Happy Birthday Roses!!

Just for you sweetheartAnd an extra special hug for being born on my mums birthday.

*mmmmm*

This is where we put the cake for the party.

Yeah. Right there. It still smells like cake.

UNO!!

When we get together we like to play Uno. Mom loves Uno and it will play four or more very nicely allowing people to weave in and out without disruption.
Dunkie cheated. He kept looking at Grandma's cards and telling everyone what she had. The table's response. HIDE YOUR CARDS BETTER! And take your cards with you when you go to the bathroom.

DO NOT SIT NEXT TO THIS GIRL. SHE WILL CUT YOU!!

Mom: How you say it? uno or ohno?
me: Depends on who you're sitting next to. (I AM NOT A SORE LOSER!!)

Birthday Photo Op

And because I had them all together I tried to get as many picures of them as I could.Dunkie is a dufus. No matter what you're doing he's got to ham it up. One of his favorite things to do is 'The Wanderer'. While he is too young to remember The Wanderer from SNL he's made it his personal mission to wander into as many photos as he can.

These were of course staged but getting to that picture without one. . .
Or the other laughing was half the fun.Charlie chillin with da boys. . .

Franky the giant ham was hard to pin down for a good picture.
He would not stop wiggling.

or he looks splayed out.

Sorry folks, this was the best I could do.

You will not see Youngest smiling in any of his pictures. Because this boy, aka Chandler, looks bizarre when he smiles for the camera. It's sad but true. He has a beautiful smile that lights up his face. He is of course handsome, but when he smiles for the camera something wierd happens.

SWEET!!

The Cake

THE CAKE!!!
The boys birthdays are so close together that I have always combined their birthdays. They had the same friends and they often combined their friends for one great big boy fest. Great for street hocky or a little throwing of the pigskin. But as they've gotten older, jobs have kept them from celebrating together. It was nice that I could have a shared cake again. I don't order a lot of cakes anymore so I thought I'd just pick one up at Albertsons. We needed a Costco run so I just priced it. 1/4 sheet cake, $19.99!! You wanna know how much I paid for it at Costco? $16.00!!! And this is a 1/2 sheet! Twice as much!
THE EATING OF THE CAKE

The blended family. BH's oldest and the Irishman from work.Magoo. How adorable is this little girl?Do you just want to smooch her?
The enormity of this cake led to obsenly large portions.Which led to bordom.And the playing of food.

And some naughtyness.But she was so cute about it I just couldn't be mad.

Weenie Roast!!

We had a little birthday gathering for da Boys. I was able to get all three boys together for a pic.Youngest toodled off to work but at least had some lunch before he left.

A surprise guest!!!!
Britty!!
Friend of the family for many many many years. I can't remember not knowing her. We keep in touch. When she's local she comes around again. She's been in a city far far away for so long. I think I haven't seen her in 4 years maybe longer.

It was nice that I could have a shared cake again. I don't order a lot of cakes anymore so I thought I'd just pick one up at Albertsons. We needed a Costco run so I just priced it. 1/4 sheet cake, $19.99!! You wanna know how much I paid for it at Costco? $16.00!!! And this is a 1/2 sheet! Twice as much!

THE WIENIE ROAST!!

I will most certainly do this again. It was so fun and incredibly easy and cheep. I love to cook but having to prepare enough food for 20 people is a job I just don't have the time or energy to do. Here's the party scoop. You buy the largest package of hot dogs you can find at Costco, about 5 bucks. The mega package of buns, again at Costco. Ginormous can of chili, yes I could have whipped up a killer chili for a hundred, but why? Condiments I already have in the fridge. Chop up some onions and tomatoes. DONE!!

Mom made her coveted saurkraut.

It caused a jam in the kitchen.You put the dogs on the table.

Along with all the condiments.I made these awesome cornbread corns. Your know, shaped like an ear of corn. They were so cute and I had this awesome recipe, not too sweet, made with buttermilk.
Hardly anyone ate them. Next time I just make one batch instead of two. They were awful cute.
You build your own dog and try to find a seat.

Or just stand in the kitchen and eat. Your choice.This boy could not eat enough kraut. She will pose now every time I ask.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEE POLLIN!

Our sweet Pollin has a birthday today! I have been quite busy with her gone so I ran to Wally World today to find something for her. I am a great last minute shopper.



This is what the stuff looked like when I got into the office.












Now the stuff is all out of the bag. With summer coming I got her a bright pink mesh bag, a bright pink beach towel, a small pink towl for her 1 year old little girl and a blue towl for the boy she is about to have. Also a couple of water bottles, one of them has this stick in the middle that you freeze and it keeps your water cold. I thought that was pretty cool. A little key ring tube of baby block and a tube of cotton candy lip balm.







This is the stuff all in the bright pink bag. I forgot to get some tissue to stuff in the top and I was going to get her a balloon too, forgot that too.












See all the pretty things!










