BIRTHDAY'S AND BARBEQUES....HAPPY DAYS...AND HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDSON, EAN!

Tomorrow is my Grandson, Ean's SECOND Birthday but he had his party today in California. Missing these milestone events is the one yucky fact of life we have to suffer since moving so far away from my daughter Lindsay, her hubby Jim and the Boys, Greg, Tom, Ean and Benjamin, and my son, David and my grand-daughter, Sierra.

I did want to get in on being the first to wish EAN..."Happy Birthday from Grammie" on his REAL BIRTHDAY, and starting this post at 11:50 pm or so guarantees that by the time I am finished...it will be EAN'S BIRTHDAY! Here's a recent photo of Ean..(only days old) and ya gotta admit, he's gorgeous...but don't let the angelic face fool you...he is a whirling dervish!

TODAY, we had about 30 people over for a BARBEQUE and it couldn't have been better! Our neighbor Terese raises champion Collie showdogs and has been a great advisor by phone about the dogs as she is so experienced and knowledgable, but this is the first time I met her in person. What a delight! One of her pups is going to the National Championships...so I suggested that we send our male Lab, Lucky up the hill to mate with her Champion Collie... so WE could have a National Champion dog too...(a lab and a collie = mutt, I know)...at first she looked at me surprised, but then realized I was joking... and we laughed our butts off.

Genn and Steve (my own Bette Midler and her 'straight man' Steve (musician) are old pals and like family too, so of course we always have a great time with them. We went to the outside table to eat because there was more room to 'spread out' so Genn snapped a couple of photos (mostly of the dogs...) and sent them to me tonight since I TOTALLY FORGOT to take any pictures of the fabulous spread we had...yummy...or any of the guests! Me bad! So the ONLY photo of the actual barbeque with more than me and allen or pat and michele in it..is the one I am posting...thanks Genn!

Of course, cousin Bill Farley is always up for some home cookin, so he manuevered among the crowd picking up the conversation as he went...but I didn't get much opportunity to hang out with him today...and Aunt Faye had fun with all of the guests as well...of course. She did some 'back in the day' with them and they seemed to enjoy it.

The people who we bought the place from came also, (Jeff and Kathy and their three teenagers) and they really liked what we have done to our home...as I told others about the beauty of the white Canadian Spruce and solid workmanship they had put into this home before we ever moved in. Jeff is is an excavating contractor and he is coming back next Friday to help us plan for the three car garage we want to build right next to the home come spring (?), and give us a bid on the excavation part of it which will mean taking down one of the bigger Doug Firs.

They ended out being the last to leave as we yakked and laughed on and on as they told us a lot more about a lot of things...and helped us avoid having to learn MORE THINGS the HARD WAY. lol

Of course, the Denison's are about as close to family now as you can get without the same blood running through your veins and we got extra tables and chairs from them which worked out perfect. Rhonda's Dad brought his 'lady friend' and that is always cute too. Rhonda and Kathy (Jeff's wife) and their daughters are 'horse people' so they know each other pretty good, and of course..the neighbors all know each other so there was not one minute of
"downtime" from talking and having an 'old home week' atmosphere.

Then of course there was Pat and Michele, and Wendy, Will, Jordan and Emily...but Emily was having a bad day I guess so Will took her home before the festivities really got started and never came back? Wendy, Jordan and Will helped set up, cook and then Wendy did ALL of the clean up at the end of the party and I am SOOOOO THANKFUL because...

I was on my last legs..literally! It's been awhile since I busted butt like I have the past several days on the house (and Allen outside) and especially MY OFFICE (which always looks like a tornado hit it), but I am very proud of myself because I didn't shove anything in a drawer and actually 'organized' most of the paperwork things over the past week so everything finally had a place to call 'home' if I can remember to put it away after I pull out five or six things to work on at the same time!

I also am proud that I finally did my grandkid's picture box..as it took a long time to get the right pictures for the size of the frames in the box...the picture of it and the upstairs just doesn't look as good as the whole, I'm afraid...but I assure you that the photos in the 'box' aren't as lopsided as they look here.

I'm including a few pictures of the upstairs.. just so you know it actually happened. Having something like this barbeque is great because it pushes us to get things done we have procrastinated doing for a long time! I pretty much did my whole upstairs myself with Jordan's help...but I feel pretty happy with myself for getting so much done. Will, Allen and Wendy helped on some specific things (like hanging my curtains...and taking down the Christmas wreath (lol).

OUR new friends, John and Dianne own the 'Smokin Pig' and it looks like Hogfathers will be moving into that building (imagine! heat and our own nice bathroom?!) with them and working together to help each other's business'. He just bought a big 'smoker' so I ordered the pork and a smoked brisket from him for the party...and he surprised us by bringing prime rib instead...but at the same cost as the brisket! Then there was the potatoe salad Genn made (yum), green salad Wendy made, this totally awesome new salsa Will came up with (really unbelievable!) chips, dips, tons of finger foods..and a "famous frosting" cake, garlic bread etc. that some of our guests brought with them...and finally Mama Mia's homemade lasagne...so we had everything but a barbequed anything, but no one seemed to mind much. ha ha

(BTW That is John and Dianne standing with me as I explained about the next big adventure and that is the bmx track, fort and zip wire we want to build for the kids (at heart) and grandkids...in the last picture and the only one showing a group of the barbeque...compliments of Genn again...)

Then there were about 8 to 11 teenagers here as well, but for some reason...they spent most of their time upstairs entertaining themselves. It's always great when a planned party goes off as planned, and a better mix of family and friends just couldn't be found any better...and to top it off...the sun came out today and stayed for most of it.

So, on that note...IT IS NOW A LITTLE PAST MIDNIGHT...so I am signing off with a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Grandson EAN MOORE...You're now in the terrible TWO's club, but I don't think your parents have noticed it yet?!

(Big hugs and Smooches...Grammie).

PS - and our dogs were very well behaved today as well, who could ask for more?

PPS- Having "forgotten" to take photos at the party itself...I took these of the house AFTER the party....so tomorrow I will wake up and everything will be perfectly orderly. Thanks again to the many helping and 'loving hands' who shared the work and the fun.