Allissa's disposable birthday ware had lots of gold for a good reason
I said I wanted to tell you about Allissa's recent birthday party, and although I must do so on the fly, I want to make good on that promise.
(We are gearing up for a rather massive holiday weekend that includes a birthday party, so I am busy making menus and shopping lists and getting the house ready.)
Organization is the key to everything.
In addition, tomorrow afternoon TG and I are traveling upstate to Anderson, South Carolina, to pick up our eleven-year-old grandson Andrew, who is going to spend the latter part of the week with us.
He and his family always join us for Memorial Day, as they go to Pennsylvania every year for the Fourth of July.
Andrew, whose school year has concluded, wants to spend a few days with Papaw, learning to work.
So I have formulated menus for his stay, and menus for pre-Memorial Day because Andrew and Brittany and Ember are arriving on Saturday afternoon, and menus for Memorial Day itself.
We will all be in attendance, plus Henry as he is driving down from Greenville for the day.
Mamaw and the birthday girl, for posterity
As well as other special menus for an upcoming exciting event that you shall hear about in due time.
But our Allissa -- second grandchild, second granddaughter -- celebrated her golden birthday about five weeks ago, on Tax Day.
As in, she turned fifteen on April fifteenth.
Daddy's little dividend.
(Joel turned thirty a mere two weeks after Allissa was born. That was a lot of adulting for him in a short span of time.)
But she has grown into a lovely, smart, talented young lady, and we are so grateful for her.
And we love her so much.
As is our custom, we met at the Cracker Barrel in Fort Mill, South Carolina, right on the North Carolina border.
The Carowinds exit.
She carefully blew out her golden candles
It seems that our beloved Essie does not work on Friday nights anymore, and we always ask for her and miss her, but all of the servers there are great.
Everyone arrived on time, good and hungry, and commenced to chatting and catching up which has a tendency to become loud, but the server managed to get all of our orders above the din.
From din to dinner ... the food came and we ate lustily, still talking, though I hope not with our mouths full.
As per usual, the men and boys sat on one end of the long table while the women and girls hung out at the other end.
I always choose a chair smack in the middle so that I can get a little bit of everyone.
Allissa's birthday balloons bobbed overhead.
I had gone to Dollar Tree where the festive mylar helium-filled balloons are a dollar and twenty-five cents, hoping to get a few stars in pink and/or gold.
Then my plan was to go to Publix and get one special birthday balloon to go with those, because their occasion-centric balloons are so pretty and, though a tad more expensive, more special.
The desserts Allissa chose for her party were luscious
But there were no pink or gold stars at DT so I just got three matching Happy Birthday-themed ones which happened to be pink and gold.
They were really pretty and I was glad it worked out that way.
Baby Rhett was seated in a high chair to my right and his dad's left. Chad and I both kept him fed and he played and made a stab at coloring on the provided sheet.
Allissa was on my left and we had a nice time chatting throughout the meal.
Then it was time for dessert and naturally Stephanie had it all covered, but then here came the server bearing a birthday-girl piece of that chocolate sheet cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream beside it.
I could smell the cake but I was not offered a bite and that's a good thing because I had no business eating that.
For her birthday dessert Allissa had chosen a cheesecake assortment and some small petit-four type cakes.
She blew out her candles and we all made our selections.
Who doesn't love a new bottle of their favorite perfume?
Stephanie got busy serving dessert plates and passing them up and down the table.
Then Allissa opened her gifts. She had requested another bottle (we gave her one a few years ago) of Philosophy Amazing Grace.
This time I got her Eau de Parfum (rather than Eau de Toilette) and I could tell that she liked having a "big girl" version of her favorite fragrance.
She received several more beautiful gifts and seemed very pleased with everything.
Our Allissa is growing up. Next birthday will be Sweet Sixteen and I imagine we will go all-out for that.
But first, the remainder of the spring birthdays -- Erica's is on May 30th -- and then on to the summer ones.
Dagny will turn nine on the fourteenth of June. Chad celebrates a birthday on the twenty-sixth of June. Rhett will turn two on the twenty-third of July.
I can almost hear the splashing in the pool and smell the hamburgers on the grill and see the rafts of presents and bobbing balloons.
Allissa's pink-and-gold balloons floated above the party
At the end of August, we will welcome a new baby boy: Brittany and Andrew's first son. Ember's little brother.
And at the beginning of October, we will greet another new baby boy: Erica and Chad's second son. Rhett's little brother.
Yes! It's a boy. Cherica just found out last Friday. TG and I have four grandsons and four granddaughters.
Four of each. Girl, girl, boy, girl, girl, boy, boy, boy. Boy oh boy!
Not for nothing but four is my favorite number.
And that is all for now.
Except to say, what are your Memorial Day plans? I want to read all about it.
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Happy Tuesday
