Brian is always treating the boys and me. This year, for his 40th birthday, I encouraged him to treat himself. We kicked off his birthday week by catching The Killers in the city. I enjoy many of their songs, but I’m not as big of a fan as Brian. The show was on a Monday night and although we don’t live as close to D.C. as we use to, you never know when it’s going to be the last time your favorite band is in town, so we went. The music, confetti raining out over the crowd, and Brandon Flowers—the band’s lead singer—pumping his fist into the air was a whole experience. We had so much fun. It really put a smile on my face to see Brian in his element and enjoying the show.
Highlight reel from The Killers show
We spent the rest of the week finalizing our party to celebrate Brian turning the big 4-0.
For souvenirs, we ordered custom dice for our guests which sported the event’s logo: “Brian’s Connect 40.” We put together gift boxes that included dice cupcakes, playing card cookies, and chocolate poker chips. We even enlisted one of the area’s top crafters, Cheryl Bradley—Brian’s mom, to help out with some of the treats for the party. She made the dots for the dice cupcakes and baked the cookies for the playing card cookies. The gift box was topped off with a custom sticker logo we made and printed ourselves. Finally, we printed up a table tent to highlight some of the features of the party. I know, it’s a lot of work making stickers and table tents ourselves, but we enjoy making creative crafts together.
As for the event itself, we reserved the top floor of one of our usual date night spots: Crossroads Tabletop Tavern (CTT) in Old Town Manassas. It’s a low-key Tavern-style restaurant with a huge library of board games you’re allowed to borrow and play while visiting the establishment. We’d been trying to get friends and family out there for a couple of years without much success since we live kind of far from everyone except our parents. The nieces and nephews are also involved in so many activities that it tends to keep Brian’s siblings busy. Fortunately, everyone was able to make it out to CTT for the party. We set aside some favorite games Brian and I had played during our prior visits, such as Tiny Towns, Carcassonne, Fairy Tale Tavern, Labyrinth, Lost Cities, and Codenames. Our guests even browsed and played a few other games and many purchased some games directly from Crossroads by rolling our event dice and receiving a discount based on the results.
We were thankful for everyone who came out. It’s always a vibe when the cousins get together. They were at the kid’s table playing their own games to their own rules. Lincoln was the exception who fell asleep in Gma’s lap for about an hour before waking up and getting back into action. The event wasn’t fancy or over-the-top. It was very “Brian”. Playing board games and munching on snacks with his favorite people. It was everything we planned it to be. A couple of our friends stayed and played games with us until midnight! If you’re wondering where the boys were, my parents took them back to their house where they spent the night with Aunt Kell. Major accomplishment.
I feel blessed to know Brian and be a part of his life as much as he is a part of mine. Our time together hasn’t been long but I’m so glad I hopped on for this ride. I might be just as excited as he is to see how this next decade unfolds for him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRIAN!
Happy Birthday Brian Bradley!
L. Bradley 