a more caring husband/dad/granddad in the whole world. I think my mom and dad are the cutest couple and it’s extremely apparent where I got my good looks from!

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One thing that I love the most about my dad (Other than everything!) is his passion for nature. He has single-handedly turned our backyard into a safe haven for all kinds of wildlife and plants. With the start of spring, the wildlife windows he created have been popping and it’s so cool to watch wild bunnies run and play, the occasional groundhog scampering around, and see all of the flowers he has planted get ready to bloom. I am looking forward to planting more with him hopefully very soon!

Another cool thing about my dad is that he is always up for trying something new. New recipes, new places for vacation, new activities. In fact, just the other day him and my mom decided they might go to a line dancing class together. SO adorable! He really does have an adventurous spirit and even after forty plus years of marriage, he is still finding new ways for him and my mom to have fun together. It makes me admire their relationship even more. ❤

No matter how old I get, I will forever be a daddy’s girl and I have the best one. I love you, dad!!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mar22

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!

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Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!

Hello everyone! Today is a fantastic, wonderful day because it is my amazing mom’s birthday!! My mom is my A1, ride or die bestie and every second of every minute spent with her is a joy. She is the most fun, hilarious, beautiful person I will ever know and I hit the jackpot being her daughter. Not only is my mom the best on the planet, but she is also the best grandma too of four kiddos and two bunnies. 🙂 Every day, I am thankful beyond words for my mom who is the brightest light to everyone she meets.

My mom is a pillar of strength and grace. She is a fighter, a badass, and a constant source of inspiration to me. I am lucky because I get to see my mom almost every day of the week and when we are not together, we are texting away about how much we miss each other! I know that we can both go to each other about anything and everything and it is so special to be able to have that kind of relationship. No matter how old I get, she is the first one I go to for advice, a kind word, or a shoulder to cry on. We are and forever will be two peas in a pod, best of friends, and an unshakable mother/daughter duo! ❤

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Mom, thank you for being you and all you do. I wouldn’t be me without you!!! I love you more than words will ever say!

Happy birthday to you!!!!!!!! ❤

Mar15

Treat Day!!

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Treat Day!!

Hello!! This past week, our darling niece turned five years old! Both Johnny and I are SO not okay about Val being the big five, but we had so much fun celebrating it. For Val’s birthday, we took her out for a Treat Day. What is a treat day, you might ask? It basically solidifies my husband and I as the “fun aunt and uncle” lol. On treat day, we take Val out for one major activity as well as lunch, ice cream, shopping or whatever her little heart desires. For her birthday outing, we went to Fun ‘n’ Stuff and Dairy Queen and it was the best, most exhausting day haha. Check it out:

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Fun ‘n’ Stuff is a staple in Northeast Ohio and has been around for as long as I can remember. In fact, I went there for field trips in grade school! It is an indoor/outdoor attraction center, but we were limited to indoor activities because the outdoor ones aren’t open yet. This was fine, though, because there was so much to do inside that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else! The indoor attractions at Fun ‘n’ Stuff include a gigantic playground, a ton of arcade games, roller skating, laser tag, bumper cars, a mini rollercoaster, and so much more. We can’t wait to take Val again in the summer so she can do the outdoor activities too like bumper boats, go karts, and little amusement park rides!

For our Fun ‘n’ Stuff adventure, Val was extremely partial to the playground. It was the first thing that caught her eye and it would have been hard not to – this thing was like a McDonald’s Play Place on steroids! We spent a majority of our time there running after Val as she explored all of the different obstacles and ended up circling back to it at least three times. When we weren’t at the playground, Val loved doing the trampoline bounce and playing games with Johnny and I. We also took adorable photo booth pictures which I’m so happy about because those are my favorite keepsakes. ❤

At the arcade, we went for easy games that Val could catch on to quickly, but still reward us with maximum tickets. Johnny and I were dead set on getting ALL of the tickets for her to pick out prizes with! By the time we were finished with games like ball drop, token toss, and Wheel of Fortune we had fourteen hundred tickets for Val to shop with. We were thrilled that Val was able to get two stuffed animals and some extra candy for her stash with them. After we cashed out our tickets, we went to Dairy Queen for a snack, and dropped Val off at home. Then, we came back to our apartment and literally dropped!

Johnny and I legit couldn’t move after Treat Day, but it was a small price to pay for such a wonderful time. We all had a blast and it was the perfect way to celebrate our sweet niece! ❤

What is your favorite arcade game? Do you have an amusement center like Fun ‘n’ Stuff in your neck of the woods? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Jun13

Happy Birthday, Best Friend!

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Happy Birthday, Best Friend!

Hello!!!!!! Today is a fantastic, wonderful day because it is my best friend, Kate’s, birthday! Kate of Live In The Nautical is my sweet angel Gemini Twin and it is our happiest time of the year. The blog gods and stars and whatever else truly aligned when I started lifewithlilred because they brought me an instant BFF. Comment and blog collabs quickly turned into texting nonstop and FaceTime dates and nothing has changed in almost a decade. Wait… pretend you didn’t read that last part because we both turned twenty-five this year! 😉

Kate is such a firecracker and a force to be reckoned with. She gives so much, does everything at 150%, and asks for nothing in return. She reminds me so much of me and with all of our similarities from our upbringing and hobbies to current struggles, we really were destined to be best friends. Whether we need a laugh or a vent sesh, we both know who to go to and it is nothing short of an honor to be that person for Kate.

Even though Kate and I are in completely different states, it always feels like she could be right next door whenever we talk. We have probably texted each other a Stephen King length novel in our years of twinship! Johnny now knows without even having to ask who I’m texting when I’m feverishly typing away and always pauses whatever we are watching until my novella is complete lol. What can I say, we just have a lot to say to each other!

My life is SO much better because Kate is a part of it and anyone who has the pleasure of meeting her will say the exact same thing. Her personality and the way she chooses her words can connect with perfect strangers and I know that firsthand! I am the luckiest gal in the world to call Kate my best friend and she deserves to be celebrated every second of every minute of every day. And, even more so on her birthday!!!

Happy Birthday, Gemini Twin! I love you!!!!! ❤