Happy Birthday, Dad! [& America!]

My dad hit the big 5-0 today, along with the USA's 235th! We celebrated yesterday with loads of family and friends out on a friend's farm, through rows and rows of filbert trees, on a slough of the Willamette River.

Photo credit to Steven King

Birthday man and granddaughter, Addison.

We had delicious brisket, caesar salad, beans, cornbread and potato salad by Pig Out BBQ Catering. Mmmmm-mm.

Then cake and homemade ice cream!

Of course we had to light off some fireworks. Lastly, we lit three wish lanterns my dad purchased in Thailand a couple years ago. (You can get the on amazon, too.) He had been saving them to do with lots of family and friends around so this was the perfect opportunity.

They were really pretty and magical looking in the night sky. These are called Khoom Loy/Fay in Thailand and lit off year round, but particularly during festival of Loy Kratong. You are to make a wish as you light it and let it go, as it will carry all bad luck away with it. Look at how beautiful the sky is when it is filled with them! I want to buy some for a future shindig.

via

On sort of a side note, I caved and bought a Silhouette using Tatertots and Jello's bundle discount code. (Follow her to get the next one. They happen every few months or so. You can save over $100 on the machine and then get a little product thrown in - mine was 3 rolls of heat transfer + $10 Silhouette Store card!) I really haven't got to play with it much, but whipped up this birthday card for dad right before the party. I'm already in love with it. More gushing details on a later post.

So hastily whipped up, that I didn't even have time to replace the little dots in the a, e, r or p.

Happy 50th birthday to the best dad a girl could ask for and many more to come! [Oh yes, and Happy Birthday Old Glory!]