More From The Birthday Weekend

These 2 sweeties, Emily and her cousin, Abby celebrated their birthdays. We celebrated at the beach house belonging to my husband's parents.

We have so much fun spending time our family. They bought this place when our oldest, Cal, was about a week old 23 years ago. We have been coming here ever since then and have appreciated the time spent with family in such a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. Here is my mother-in-law with Paul, his sister Deb and Amy.

Gail who is the sweetest person anyone could ever meet. She loves her family and prays for them daily.

Abby and Hannah in the community neighborhood pool of the beach house that is always kept at a balmy 88-90 degrees. The kids love to swim in it even when its raining.

Amy peaking her cute little head out of the water.

I made Pioneer Woman's receipe for yellow cupcakes. I added sprinkles to the batter and the fudgy frosting to give it that confetti look. I have made her recipe before and it is a winner, let me tell ya. Not only that, it takes no more time to make than a boxed mix and I always have the ingredients on hand. A secret, I don't do all the special techniques. I just dump everything in the KitchenAide and turn it on for 2 minutes and call it good. The taste is very buttery. Please try it. Here is the recipe

The backyard is lush and green. There is little gully here and I've often seen raccoons skampering along. The girls are playing with an air gun and attempting a Charlie's Angel pose.

This is my sister-in-law but we consider each other sisters. I love Deb. She is Abby's mom.

Oh, more fun in the pool. Hannah is great diver.

Gail is not a drinker, I think she nursed her little glass of Two Buck Chuck(Trader Joe's $2.99) all evening and the glass was never any less than half-full, which by the way, she started out which her glass half-full: )

On our long drive back home, we stopped for a bite to eat.

Thanks, Paul for driving us down to the coast, taking us out to two wonderful meals loving up on your family.

I just needed to see this picture again. I love all the people here. There are more people here I love too, but these are the ones that were willing to pop into my snapshot.