What is it with all those songs about turning sixteen? 16 Candles, You’re 16, Happy Birthday Sweet 16, Sweet Little 16. What about the rest of your years?

Sure, 16 is a big year to celebrate your transition between childhood and adulthood but I don’t think the year 16 should have a lock on songs about age. I just don’t think that any one birthday, even the 16th one, should take precedence over the rest. Every birthday should be monumental. Every birthday is important. Every birthday is the end of another year with family and friends, another year of living and loving, another year of making a difference, of dreaming and hoping and just being alive.

This is why I look forward to birthday celebrations with Carole. She gets it. She gets that birthdays are important. She gets that they are a time to reflect and a time to look forward and (probably the part she likes best of all) a time to celebrate. You probably know, if you read this blog regularly, that I celebrated a “monumental” birthday earlier this summer. Believe me when I tell you that Carole went above and beyond by throwing me a monstrous birthday bash. Why? Because she gets it.

Birthdays aren’t just about the ones that have special status like “sweet sixteen” or “21 and legal” or “over the hill.” Every birthday is important because each one celebrates the end of a special year and the start of a new one. Carole celebrates everyone’s birthday within her circle of friends and family so on this day I am asking all of her friends to make her birthday today a special one by simply sending her a birthday wish.

For my part, I’ve decided to steal one of those sixteen songs and rewrite the lyrics, with apologies to Johnny Burnette, just to show that every birthday really should have it’s own song.

You come on like a dream
Peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You’re not sixteen
But you’re still beautiful
And you’re mine!

I definitely like that last line the best! So Happy Birthday darling, let’s make it a good one because remember, (don’t look now but I’m about to quote another song) you still rock me like a hurricane!

We celebrated with a family cook out. We had burgers and dogs, corn on the cob, pimiento cheese spread (yummmmm!) and cupcakes. It was also a going away party because . . .

On Sunday my beautiful baby girl become a college sophomore. I know this goes hand in hand with the turning 19 thing but still, how on earth did that happen?

Her dorm, which is actually not the dorm she originally chose, is lovely. It sits in the center of campus and has so much character.

The brick and stonework is beautiful and it has it’s own courtyard. It’s a large building but Hannah’s room is at the end of a hall and tucked around a little corner, which I think is a great location.

She has a beautiful view of the college green and I’m hoping she will grow to love being centrally located. We helped her set her room up on Sunday, rearranging desks and beds and tables, trying to make everything fit and look cozy and coordinated before her roommate arrived on Monday.

It was nice to see that she brought some many decorative things from home, like these pinwheels that were leftover from Dale’s big birthday party.

And the little owl that I got from Emily last year. The owl is her school’s mascot and I just couldn’t resist  tucking this into one of her care packages. I think it makes her smile and since it’s hand knit I hope it reminds her of her mom.

Leaving her behind this year was a much easier experience than last year. She’s got a wonderful roommate, she’s already been cast in a play for the fall, and she’s got a positive outlook to get her through any rough patches. Sure, I choked up a bit when I hugged her goodbye – I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

But seeing her beautiful smile as she waved to us from her window made me certain that she’s got a great year ahead of her.

The party decorations were in shades of sky blue, ocean blue and orange. Heather made a festive garland from fabric strips that she hung between the two canopies they set up on the beach.

She had orange lollipops in little buckets.

And she made friendship bracelets for everyone to take home.

She also painted this mural for photo ops. I got a photo of Sharon and Al.

And Sharon got a photo of Dale and I.

We had burgers and dogs, lots of snacks, and yummy cake.

The day was perfect and I’m so glad we got to spend it in this gorgeous place with this little family!

There are many things I could tell you about my father-in-law, but the most important one is this: he is, perhaps, the finest person I have ever known. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, he is always happy and  cheerful, and he is good to the very core. He has an amazing work ethic (he stills goes to the auto repair business he owns every day!), a commitment to volunteerism that exceeds even the most dedicated of us, and a boundless amount of love for, and devotion to, his family. I truly believe that every positive quality my husband has comes from this man.

Happy 85th birthday, Jack. Thank you for raising the man I married.  Thank you for accepting Hannah and I into this big, crazy, loving family all those years ago. Thank you for your unwavering support and endless generosity. And thank you for just being you. I am so proud to be your daughter-in-law.

We went on Tuesday the 28th, Ambrynn’s 6th birthday. She knew we were doing something special to celebrate her day but she didn’t know what it would be.

We took the MBTA into the city and it was Ambrynn’s first time with public transportation. I had to record it for posterity, you know. How sad is it that this is the only picture of everyone together on this particular visit? And it isn’t even everyone. Oh well.

My friend Brian is an aquarist at the aquarium and he was kind enough to give us a backstage tour of the facility. We saw the tanks from the backside, we saw where the fish sick are kept in quarantine, and we saw all kinds of things the aquarium staff does to keep the place up and running.

Ambrynn now thinks I know people in high places, too, and that’s okay by me.

Everyone loved seeing all the fish and the seals. They loved touching the starfish and the stingrays. But for me it’s all about the penguins. I could watch them all day long. They make me smile.

