Happy Birthday AGAIN, Hillary!

Hillary turned seven a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't until today that she had a birthday party with her friends. This afternoon we picked up Madeline (our neighbor and Hillary's classmate/best friend) and brought her to the West River Community Center to be a guest at Hillary's swimming party. Other guests who are NOT our neighbors were delivered by their own parents! They swam in the leisure pool/water park area for an hour-and-a-half and then reconvened in the poolside community room that we had reserved for this afternoon. The theme for the decorations (cake, napkins, plates, cups, gift bags) was High School Musical. Everybody ate ice cream cake from Dairy Barn (Dairy Queen's competition in Dickinson), drank soda, and watched Hillary open her gifts. Each child went home with a treat bag from Hillary, too.

Hillary and Madeline goofing around in the pool!

Clockwise, starting at the far left: Hillary, Stephanie, Lita, Lexi, Suzanna, Michael (Stephanie's brother and Suzanna's classmate), Abigail, and Madeline. Technically Michael wasn't invited to the party; he's Stephanie's brother, and their mom was supervising his swimming while Stephanie frolicked with Hillary et al. But when it was time to come out of the water and in for cake, Suzanna invited him to join us.

It was a pretty nice day all around, actually. Since we had gone to church Thursday night this week, we didn't go again this morning (we would have heard the same sermon and sung the same hymns). Susan made a big breakfast (cinnamon butter braid, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, pomegranate and grape juice, and coffee with creamer), after which I mowed the lawn. After the birthday party, I coated some pork spare ribs with a dry rub (thank you, Emeril Lagasse!) and let them sit for an hour. Then I grilled them for an hour on low, indirect heat. Susan made lumberjack potatoes in the oven, and I made corn-on-the-cob on the grill, which we slathered in a garlic and herb compound butter that Susan whipped up (and put on the garlic toast that she served, too). So-o-o-o-o delicious!

We put the barbecue sauce on the table but didn't actually use it; the dry rub on the ribs was fantastic and all the flavor that we needed!

After supper Madeline's family came over, and the kids played in the front yard while the adults had beverages and visited on the veranda out back. Chuck and Reba are a fun couple, and it was a terrific evening of socializing and eating and drinking. We even started planning for this summer's neighborhood block party (recall this?).

Anyhoo, not that you necessarily wish you'd been at the swimming party this afternoon, but just in case you're curious about some of the highlights from that event, here they are for you: