An Ikea Birthday...

This past Sunday we went up to the Twin Cities to celebrate Diane's birthday. We met at Ikea and then went to Molly & Chris' place to celebrate. Grant made the chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes. Anne took a few photos and passed them on to us (below).

Sammy the executive...
...at home at Ikea...

A man was making balloons for the kids at Ikea...
...Sammy of course asked for a white horse...
...unfortunately the balloon popped...
...all that was left was the head...
...so we left the horse's head on a bed display at Ikea...

Maker of chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes...
...Grant puts finishing touches on the cake...

The birthday girl and her cake...

Sammy's 3rd Birthday Party - More Pics

Later in the day, we had cake and started to open Sammy's presents. Much later, an old family friend named Yukon Jack stopped by, but that's another story.

Sammy admiring his cake...

He then asks for assistance...

Sammy blowing out his candles with help from cowgirls Avery, Kendara, and Michele...

Benton amazed us with his track laying abilities...
...in mere moments he had a complex layout that we could never create...

Demure Diane forsook Gaucho Grant for Cletus the 3-headed cactus...

Jilted by Diane the Demure...
...a sad Gaucho Grant faded away into the sunset...

Sammy's 3rd Birthday Party - Cowboys, Banditos, and Mustaches

What would a cowboy birthday be without real(istic) cowboys? For Sammy's birthday we had a whole herd of rip-snortin, darned-blasted cowboys (and cowgirls). Here are a few shots of some of the various hombres at his party earlier in the day.

Gaucho Grant and Demure Diane...
...check the paper for any "Wanted" listings about them...

Groucho Grant, Demure Diane,
Abeline Annie, Frito Bandito,
Juniper Jessica, and Johanna Bandanna pose for a photo...

....only to find out it's lawman Sammy who is the photographer...

All day long Sammy was putting wayward cowpokes in the clink...

This isn't PhotoShopped...
...Veto the Cat actually sporting a mustache...

Gaucho Grant went straight and became a lawman...
(see badge on his shirt)

The good guy always gets the girl...
...at least in Southwest Rochester...

Frito Bandito (sans the mustache) plucking the ukulele...
...he was later apprehended and convicted on being woefully out of tune..

Sammy's 3rd Birthday Party - Preparations

Preparations for Sammy's 3rd Birthday cowboy took more work than a Texas-sized roundup. We corralled his Aunt Diane into working some of her magic with the food. And Grant figured out how to inflate Cletus the cactus (after Paul and Anne scratched their heads for 30 minutes). Thanks Diane & Grant!

The carrot cake from Daube's Bakery was wonderful. We had purchased western-themed napkins and plates with a cowboy on them. When Michele took the napkin to the bakery, they said they'd do the same on the cake. Cowboy Sam was pleased with how the cake turned out.

Mice eggs...

More vittles by Diane...

Cletus the 3-headed inflatable cactus...

All ready for the festivities...

One of the napkins we had purchased..

Sammy approving of the cake...

The cake...
..keep in mind they were working with icing...
...not fresco/plaster like in the Sistine Chapel..

I'll have a uke Christmas without you...

We celebrated Christmas with Paul's family in the Twin Cities the day after Brian & Vanessa's New Years Day wedding. Sammy had a fun time with the family.

The theme for this year's Christmas turned out to be ukuleles. After Michele bought Paul a ukulele, we thought about it and figured it would be a fun gift for other family members. We found a maker of affordable ukuleles which has them painted in various colors (Mahalo). The strings which come with them are pretty bad, so you need to replace them with better strings.

Some of the painted ukuleles available...

Chris has a friend in Woody...

We video-conferenced-in Anne's grandson Tommy...
Grant, Chris, and Brian provided necessary technical support...

Opening their ukuleles...
Chris (orange ukulele) and Molly (light powder blue ukulele)...

Vanessa with her pink ukulele...

Brian with his yellow ukulele...

Wearing an orange shirt...
...Chris entertains us with his orange ukulele...

Sammy helps with clean up...

Sammy...

Chris shows Sammy how to set up and topple dominoes...

A New Years Wedding...

We started off 2009 with a New Years day wedding of Paul's nephew Brian and Vanessa.

The night before the wedding (New Years Eve), we stayed overnight at the hotel where the wedding was. Paul managed to get Diane a teeny-bit-tipsy on Yukon Jack (a family tradition of sorts).

We are very happy to welcome Vanessa into the family. She is a very nice young lady and she certainly makes Brian happy.

Here are some of the photos we took at the wedding...

Grant helps Brian get ready...

Vanessa and Ashlynn sharing a moment together before the wedding...

Diane, Grant, and the Minneapolis skyline...

Paul's nephew Chris and Molly...

Sammy bits a big bagel...

Brian and Vanessa during the ceremony...

Mr. and Mrs. Brian S...

Nothing says I love you...

Nothing says I love you like finely tailored clothing.

Diane's boyfriend Grant is a swell guy. Very nice personality, very friendly, down to earth, bright, etc. He really makes Diane happy...which makes us happy. And he gets along really well with our family. So we figured this was the year to give him a present which tells him just how much the rest of the family really likes him.

But what to give? The time and purpose called for finely tailored clothing. But with the economy in bad shape, it also seemed like bad timing. Until we decided to make him something...but out of materials readily available and affordable.

But what to make? We wanted to make him something stylish, avant-garde without being garish...using bleeding edge materials and construction/tailoring techniques..and something to keep him warm during the winter. Then it hit us one day while shopping at Hy-Vee...

We found these "pizza" bags at Hy-Vee...
...which would keep items warm/cold for up to 3 hours...
...we figured we could use these as the material..

Then we searched high and low for a stylish design pattern...
...note Sammy's trains rumbling by...

We chose a colored-matching adhesive material...
...we opted for the "Professional" quality as the label states...

We cut-apart the 6 bags we purchased...

Then we removed the clear covering...
...(which had the labeling printed on it)...

A single bag handled one section of the jacket...

Cutting out the pattern...

Michele sewed portions together...
...then on the inside, we sealed the seams with Duck tape...
...to prevent cold wind from getting through...

The almost finished product...
...we later added a silver bow to the same spot to identify our craftsmanship...
...similar to the Ralph Lauren galloping pony...

When presenting the gift...
...Paul explained all the fine tailoring and detailing which went into this work...
...note our signature silver bow...

Grant modeling his high fashion winter coat...
...it's ultra light, thin, windproof, waterproof...
...and according to the product labeling, recycle-able...