Although we ended up at Viola's Ventanas, the birthday celebrations for Sophia and Erica started earlier in the month! Sophia shared a birthday with her family & friends in Temple earlier in the month and Erica shared a Mother's Day/Birthday dinner at Pappadeaux's Seafood Restaurant on May 11th (her actual birthday)!

On May 11th, Andrew, Erica and Stella went to Pappadeaux's to celebrate the occasion. Michelle, Cynthia and Jordan were all busy, but Sylvia and I joined in the fun! We were treated to a great meal and terrific drinks, complements of Andrew!

Pictured above, Erica receives a complementary birthday surprise! Of course, Stella was there to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY and help blow out the candle!

But we had to do it all over again to formally celebrate Erica's 38th birthday and Sophia's 6th birthday! The best part about getting together is so that all of the grand-kids can play with each other. Sometimes they were playing one moment, but then they were fighting the next moment! The life-cycle never ends!

But because of time contraints, we all decided to meet at Viola's Ventanas! The place is perfect since it allows us to eat and drink, while the kids run around in the play area! Even though Sienna is walking a lot these days, in a crowd, she still gets ansy whenever Erica puts her down or disappears from her view! Of course, that will change with time!

As luck would have it, Jordan was able to make it to our gathering! She switched with a co-worker to cover the shift so she could attend! Cynthia was doubly happy since she rarely gets to see her first born as much as she would like. Yep, I know how she feels. Life just gets in the way!

Michelle somehow was elected as the official cake-cutter of the day. There were two desserts: A key-lime meringue pie and a Carrot Cake, both from Nadler's. For some reason, the Key-Lime Pie was the biggest hit of the day. Below is my plate with a slice of each!

A great time was had by all!! It was a fairly warm afternoon, but breezy enough so that it didn't feel too bad! On top of that, the performer that day sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY not once, but twice to the 2 birthday girls. I just wish I had remembered to bring out the candles before the performance started. Truthfully, though, the 15 mile/hour wind would have made it difficult!

Although I started with this photo (left) at the beginning of the page, it was such a good photo of the group, I thought I'd show it again! As I've gotten older, just hanging out with my kids and grandkids is truly getting to be some of my favorite life moments! Missing from the group picture, but present that day was Andrew, Stella and Kevin! See, even when we're all together -- we're never all together! Oh, well!

---