Well, it felt like I was spoiled for 2 straight weeks this year!

It started on Sunday, Father's Day, about 2 weeks before my actual birthday! Erica and Andrew were celebrating at one of Andrew's favorite restaurants, Pappasitos! Ole'!

Erica invited Sylvia and me to join in the festivities!


It was a great meal topped off with drinks and desserts! You can see that Stella and I have the same tastes in desserts as we both ordered the brownie with ice cream!

The actual birthday, however, started with a group dinner at Stonewerks Bar & Grill on the weekend before my birthday!

It was a great group of people including all '4' of my girls. Everyone knows that I count Jordan as my 4th daughter even if Cynthia thinks otherwise! What does she know? She don't know me! (hmmm... maybe after 43 years, she does know me?) James and Andrew joined in the feast!

Of course, my favorite girl, Sylvia, was there. Pictured above, I am enjoying some lobster bisque before the main meal. The grandkids in the last picture had way too much fun that weekend. It's great when they get together since they don't share their time with each other as much as we would like! But they played with boundless energy especially on the sleep-over later that night!

Then it was home for cake & presents! The German Chocolate cake & cupcakes were made by Sylvia! All of it came out fantastic! Stella and Sophia helped blow out the candles after everyone sang, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to me!

Then it was a mad frenzy as everyone quickly grabbed several of the cupcakes!


Then there was the usual mix of music and dart games. The picture shows Michelle winning at the dart board during one of the games. Jordan also won that night and for some strange reason, the 'boys' in the group kept falling short of the girls that night! I think the game was rigged and that's all I'm gonna' say 'bout that!!

Special mention should be made about the delicious cannoli from Mike's Pastry shop in Boston shipped all the way to Texas by my sister Debbie! They were the big hit at the party -- both making them and eating them!

I received a variety of gifts including my favorite food group: LICORICE! But also several other gifts including a hat from Toronto that Cynthia got about 2 years ago but kept forgetting to give me until now! Geesh! Talk about your procrastinating. I also received a Phillies' baseball shirt (for an upcoming trip to Philadelphia later this year), an Amazon gift card (which had already been spent at the time of this writing) and gift cards to the Alamo Drafthouse and a fancy Italian restaurant at the RIM in San Antonio! Of special note, I received a card and gift card to golf galaxy from Denise and Bill in Massachusetts! Yep -- spoiled!

And last, but not least, I received not one, but two gifts from Hope and Steph in Florida! On the left is a basket of snacks (mostly gone already) and on the right, a cute teddy bear and a variety of candies (also mostly gone already).

But, as if I wasn't already spoiled enough, I got treated to a great Italian dinner at Nonna's Osteria restaurant in downtown San Antonio by Cynthia and James! Another fancy, upscale place that I had never tried before! In the middle is the group picture! I had a couple of drinks - both strong, I might add - including a delicious pina colada on the rocks (pictured). My dish was a creamy pasta carbonara; Sylvia had the pasta pomodora! Both were fantastic! It was all topped off with tiramisu and chocolate mousse! Wonderful evening... but...

...the whole event was completely ruined by the card I received (pictured left)! Now just what the heck was she implying! That fish is not 12 inches -- more like 9-10 inches!

But how can I complain about anything, EVER, when I am so spoiled by my family!

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