a 30th birthday party

We received an invitation to Kevin & Carla's 30th birthday party in the mail. They had the party at their parents house in Castaic. We were looking forward to it because Shannon, Kevin's sister was going to be there as well. She moved to Canada a year ago and it's been awhile since we last saw her. None of the Callahan's made it to our wedding because their smart brother had a wedding on the same day as us. I called him smart because he knows 6-28-08 is a good day to get married. hehehehe.... Anyway, the party was different from the usual parties we went.... this one had many babies. :-) I guess that's when you know you are going into a different stage of life.... Well, we had fun although I must say all evening I got an earful of how amazing babies are and how they change your life and how you never know you can love someone that dearly besides your husband, which I totally agree. Then there were questions like when are you going to have babies ... and how many would you like... and do you want boy or girl sorta questions. Of course there are also couple who advise not to rush into having kids and enjoy the "honeymoon" period while you can. Anyhoo, we have decided to wait... until the right time arrives. ;) Although I must admit, I felt tempted after seeing all these cute babies out there that day....

Kevin's mom loves horses, she had 3 miniature ponies at the backyard of their house. You heard it right... backyard of the house, she has a little ranch. They have a huge ass mansion.....

brown mini horse =)

grey mini horse... they stink alittle... -_-

this is me

babies in the pool chilling

Cade won best behavior baby award

all these blond hair blue eyed babies... so cute!!!!

another happy family here... Eric, Katie and little Cade one happy family here... Beau, Kim & little Brandon. They just got back from Hawaii. I guessed that's why Brandon was so cranky that day.they catered mexican food.... not just any regular catering food they had them cook on the spot so we could have nice and hot tacos

floaty chairs...

a little mini bar.... mixing your own margarita. John is making me strawberry margarita

all these choices...

and then there was this tradition in their family. Kevin (the birthday boy) gets to pick 5 people to take the shots with him. Of course he doesn't need to pick, all the guys volunteered...!
neat idea.. for a birthday cake, they didn't opt for the traditional usual cake... they had mini cupcakes, that spelled out Happy 30th Birthday (middle), Kevin (left) Carla (right). I didn't get a chance to take a picture of all of the cupcakes... as you can see, some initials were gone.

the birthday boy & girl and their little one, Dylan

The rest of the nights ... the big kids turn to have fun!

The Long Beach Crawfish Festival

A few weeks ago, we made plans with Jocelyn & Johann to go to the Long Beach Crawfish Festival. Since John needed to take his car down to this auto shop in Rosemead, we decided to go down there early to have dim sum as well.

there's our pork ribs

then of course there's bbq pork bun, and egg custard bun...

yummy....

It turned out there was nothing wrong with his car after all.. After dim sum, we headed out to Long Beach. We were going to Queen Mary but then after a look at the ticket price, we or should I say ME, MYSELF and I, decided it's not worth going. So we took a walk around the Shoreline Village instead then on to the Festival which was just right across the street.

Some pictures along the shoreline.

We can choose to do just the entrance or entrance with meal. All 4 of us bought entrance with meal. The ladies were given beaded necklace at the entrance and here I am acting goofy...

kissing my pink beads necklace each of us got a plate of 3-4 lbs of crawfish... they look like mini lobster except of course lobster is far more tastier... served along with corn on the cob, and potatoes ooopps... one got away... the funnel cake for dessert.... :)

After the battle with the crawfish, we walked around. it's sort of like a pasar malam in malaysia... nothing really interesting to us so we left to go to the Pike... this picture reminds me of those indian movies where the indian girls are running around swinging from one tree to another.. bollywood kinda.... lol me taking john taking jocelyn & johann's picture

As we were walking, i came up with this brilliant idea... I told the couple to pose for me just like sir always asked me and john pose for him the kissing kinda pose....

and a more close up

and here john is being silly

What beautiful view......

the wedding story- part III (guys getting ready)

Meanwhile we take a peek at the guys, shall we??

john here distributing the gifts to his buddies

we gave them each a flask with their name initials....

they waited patiently while john poured rum into each flask

they were tired of waiting. so they poured the whole thing into tim's mouth
look at how much fun the guys have...

off they went... ready for some outdoor shots

Next up: The tea ceremony

all pictures credit: sir harrison photography