Turning Over a New Leaf

...I mean...a new decade. Someone in our family just turned forty (and it wasn't me!)
Here's the birthday boy.

 He wears 40 well, doesn't he? I am especially fond of the Brett-Favre-esque locks he is sporting these days. And the pretty lady next to him? None other that our sweet friend, Cheryl. Tiny sweet little thing she is. Huge heart of gold.


And here we have Mick with his Momma, Big Bro Bill and Papa G (Mick's step dad, but I don't even like to refer to him as that because he is such a wonderful man and "Step" anybodies never sounds very nice!)

 And here's some of the spread we had out for guests. Tri-tips ( a big hit AND a BIG flame),*
 smoked salmon, cold cuts and cheese, dips, chips, my Snack Crack mix, veggie and fruit trays, beverages, desserts galore and sooo much more. Lots to choose from. No one went home hungry, that is for sure.

* Remember those tri-tips I mentioned before? Well, my FIL, being the kind, generous, helpful man that he is offered to grill up a few. Five to be exact. 

Suffice it to say, the bigger the amount of meat, the bigger the size of the flames!

Although he looks a it tentative in this picture here:

He had it all under control!

See, the look of confidence in this pic?

Needless to say, we moved the grill a bit out from the wooden deck railing and managed not to burn down the house!

These people? 

Our next-door-neighbors; Becky and Wally. Two really fun, hard-working, generous human beings. They offered to host Mick's party at their house. Seriously? How did we ever deserve such awesome neighbors. We are totally not worthy!

In honor of Mick's BIG 4-0 birthday, we decided to go big with the candles too. 40 tiki torches lined the driveway and made their path down to the bonfire below. 

Four-legged neighbors were invited too (for a token appearance). Meet Fletcher. He's super sweet and super cute.

My Here's my sweet friend Kel, always the first to pitch in and help!

Doesn't she have the most beautiful eyes? I'm sure hear dear hubby thinks so!

And then there was this little cute. Ms. N. She is the grand of Ms. Mea.

She attempted to make friends with this little guy by kissing on him. I, unfortunately, didn't have camera handy to catch that shot. However, I did catch this one:

Methinks this little dude wasn't a willing participant in the quick smooch. Awwww...look! She's trying to make it up to him by giving him a hug!

Here's Mick with a few of his team from work:And Jules joined the crew in time for this pic. Many more peeps joined the festivities after I finally set my camera down awhile to actually enjoy the party. Unfortunately this meant no pics of many other friends and family who attended!

After some bellies were full, the lot of us indulged in the musicality of the awesome band, Sequel Dose. They were funkifying the neighborhood with their groove...and evidently most of Nixa according to the amiable County Sheriffs who paid us a visit...twice. The band was finished by 11pm (we were trying to be considerate, finishing the band at an earlier hour-3 hours earlier to be exact).  Evidently some humbugs were upset with the noise. Seriously. Upset.

 When I saw this laying on the ground (pic below) I knew that meant some more fun was to be had.

 Mick had broken out his old trumpet and stoked up his chops for a quick improv with the band.

Towards the end of the night he played an encore rendition on the keyboard with Van Halen's JUMP. Yep, he rocked the "house" (I mean neighborhood" down on that one. My dear hubby, the Entertainer! Mr. Pacific! Mr. Social!

A few other items of randomness from the day that I don't want to forget:

•  Wally earning the nickname Mr. Potatohead
• Wally playing an "altered" trumpet
• My broken punch bowl/cake stand
• The fact that we never  did sing happy birthday to Mick and have him blow out his candles! OOps! Glad we over did it with the tiki torches-lol
• Everybody dancing up a storm
• the biggest hit of the night (outside of the band, the smoked salmon, Snack Crack, tri-tips and weather) was Mick's new star pointer. Mick, his brothers and others took turns making patterns on the makeshift "driveway dance floor" for all of us to dance to. Totally added to the funkiness of the evening. Let's just say that after that night, Mick and I feel we should buy stock in the company. So many people plan to order one! (Can we have a commission star pointer company?)

 Great memories of a beautiful day with my Mick. He was smiles all day and night. He's still smiling.
I love it when my man is happy. So nice to be able to give back to him for all he contributes to this little ole fam of mine/ours!