Party On!

Tonight, J-Pony partied, her theme; "Dinner at the (Horse) Ranch".

This is the adults' table; surrounding the centerpiece are horses and tealights. She helped me choose the typical ranch "fauna". I love the look!

We also used her dinnerware, "Running Horses", a transferware of an original drawing of the artist and naturalist, Scotty Zimmerman. She loves those plates, we do, too! But where did she go?

She's at this table! Love that smile and that hair! Big sister, L-Infinity made sure her coiff was perfect for the party and it is!

Here's a closer look...

One with I-Dude is always a great shot don't you think?

Here are her guests: From the left: Annette (next door), Cori & Matt Adams, Ricky, Scott and Naomi (Cori's family). Below is her mom (also named Annette) and her first baby girl, Adolina Adams. Grandma is pacifying Adolina with a mock binky. It worked; go Grandma!

Oh, sorry you got to peek into my messy kitchen. Oh well, my kitchen motto is, "No mess, no party!" (Anyone who knows me, knows that... LOL)

From the left again; Rick (Cori's dad), our missionaries, Elders Patterson & Zobel. We found out later that Elder Patterson was being transferred to another area, so he earned another rib! LOL That's L-Infinity's back. There she is with one of Annette's kids and J's friends, Megan.

We fed everyone baby back ribs (got cheap at good ol' Costco), garden salad, corn, maple baked beans and white bread. To drink, lemonade and rootbeer!

Mr. Man was the grill master and his ribs were a hit! It was a simple enough wet rub. We waited until all was done then it's "keck" time! See, there I go again... I meant "cake" time!

Do you recognize the cake? Yep, Costco to the rescue! Rainbows form everywhere right?
Here's a better view... That's J with her good bud, Alexis, neighbor Annette's middle child.

See the ten candles, they're colorful aren't they? Believe it or not, we bought the candles at Marshall's (Mr. Man's find) weeks ago. The cake, ordered last weekend. Gotta love great coinkidinks!
See one of the horses on the table? That one is called, "American Paint". That was our gift for her to round out the horse ranch theme. We had all the intention to use the lanterns but we couldn't find the oil! A-yai-yai!Oh look, Cece wants to give J-Pony her present, but it's inside her "bedroom". What is it?

Oh, it's not a gift! It's I-Dude's "Grfffll". Don't ask.... That's my children for ya. LOL

Back to the cake... see the candles, each color had a matching colored flame! There were green, orange, yellow, blue, red and purple flames. So cool!

Gifts next!

She decided to open the last one from Grandma and Grandpa tonight, so here it is... A collection of goodies a budding chef can start with. My in-laws are so cool!

Next, she opened Cori and family's gift and she was wowed with some horse shoe bling and a story/history book about horses! That's an "it's great to be me today" smile.

Annette (next door) and family got her a dog alarm clock called "Rousers". Hope it wakes her up!

Daniel, "D-Boy" joined us at about 8:45 and he too, loved all the food. He gave J a generous Barnes & Noble giftcard. Thanks, D!

We had a great time eating and getting to know each other. All in all, we had 18 people and everyone felt comfortable, welcome and well fed!

I also made the lumpias afterwards when I found out that Cori and family have been to the Philippines. Originally, I decided to wait on it since there were a lot of hugging going on and I didn't want to smell like lumpias as it is a fried delicacy.

Where are the pictures you ask? Sorry... they were that good!

Good night!

"Happy" "Happy" Day!

At least today, it is for us! It's Sunday, it's Father's Day, it's officially Summertime and something else. Hmmmm. What could it be? Well, whatever it is, it's making Cece bored from waiting, and...

Dexter's getting fidgety...

Are they waiting for Mr. Man to come home from the airport and pick up the two smallish kiddos from church? (I had to stay home with L-Infinity; her tummy was a little sickie) Maybe... what did I forget? Oh I know, it's also... (drum roll please) J-Pony's 10th birthday! Yay!!!

Back in 1999, on this very day, at 6:12 PM, I gave birth to a baby girl with a peach fuzz head! LOL She looked like a lollipop that her pediatrician who looked her over said, "I don't know how you could be 8 lbs. 2.5 oz. You're so tiny." Then he measured her head and declared, "That's where the 8 lbs. went!" LOL

She was supposed to be Mr. Man's Father's Day gift back in 1999, the date, June 19th. But she had her own schedule and came out 2 days late! (That's her... ;-D) Now here we are, 10 years later, she is again his ultimate gift from me. J-Pony thinks that is one sweet deal and is quick to remind him that. LOL

Since then, she's been helping us welcome Summer and gracing us with this great smile and I can't wait to see more.

(We took this shot at exactly 6:12PM)
Since it's also Father's Day, I had to set the table of course. And to give it a more neutral look, I chose blue and green. This is what J-Pony requested, rice and teriyaki porkchop (I made the teriyaki sauce myself, too). I also let them have more of the sweet rolls that I made yesterday, which Mr. Man raved about. Yay!
Then it's time to open some of Grandma & Grandpa M's gifts! Here's Daddy and I-Dude to the rescue! If you click the picture to enlarge it, you'll see L-Infinity on the couch, under a blanket because her body is still a little blah from the tummy bug... Poor baby... ;-( What's that? It's a Betty Crocker Junior Cookbook! I guess I'll be cooking more! LOL She can't wait to use that.
The other one, it's a computer game! She loves games like these, great choice grands! (wink, wink)
Now on to some "keck" time! I mean, cake (aherm). Sorry about that, Mr. Man loves to make funny sounds with some common words with the kiddos. You can only live under the same roof for so long before you sound like the others, you know. LOL

Each candle is worth two years and if you still remember your multiplication table, that equals to... 10! How do you like the cake? Yes, I made that, too! She asked for a marble cake and marble I delivered. Gotta please the birthday girl, right? Right!
"Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you..." (singing somewhat off key) Isn't she so patient? What could she be wishing for? (Let's hope it's getting us a brand spanking new house with some land and horse or two for her. Wouldn't that be a grand wish to grant? Any fairies listening?) I better not ask her or it won't come true.
And the candles are out! Yay!!! (all clapping)
Here's what each slice looked like. Mr. Man said it was moist and the kiddos loved it. (So beaming right now...)

Oh, how rude of me, this is your delish slice of her cake. I guarantee it to melt in your mouth.

Thanks for celebrating her 10th birthday with us! Hope you enjoyed the cake!

Total Cost; FREE!

J-Pony and Swimming!

So, while L-Infinity enjoyed being YW's "Miss Knowledge" and I-Dude had a 3-day birthday celebration, J-Pony, too, has something to be happy about. She just finished her school mandated 4th grade swim lessons held at the district's Rec Center.

In five days, she managed to learn how to do:

the breast stroke
the dog paddle
floating on her back
maneuver while floating on her back
cruise to the deep end with a boogie board
dive and surface on her back
dive, surface and do breast stroke to the sidelines
and dive into 12 feet, 10 inches of water!

Wow! I am amazed since we couldn't come with her, these reports came directly from her very happy and accomplished self! They will be handed their certificates of completion soon and I can't wait to see her in action! She is a natural like Mr. Man (who was personally recruited by the swim coach of his high school, but since Speedo was the unifom, he turned it down...) and we are just so pleased with her about it. She loves swimming and knowing that she's able to do all of this on her own in front of her peers who initially mocked her was nothing short of "sweet revenge"!!!

I love how our three darlings can be doing different things at the same time; it's almost overwhelming at times, but the looks of accomplishment in their faces are always worth the effort and frustration. I am just crazy about my children!

Hooray J-Pony!!!