a delicious birthday

wednesday was chad's birthday. all week long, i've been surprising him with little gifts (more about that later), but last night was the big deal. his roommate bill woke up early and made him breakfast in the morning...isn't that sweet?! ha. and when chad told him that he didn't know what i had planned for the evening, bill questioned, "what if she proposes?" haha. those boys.

here's how it all went down. complete with pictures (lucky you!).

here we are!

-he arrived to my house around 5:45, so that my roommate could take a photo of us on our night out. when i answered the door, he gave a loud "yes!" complete with a fist pump. you see, a few months ago, we were in uptown with david & kelly and stopped in to heartbreaker. i tried on this cute, army green little number that chad loved. he wanted me to buy it right then, but i wasn't totally sold. so i waited. last saturday, kk (my other roomie) and i ran down to uptown just so i could get it and surprise him with it on his birthday. he claims it was yet another present that i gave him that day. ha.

oooh la la

-then i gave him his gift. i just couldn't wait any longer! when chad and i first started dating, i remember knowing exactly what i wanted to get him for his birthday within the first 2 weeks. apparently i'm that girl. i found the exact watch that i wanted to get online back in march. unfortunately, it was completely gone. i decided i'd wait until the day came closer and would find something similar and equally as cool. shortly after school was out in june, i was doing a little shopping at rosedale and decided to stop in the fossil store to see if they had any good choices. i looked around and there it was! the exact one i had wanted. so i bought it. 3 months early. i could hardly wait for him to open it up. anna, my roommate, was there and was equally as excited. he loved it and said he had no idea what i was giving him. mission accomplished.



-our reservation at bar la grassa wasn't until 7, but we decided to head downtown and check out the scene anyway. i had been researching where to take him for dinner for a few weeks (birthdays are clearly a big deal to me). after countless hours on yelp (okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration), i narrowed my choices down to 3 places, including la grassa. i made up my mind after looking online at their menu and seeing how many seafood options they had (chad loves the stuff), and after seeing a picture of their silk handkerchiefs with basil pesto.  my sister had also heard good things, so i figured it was worth the shot. now. there's something to be said about an italian girl choosing an italian restaurant for dinner. especially an italian restaurant that she's never been to. we're picky. nobody's red sauce is as good as my mom's. nobody makes authentic arancine (my favorite!). nobody has gelato quite like the kind i ate while sitting on the spanish steps overlooking the via condotti in rome. i'm snotty about italian food. it's true. so, going to la grassa was a bit of a risk for me. fortunately, it was one of the best risks i've ever taken. this place was absolutely incredible. here are some poorly taken cell phone shots of the food we ate...i was trying to be classy whilst taking them (cause who wants to look like the person who never gets to eat at nice places?).

ricotta & tomato bruschetta. i felt like i was in italy again. it was outstanding.

a very dark photo of the silk handkerchiefs. they melted like butter in my mouth and were covered in quite possibly the best pesto i've ever had.

chad's penne w/shrimp. it was all pan-seared and tasted amazing. i hate seafood, but i could have easily eaten more of this pasta. delicious!

after our delicious dinner, we popped over to uptown to go to sebastian joe's, home of chad's favorite ice cream: nicollet pot hole. this chocolatey, brownie-filled, sea salt-infused amazingness is something to behold. if you can get there, do it. do it! we rounded out our evening in our sweats, cuddled up and watching flight of the conchords. all in all, the evening was splendid. happy birthday to my love!

for some weird reason, it's taken me over a week to finish this blog. what gives, busy schedule? time to relax a little bit. now, if only i could find the time to do that...