Happy Birthday To You Both!

Granpa and his two birthday princesses.
So, today was the dual birthday celebration for Ariele and Atalie, they turned 4 and 2 respectively and my daughter threw them a formal party, at least that's what the invitation said, so I got dressed up in my Sunday best and went to the party. Ha, April Fools came six days later cause no one was dressed in formal attire.

Tea time!
I was going through my clothes and found that the slacks I wanted were dirty and I had not been able to take them to the cleaners so I did the next best thing, or so I thought. I threw them in the washer, set the dial on delicate, closed the lid, and gave it a go. A few minutes later, they were done, and I mean they were done, as in done for good because for some reason there were threads hanging from everywhere. How would I know that they would disintegrate? Well, plan "B" you are it.

I got there a bit late as I was also getting ready for church so I didn't stay there for long, OK long enough to eat because I was starving and the sandwich and chips were calling my name and by the way, they were good. I am totally surprised and proud of me as my white shirt survived being mobbed by my ten grand kids and many nephews and nieces, my son in law said it would be dirty before I left but only a few tiny smudges of cookies and frosting made their way on it.

Anyway, as I said I was not there for long but I was able to take a few pics with the grand kids.

Atalie pointing at the cupcakes on the table and telling me they were all for her.
This girl loves granpa, her #1 grandpa so she says.
She loves me, she really loves me!
The Duck and I.

Diego and I.
Juanito, moi, and Brianna.
Ariele and I.
Diego, Atalie, me, Allayna, and Ariele.
Ummm good cookie and good kiss grandpa.

Super Heroes Birthday Party!

For Diego and Ramon.



Can somebody explain to me how this happens? How is it that in one more year Diego will hit the double digits and Ramon is already two? How did that happen? I know it's cliche but I could start this post with "Wasn't it just yesterday...?" The fact is that last Saturday we celebrated just that, Diego's ninth birthday and Ramon's second.

To see them grow is nothing short of wonderful, it's like each time I see them I see changes. They are just getting too old too fast and that only means one thing, that I am becoming a dinosaur of sorts.

My daughter Michelle has the best ideas for parties and this was no exception. They erected a metropolis in their dining room and every so often the buildings started falling but on this particular occasion no one feared the danger as the house was filled with super heroes.


Here, Super Grandpa leaped from the hot dog machine to hold this falling high rise building, I think one of the many batmen in attendance knocked it in error but Super Grandpa's sharp reflexes prevailed and saved the building placing it back in place.

It was like the super hero convention at the Duckworth's abode. Batman, Captain America, Superman, Bat girls, Super girls, and many other heroes made the party and fun was had by all, specially the mini heroes which were running and jumping all over.

Batman, Superman, and Captain America.
Batgirl and an older Captain America.
Birthday boy Ramon with his super daddy.

I think you just have to appreciate who you are and hopefully they can see what a superhero is about. ~ Lucy Liu

As you can see, super heroes come in many sizes and shapes.
As always, we had a blast. The food was delicious, the super nachos were the BOMB!, the hot dogs had a POW! once all the toppings were in place, and the PUNCH! well it was refreshing. I even had me a care package which I gladly ate the following day. Ummm que rico!

Well, in a couple of weeks Ariele and Atalie will have their birthday party and I heard it through a very reliable source that Ariele a.k.a. Rapunzel will be hosting a formal party. I guess if you are invited to a ball it has to be formal, and in our household with so many princes and princesses around formal attire will be required. Oh and Ariele says that when the tea is served our pinkys have to be sticking up.

California... Again!

Traveling in my car always makes me think of Disneyland. I wonder why?
Well as always the weekend came and went way much too fast, but that's OK I will be repeating this trip yet one more time in about three weeks. Both Abby and my lil sister had been here last week so I was going to skip this trip but expected unexpected changes in my life allowed me to just saddle up the pony sort of speak and one more time ride the highway.

This time I left Phoenix promptly at 11:30 a.m. which means nothing but daylight all the way which also translates into lots of stops along the way for picture taking, eating, resting, and just plain ol' relaxing and enjoying the trip. My travel mug was constantly being filled with Mountain Dew and the ice I put in it lasted almost all the way.

It was the middle of nowhere and it had many awesome things to photograph.



It was a nice enjoyable trip and I finally made it to La Puente. My sister had gone out prospecting for a job while Abby was at a stand still somewhere on the 14 and then the 5 highways so I had to kill some time and since I was hungry from the trip I went to eat pupusas at El Salvadoreno. I had been marking my places on facebook so my niece knew of my whereabouts. After eating I got on the car and decided to text my sister, then as I was about to leave I heard a noise on my passenger door and to my surprise my niece was standing there.

"Do you have room for an ice cream date?" She said, I got out of my car and got in hers and we drove to a Basking Robins for some needed desert. Most of you already know that I have a weakness for ice cream. Ummm yummy! This is when I realize that traffic in Hacienda Heights at 5:30 p.m. totally sucks. A mile stretch took us forever to cross and my niece winded up cheating by leaving the boulevard and going through some residential areas.

