Birthday Picnic

This year was different in celebrating Scott's birthday...a day we both planned to have "off" turned into a window of 2 hours to celebrate and we had to use it wisely.

Plan A: We were going to cash-in on our Half Off Depot deal: Snorkeling with Manatees in Crystal River.  Scott is a HUGE animal lover, (hence his degree in Zoology) so I knew he would enjoy an outing like this for his birthday.  When I called to book our day a week before hand I didn't get a response back and when we called again they were all booked up...so we'll have to save SWM for another special day.

Plan B: I really really wanted to take Scott to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.  We go annualy, but decided we weren't going to spend the extra money "just to go" this year.  I knew taking him there would be a complete surprise and something he would love to do on his birthday.

Enter problems:

• Scott has been working on Dwight Howard's Orlando All-Star Celebrity Weekend (more info on this coming soon!) bringing in acts and producing the events.  I am SO proud of him for getting this project and he has been working really hard to pull it together.
• Since this project is HUGE for us...he had some work to do on his birthday and had 2 last minute meetings, one at 10:30am and one at 4:30pm.
• I also had a 6:30pm dress rehearsal run for a show I'm performing in at First Baptist Orlando on Sunday night.

So you can see timing for F&W festival, or anything big was not ideal.  This is when I knew I needed to get creative.

Plan C: When I found out he had meetings during the day, my first thought was..."I'm going to bring the Food & Wine Festival to us!" Right there, as Scott left for his first meeting I started going through our fridge and pantry and pulled together what I thought was an impressive impromptu picnic for us.

The weather outside looked beautiful and even better than going to Epcot, we could have a picnic lunch that included Roadie!  I prepared lunch (you'll see the menu below) and finished up by getting Roadie's toys and "lunch" together.

And we were off! 

The HBSH bag was a wedding gift to me us. Isn't it adorable?!  It holds more than you think and is perfect for bringing groceries up to a condo.  I'll have to find out where our friends got it from and share the info :)

We were on our way to the park and decided to start vlogging (video blogging) again. Here's a short little video diddy just for fun...



When we got to Dr. Phillips Community Park I told Scott to take Roadie to the Dog Park while I set up camp.  Two minutes later (come back guys!) I was ready to surprise Scott with my "internationally themed" Food & Wine Picnic.

First, we had to entertain Roadie with his lunch bone.

Hey, that sun is bright!

Now on to the good stuff.  Our International Food & Wine themed menu included:

A quick cup of coffee (before we left) from the cloudforest of Monteverde from our Costa Rican Honeymoon.

Pita Chips + Roasted Red Pepper Hummus from Greece.

*I forgot to take a picture of this one...I got this offline from dailyveggie.wordpress.com.

Barbossa Chianti wine I brought home from my recent trip to Rome, Italy.

Cucumber + Tomato Greek Salad (minus the feta cheese).

Tropical Fruit + Yogurt Salad topped with Granola from somewhere tropical.

Banana + Pumpkin Peanut Butter Sandwich Triangles, Scott's American favorite.

And for dessert, of course German Chocolate Cake + Coconut Pecan frosting.

For putting the menu together listed above from what we had at the house already and not being able to go to a grocery store first, I thought I did pretty good.

After lunch, I wanted to read some passages from a wedding gift we got: Married for Life.

It's a cute little book filled with quotes and advice from couples that have been married for over 50 years!  We read a few entries and learned a thing or two already...

When we finished reading, we took Roadie into the Dog Park area for a little bit, followed by a family walk around the park.  Dr. Phillips has a beautiful facility and the best part is it's free. 

Scott was pleasantly surprised on how we celebrated his birthday with such a little time frame. 

 We had a few more outings as the weekend progressed, so stay tuned for more birthday posts coming soon...

Question:
What's on your favorite picnic menu?