Tom's 50th: Big birthday dinner

I made a detailed itinerary for this trip, but made it clear to everyone that all activities were optional except for one: the big Saturday night birthday dinner. 

Here's Tom with the party favor I had made for everyone.  It's a beer bottle koozie that says "Tom's Nifty Fifty, 11/19/18, #putsomebutteronit".  The butter line is my way of teasing Tom since he's been known to suggest putting butter on a burn which is old fashion and not particularly medically sound. 

The restaurant we chose for dinner, Tomastia's (how appropriate!), doesn't take reservations so Mike and Lynz went early to put our name in and wait for the table.  When the rest of us got there, we didn't have much of a wait.  We spent the time taking some pictures.

Here's Leo, Vinnie and Serafina.

Mike, Nicole, Maggie, Tom, Anthony and Kathy.

I got to sit next to the birthday boy.

Nana was stuck at the end of the table with all the kids, but she was a good sport about it and helped Vinnie hide the chicken strips he ordered but didn't eat.

Real southwestern queso.  It was sooo delicious; I think ate this whole thing myself.

Of course we had to get the whole restaurant to sing to him.  We passed around this slice of chocolate cake but didn't order any other desserts because we had birthday cakes waiting at home.

Party of fifteen happy to be together and celebrating.

I had the whole table and bar set up before we left for cake time with the party favors on display.

The kids played a post-dinner game with Nicole and Lynz.

Then we headed upstairs for a birthday treat from Uncle Sal.

Vinnie, his mom Lindsey, and dad Anthony.

Sal introducing a special picture slide show he made for Tom.  It was a great collection of pictures from his childhood and all the way up to present day. My kids were thrilled to see pictures of themselves included.

Then it was cake time!  I got two Dairy Queen cakes because I knew they would keep if we picked them up a day early and the last time we had one, it was super yummy.

All I wanted to do was serve cake but I had to pose for a picture instead.

Presents!  Tom got Boggle because the kids broke his childhood Boggle when they were tiny.

I love this reaction to another game I got him, Donner Dinner Party.  It will be perfect to play during our trips to Tahoe.