Happy Birthday to the DA-DA!!!

We almost got to celebrate Frank's birthday ON his birthday, October 21, this year! Yay! He got home the evening of his birthday, so it was pretty much just "Happy Birthday!"...then sleep. Friday officially began the "Birthday Weekend Celebration"! I was cooking and cleaning for the "work party" he was having at our house on Saturday (our very first "big" social event in the new house), so he brought home bbq carry-out from our favorite place. I took a much needed break from my cleaning marathon...cleaning and Autumn decorating, that is. It went kind of like this...

Rachel gave him his birthday balloons

when he got home.

She was so excited!

If she had her way they all would have been "yellow!".

Then we had dinner!

After dinner,
it was time for singing,
cake & ice-cream,
and presents!
She was a little shy about it,

but we sang

"Happy Birthday"

to the Da-Da!

Then they blew out the candles.

It was so cute as she kept

sneaking tastes of the frosting.

Yum!

Cake and ice-cream for us all...

well, just vanilla ice-cream for Sheena!

Time to open presents!

A Bread Maker!

A personalized photo mug of Daddy's Girls!

A kiss from Rachel!

Sweet!

On Saturday, we had "the party". Everyone came and we were quite pleased with how it all went. Good friends, good food, good kiddos and good fun! A tour of the house, some football, lots of laughter and conversation, lots of food and drink...just fun! Rachel got along wonderfully with a little friend, Bennett, who is about a year older than herb. They were so good with just playing and hanging out with the grown-ups. I was so proud of her as she did really well with sharing all her toys. Her little friend loved her playroom and played up there quite a bit. Rachel needs a little more supervision with how young she is, so she stayed pretty close to Daddy, Mommy and Bennett's Mommy. It was so sweet as one of the times Bennett came downstairs from the playroom...he brought two of Rachel's echo-microphones with him. One for himself and one for Rachel! I did learn that it might not be a bad idea to pick up a second recorder and harmonica! They both wanted that harmonica! Who can blame them. Bruce likes his:).

On Sunday,

we continued the
birthday celebration!

Frank had to run to the office,

so Rachel and I made him an apple pie!

She gathered the apples in her pumpkin bucket.

(everything goes into a bucket, bag,
box or basket these days)

We assembled the ingredients.

Then it was time to do the

apple-tasting???

"Oops!

Did you need that for the pie, Momma?!"

Rachel had the task of

adding all the apples to the big bowl

after Mommy peeled and cut them.

She mixed them up between every addition.
Oh, and our "secret" ingredient?
We added the two pears we picked at the orchard last weekend!

She sampled quite a few during the whole process,
which is why the blue bowl is there! 

Then it was time to make the

crumb topping!

We set the apple mixture and crumb topping aside...

and rolled out our crust!

Momma put the apple mixture into the pie shell...

and Rachel got to scoop all the crumb topping onto it.

Ready for the oven!

(That was the closest thing I could get to a smile:))

Ah, dinner time! We took Daddy for a ride after Rachel woke from her nap. We had done a little exploring last week, and we had some views and scenery to show him. We took advantage of the break from the rain and went for a ride. Then it was back home for Mommy to cook a special "birthday dinner"! Rachel and Da-Da read books and played in the family room. Mommy was treated to the laughter and sounds of delight while she cooked. I had to close my eyes a few times and take a mental "snapshot" of it all as those are the moments and sounds I never want to forget. Her giggles are the best!

Dinner is served!

Recipe courtesy of "Giada".

I have been having fun trying out

some of her recipes the past couple of weeks.

When I saw this one I knew it had to be

tested for Frank's birthday.

He loves "Breakfast for Dinner",and

 "Tuscan Ribeye with Eggs and Crumbled Goat Cheese"
sounded perfect!

I must say...it was delicious!

I will definitely be making it again!

A close-up of Frank's

"Birthday Dinner"!

After dinner it was time for our apple pie and ice-cream! That was a big hit too! I forgot to take pics though:)...What can I say, it has been a long two weeks and an especially long weekend. I am happy to say that I believe my sweetheart had a nice birthday this year:)...

We LOVE you with all of our hearts, Da-Da!

You are very special to us...

that's for sure!

Big Hugs & Kisses from your Girls!