Dan's 30th Birthday

...was on Thursday, August 4th. To celebrate, he went golfing with his Dad, brother-in-law, Glenn, & his brother, Tom. I had arranged a birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, Don Pablo’s, & invited his best friend, Greg, & Greg’s girlfriend, Amanda, to join us. His birthday present from me was a new Sirius satellite radio for his truck & I baked him his favorite cake: After dinner & drinks, the 4 of us went back to our house & had cake & ice cream.

Since Dan was turning the big 3-0 I thought it was appropriate to have a surprise party. He usually despises his birthday & definitely doesn’t look forward to it each year, but this year he was open to the idea of celebrating & even welcomed turning 30. I coordinated with a bar in Ashburn a little over a month before August to have the party (Ashburn Sports Bar & Grill); I also took him there for dinner several weeks before to make sure he liked it & also liked the food.

We had part of the bar filled with family & friends, including my family who was nice enough to make the trip. Dan was totally surprised & even though I thought he knew exactly what was going on a few weeks before the party, he had absolutely no idea - thankfully. =]

Now on to the photos! Below is a video that I took when Dan walked into the bar & everyone yelled “surprise!”

Unfortunately, I cut the video short just as he was saying “now this is a surprise!” He was so cute & very happy.

I also put together a slideshow due to the amount of photos that I took, friends took & family took. Enjoy!


We all had a great time & of course the birthday boy did too. Throughout the night he made comments to me such as, “this is so nice;” “I’ve never been surprised like this before;” “you did a great job;” “I had no idea!” “Thank you so much.” All of the stress that came with planning this party & trying to keep it a secret was well worth it when I saw the smile on his face as he walked in the door.

Happy Birthday, my love. You deserve only the best & I hope you enjoyed yourself on your special day.