Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Friday was my dad's 53rd Birthday! My whole family came up to celebrate at our house! I love being with them all, so birthdays are always a treat. :)

My mom always likes to think of creative ways to make birthdays and parties special. For my dad's birthday we drew names, courses and colors from a hat in order to decided what the menu would be. For example, Gunnar and I got dessert and yellow and white. Maria up-ed us all by dressing in the colors of her food, so in order to keep up, we all ended up dressing with our dishes as well.

Michael and Ann got Appetizer in Red and Green. They brought Gazpacho, a Spanish cold tomato soup, Green Olives stuffed with Red pimientos, and asparagus wrapped in ham and broiled (it was REALLY good).
My mom and dad got side dish, brown and black. In an attempt to steal everyones vote, they brought java chip Starbucks ice cream. I wouldn't normally consider this a side dish, but who doesn't wish it was? They toped off the ice cream with those round straw like cookies (i forget the name, but they were brown and black).

Technically, the main dish fell to Maria and Daniel but that really means that Maria made the food. :) Her colors were by far the hardest, purple and orange. Nevertheless, she made a really tasty stew with purple potatoes, red (purple) onion, carrots, orange bell peper, and purple cabbage. It was colorful and really tasty! She also made some home made crescent rolls that were to die for. That Maria really is wonderful!!
Lastly, Gunnar and I had dessert and Yellow and White. Seeing as I don't own any yellow clothes, Grace had to help me out by wearing a yellow dress. Gunnar's Hawaiian shirt has yellow outlining the white flowers, so he thought it would be appropriate for the occasion.

Our dish was a peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.
Other than the food, we enjoyed sitting around watching Grace, who was beside herself with excitement to have so many people she loves at her house.

We had lots of good hang out timeGrace and I got Grandpa a melon for his birthday.

I am so thankful for my dad and the wonderful influence he has been on my life. He has been such a good example to all of us kids for what a godly dad and husband look like. I love seeing him and Grace interact. I feel so thankful and blessed to have him in my life. I love you dad! :)


Lastly, a little off topic, but for those of you who know my brother and his wife, she is looking quite pregnant these days. Their baby girl is due in July. I think she said she is 28 weeks. They take super cute belly pictures which you can check out on their blog. Grace is really excited to meet her new cousin and enjoys patting her belly and kissing "baby cousin".

See, I told you she was looking cute!