Matching Dresses

If you know me at all, you know that I love wearing matching outfits. Yumi and I have a dress that's the same, and we decided to both wear it to euchre night at Devil's Kettle! This means I was having one of the best nights of my life.



Yesss!!! Matching dresses!



But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. There were two other ladies there with matching dresses on!!!! Theirs were unplanned!! What are the chances!? BEST NIGHT EVER!

Tropical Cooking Club

Summer hosted cooking club this month, and the theme was "tropical"! She started us off with watermelon gin cocktails. Look at that cool tiger gin!



Nancy made tropical salsa!



And Valerie made fried plantains with a garlicky dipping sauce!



Cooking club ladies!



Valerie made salads with pomegranates and mango!



Summer grilled shrimp kebabs and served them in pineapples, with coconutty rice.



Yum!



Of course, we played Bowl of Nouns!



Nancy made a delightful key lime freezer pie!



It was a very tropical and delicious afternoon!

Happy birthday, Mama Mia!

We gathered at Vana and Joe's for a pizza party to belatedly celebrate Cheryl's birthday!



Kayla made this beautiful cake, with edible butterflies!



Perfect for the birthday girl!



Lighting the candles.



Make a wish!



Yayyy! Cake time!



Ben and I brought several flavors of gelato to go with the cake, in a nod to Cheryl's recent trip to Italy! Mmm, taste them all! Happy birthday, Mama Mia!

Happy 40th Birthday, Cuz!

My bestie cousin Dan turned forty this week, so I flew to California with Uncle Tom to join the celebration! They have great dogs, which made missing Felix a little easier. Here's Rosie!



Rosie is very excitable.



Amy got Dan a Texas Original smoker for his birthday! The big plan for the weekend was to smoke forty pounds of brisket for a birthday party. Go big or go home!



On Dan's actual birthday, we went out for lunch at Zoccoli's Delicatessen in Santa Cruz.



Birthday boy!



Look at Henry's loose ham! Eek!



Dan had a LOT of wood delivered for the smoker. One of our projects was to move it from the driveway to over by the shed.



Look at that pile!



Dan practiced using the smoker by smoking some chickens.



Jazz supervised.



We had banana cream pie for a birthday dessert!



Henry with his wolves.



Jazz monitoring me as I tore apart leftover smoked chicken carcasses.



We made the trek to Corralitos Market to pick up the brisket!



Henry enjoying another delicious sandwich.



Tour of Henry's clubhouse!



The brisket all seasoned and ready to smoke.



Danny made a 40 years of music playlist for his birthday. Hits from every year of his life!



The backyard all picked up and ready for a party!



Ready for guests!









Henry has serious driving skills for a six-year-old.



The brisket turned out amazing!!! Smoked for 24 hours. Here's Italo enjoying some meat.



Dinner time!



Everything was so delicious, but especially that brisket. Best I've ever had in my life! Birthday boy nailed it!



CAKE!



Party!



Happy family!



Dan with his bandmates!



Jazz hands!



Trampoline!



Scotchity scotch scotch!



Henry driving Lily around!



What a good brother!



Lily and Henry!



Dan also smoked some sausages from Corralitos Meat Market, and they were amazing.



I had an audience as I packed up my suitcase to go home. Aw. I'll miss them!



3:30 a.m. wakeup call makes for tired travelers. It was fun, Santa Cruz!