This is the card I got. I searched for a good 10 minutes trying to find a card that was not syrupy or worse had references to old age. The girl is not even old enough to drink yet so I thought old age cards would be sort of silly.

So I got this silly card. It has 2 obviously backward children playing pinata with a trash bag full of trash. The girl says, Hooo weee, whack it a good up Cleetus. 'Hillbilly Pinatas' I think she'll get a laugh but it wasn't like a perfect card or anything. Drat.


So I packed up my present and card and got her some cinnamon rolls and had Happy Birthday put on them. (No Pic drat, drat) I went to her house and what do you know? She wasn't there. Two very sleepy people answered the door and said she'd had the baby last night. Whoo hoo! Mom and baby boy are doin fine, all went well.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This is the end of my Birthday week. I had such a great time.

First I'll show you how goofy my parents are. That is a gigantic Birthday card. I've left some smaller ones so you can see the size difference.

And that beautiful Champagne bottle is made entirely out of chocolate.

Made by Helen Grace. Isn't that the cutest thing?

And then my Big Hunk took me to Irvine. Yes Irvine. What's in Irvine you say? Well a very cool Hotel called the Hyatt.

First we went to The Galley.


The Galley is a little hole in the wall kind of place. They have the greatest malted shakes you've ever tasted. The first time we went there Big Hunk and I shared a malt. However this was MY Birthday and I wanted one all to myself. Big Mistake. I got nauseous. Really nauseous. So nauseous that I was sure I was going to lose my shake and maybe ruin my whole mini vacation. We were going to go to Fashion Island but I did not feel very well. We went back to the hotel.






After resting for a little bit I was up for dinner. We went to another hole in the wall place called Memphis. It used to be a biker bar back in the day. Now it is just a little neighborhood bar/hangout/restaurant. They have great fish there. We had the special which was halibut and garlic mashed potatos. They arranged it all so pretty on the plate, just like a fancy smancy place. It was totally excellent.





The day of my birthday Big Hunk left the hotel very early to golf. His son had arranged to play golf on my birthday which also happens to be his birthday. I told him not to worry, go, have a great time with your son, on my birthday, I don't mind. I'll just stay home, by myself, and cry.

So I sat there in the hotel. Well first I went upstairs and raided The Regency Club. Let me tell you about this in case you are not the seasoned traveler/hotel stayer that I also am not. You get in the elevator, you put your room key/card in the slot and push floor #12. You can't push this floor unless you put your room key in the slot, right there in the elevator. I thought that was interesting. Also there is a floor #13. Right there in the elevator. I had always thought there was never a floor #13 but there it was. And you needed your card to make it work. My card apparently was not programed for this floor cause I couldn't get there and I was much to lazy to see if I could access it by stairs. Back to the Regency Club, basically just a room with a continental breakfast in the am and some snacky's at night. You can always get coffee there but most importantly there is a balcony where I could indulge my habit. We always get a non-smoking room because it stinks when other people smoke. But our room had no balcony, drat.

Ok so I chowed on a bunch on continental stuff, I had a handful of magazines, hot tub downstairs and a beautiful day. At one point I was watching Phenomenon with John Trevolta and Kyra Sedgwick (did you know she is married to Kevin Bacon?). Anyway, great movie and towards the end of the movie the phone rings. I am bawling my eyes out. (sad, sad ending) It's him, telling me what a great time he is having kicking his sons ass at golf, what am I doing? I told him I was crying. It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to.

Because they got such an early time we went out afterwards with his son and daughter in law and their 2 adorable children. We went to this cool little cafe in Laguna Beach. It's called C'est la vie.

Two Adorable Children

I ordered this very yummy sandwhich. It was called the Parisian. It was a bagette, toasted crispy, on it was roasted peppers, tomatoes, avocado and slices of brie all melted together. We ordered a side of this pine nut sauce to pour over it. It was heaven and I think I could duplicate this at home for a nice summer meal.


Big Hunks son that shares the same birthday with me. Isn't that special! That means he will never forget my birthday!

His lovely wife Kim. She really is a doll. She is tiny and fun and I love her.

Kimmy goosing Big Hunk

This was on the beach in front of that cool French cafe. After this we went shopping at all those cool unique shops. I found an absolutly beautiful Hummingbird feeder. Handblown with little removable glass flowers. I also saw this absolutly gorgeous ring. Now I'm not a huge jewelry type of person but this ring was so pretty. I didn't take a picture but imagine a 6-8 inch string of tiny diamonds, not too tiny, you definatly know they are diamonds, and wrap this around your finger. The ends curved slightly and the strand was not tightly wound but largish space between them. I had never seen anything like it and it was just so pretty. It was in one of those artsy fartsy type jewelry places that Laguna Beach has. Guess how much it cost? Just guess. $2,600.00. Yikes. I could buy a lot of pugs for that!

That evening we dined in the hotel restaurant. It was a nice pricy place but the Filet Mignon was excellent.

And what did my sweetie give me for my birthday? I forgot to take pictures so I'll do that tomorrow.