Ummm Ice cream... Yummy! Abducted by my niece.
The rest of the night was pretty much a routine of what we normally do on a Friday night. Karaoke at Casa Cabral in the City of Commerce to celebrate my sister's birthday. I think one too many Long Island Ice teas and tequila shots were served because my normally happy singers couldn't even follow a line in the songs.

Bottom line, at the end of the night we all agreed we had had a fantastic time even though I fell asleep in the car the last hour or two before turning in. Fun times!

My Birthday Party!

Here I am with my mom and my four sisters. Too bad my brother couldn't make it.
For and impromptu birthday party all the people that matter the most were present with the exception of my brother whom happened to be busy. There was food galore, and the ranchero meat my sister brought was not even cooked. What? No carne asada? Yep, that's exactly what happened and yet we were all full from all the other dishes that materialized on that table.

I had not one but two cakes and everybody seemed to have a great time just eating and being around each other.

Two of my favorite people, my babe and my baby sister being cool enough to hang around this old fool and not only that but they love me, at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And did I mention they both came from California just to be with me during this my birthday weekend.

Food materialized rather quick and both the kitchen and dinning room tables were filled to capacity with hungry visitors.


Above my son posing with me and with Abby. Bottom picture is a favorite of mine as all my ten grandkids were there on Sunday and they are all in this picture.

My daughter Michelle and I.
My daughter Nikki with Abby and I. A happy birthday indeed.
Thanks to my lil sister for all the images which I very smoothly stole from her Facebook page.

Vegas Bound

The birthday girls invade Vegas.
So my mom asked, "What time are we leaving?" my sister said "Early!". My sister forgot to remind my mom that for her "early" means around noonish, so my mom was up and ready since 7:00 a.m., so when we finally left Phoenix around 1:30 p.m. for the first hour of hour trip the word "EARLY" was disseminated by my mom from front to back and back to front.



So with no real rush to get there as my lil sister left La Puente after we left Phoenix and after all it was her timeshare we were staying at, we made the trip to Vegas enjoying our stops in between to stretch and rest. Remember our trip to Las Vegas was my mom's 79th birthday present so we didn't want to get her tired before we got there.

Our mode of transportation was this aswesome looking Mercury Sable station wagon that belongs to my mom, even though she does not drive she keeps it fully functional and insured and she won't part with it because it belonged to my dad.

We did get to the resort before my sister and Abby so we headed for the supermarket and stocked up on food for the weekend. We spent about an hour at the store which gave enough time for my sis to get there. After the market we only had to wait for about 20 minutes.

Cancun Caribe Resort.
After getting installed we sat to relax, coffee was offered and the sweet bread came out too along with a bowl of grapes and cherries. Perfect for sitting at the table and for conversation.

My sister Elena, the other birthday girl went outside to the balcony which had an awesome view of the Las Vegas skyline and I decided to join her. It was about midnight and we all thought we may go to sleep soon but my mom had a different idea. She is like "So we are here now what? Where are we going?" And with that we all left. We cruised all the way to the end of the strip and I was getting ready to turn around when my sister Elena says, "Look Tacos Mexico", needless to say a taco stop was in order.

Old habits never die. We are in Vegas and eating tacos.
We then headed towards a casino and winded up at the MGM Grand. We went in and walked around for a while, some of us played the slot machines and before we new it it was 3:00 a.m., so we decided to head back to the resort and go to rest.

Emma's Fifth Birthday

Happy birthday Emma.
Last Saturday my niece celebrated her daughter's 5th birthday. I believe I may have published a picture of her in this blog back when she was pregnant. Actually that particular post was the sixth post in this blog (Click Here To Read It). How does time goes by so fast? Why is it that now that I am older I feel it swoosh over my head? When I think about how fast time goes by all I can think of is saying "Wow" and then can't help but think that I am getting old.

Here she is with her mom, her grandma, and great grandma. I just love this picture.
Another funny thing I noticed is that the majority of the guests this weekend were also in attendance five years ago, I think my niece has a good friendship stability.
Her friend baked this very pretty Hello Kitty cake. Wow, people nowadays are getting so creative. Not only did it look good but it tasted pretty good too.

Hello Kitty!
In my world, birthday celebrations like this one are endless, part of having such a huge united family. A good example of this is; my mom's birthday was yesterday and my sister's will be tomorrow. It is not uncommon for us to have celebrations back to back, or on the same day forcing us to either pick and choose or attend both for a shorter period of time.

As always Joe Cool's candid camera was out and about and here are some of those moments I captured during the fiesta.

Enjoy!

Here I am with the birthday girl.
And here she is with her great grandma.
The dad and her princess!

Emma and Fr. Prospero. Father Prospero is here visiting from Congo in Africa.
Blowing the candles off. Happy Birthday to you and many more Emma.