We ended the afternoon with food and drink outside. There was this place, right outside the aquarium. And then there was the Ames Plow Tavern at Fanueil Hall, where we ate delicious burgers and also enjoyed a fantastic street performer/contortionist.

Finally we made our way home for fresh caught striper thank to Brant’s fishing trip the day before, and ice cream cake in honor of Ambrynn’s birthday. I hope it’s a birthday she won’t soon forget.

I made a backdrop from blue fabric that was covered with white puffy clouds and Dale hung it between 2 trees on the side of our yard. We hauled an old bureau out of our attic and sanded it down to get rid of some graffiti left by the kids. Then I took a rubber mallet to it and banged away. Dale antiqued it with some black paint and it was just the look I wanted.

I picked up some chalk board signs at a craft store and we filled the bureau drawers and the area around the backdrop with hats and clothes and various costume stuff we found in our garage.

My idea was that everyone at the party would visit the photo booth at some point and get their picture taken. I wanted it to serve as a sort of “guest book” of the event. And it worked! To make it easy on me I enlisted the help of a good friend of Hannah’s. He’s got a good camera so I gave him one of my memory cards and asked him to take all these photos. I never could have done it without him.

This is our esteemed Police Chief with his wife – she’s a 1st grade teacher. They were the first ones to get their picture taken and I was so happy when I looked over and saw them posing.

While I know not everyone wanted to do this, most people did and they really had fun dressing up and posing. The kids dressed up the most early in the day.

But  as the beer flowed the adults got more involved.

I love the big group photos.

But I also love the photos of couples. Some are husband and wife.

Some are father and son.

Some people even posed alone, like my girlie, Hannah. I just love this photo of her.

My favorite photo of the day, though, is this one of Dale and our friend Lucy. I love their expressions and it just epitomizes everything I wanted the photo booth to be.

Finally, because I know you will ask, I did pose with the birthday boy. That leather jacket was his a billion years ago and it doesn’t fit either one of us now.  We look pretty happy, though, right?

This experience was so much fun and really not a lot of work at all. Get yourself a photo booth for your next big party. You won’t regret it!

Now, let me take you back about a year. I was just starting to plan Hannah’s graduation party and Dale happened to be looking over my shoulder while I was on the internet checking tent sizes and prices. He saw a dunk tank on a company’s website and said to me, “you can rent a dunk tank?” I told him, “honey, you can rent just about anything, including a dunk tank.” So he tipped his head to one side and said, “are you throwing me a sixtieth birthday party next year?” I said I hadn’t given it much thought yet but that I would if he wanted one and he said that he did and he wanted it to include a dunk tank and he wanted to be the one getting dunked.

I built his entire birthday party around that dunk tank and we had an old fashioned carnival for him. I think the theme was quite appropriate since my husband is really just a big kid. We had carnival food, including popcorn and hot dogs, BBQ chicken and potato salad, baked beans and . . . wait for it . . . fried dough!

Dale didn’t want a cake so we had ice cream novelties for dessert and a friend of ours got us a chest freezer to use for the day. We used a beach umbrella, a wooden wheel (from an old spinning wheel, as a matter of fact), and a dolly to make the freezer look like an old-fashioned ice cream cart.

I wanted the decorations to be really colorful and fun. In fact, the word I kept using was colorpalooza. I made these huge tissue paper things to hang from the tent.

And I made ribbon streamers for each corner of the tent.

The centerpieces were the pinwheels I made a while back and I put them in #10 cans along with colorful lollipops.

We set up all kinds of backyard games, including a balloon dart board.

There was also the dunk tank, of course. The water was pretty cold but Dale had a ball sitting in there and shouting “high and dry” and “where’s all the ball players”. He got dunked plenty of times and it was the highlight of the day for everyone to watch this routine.

We had a palm reader. Okay, it was really my friend Lois but she did research on this and did a pretty legitimate job of it. And we had a DJ who played music that was lively and fun and got everyone dancing.

There were knit bloggers and fibery friends in attendance. Total attendance at the party? 114 people!!

I had lots of help and I just couldn’t have pulled this off without it. Hannah’s friends came and ran the games and took pictures. I recruited several friends to make potato salad and others brought appetizers to share. The kids all helped with decorating the tent and making my vision of the party come to life.

My favorite part of the whole event though, had to be the photo booth. It’s so much my favorite that I think it deserves a post all it’s own – - – on Wednesday.

Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

My beloved husband Dale is turning 60 on Sunday and we are celebrating with a birthday party of epic proportions at our house tomorrow. Think blue skies and sunshine for me, will ya? Cross your fingers that I don’t run out of food, or even worse, beer. And join me in wishing my sweetheart the happiest of birthdays, with many many more to come.

Thanks!

We had our lazy morning at home and then headed to Dale’s brother’s house for the party.

There was lots of family there.

There was food and drink.

And more family photos.

And there was cake.

We had so much fun we wound up staying and staying.

We never did make it to the movies. But we didn’t even care.

Happy 18th birthday, Hannah! I am so proud of you!