50 & fANTASTiC!

Turning 50 years old is a big deal, right?  So I have been planning a big deal party for Brett since last summer.  I bought the hat, the plates, and the napkins in Utah and stuffed them in our luggage when we came back to Doha last August.  So we finally got to break out the 50th Birthday Party paraphernalia and celebrate Brett's great life last week.  He kept telling people that I have terrrible math skills and had the number of birthdays wrong, but no one believed that story, so he appropriately received a lot of teasing about his age and his memory, especially considering the party invitation included this photo of Brett sporting this hat.

Brett really loves taking the dogs to the beach these days and watching them run in the "waves" so I thought a beach party would be perfect.  Then I had the great idea of a bonfire and lots of people.  Things kind of got out of hand, especially considering I had fallen and cracked a rib on February 13 and was still healing, but somehow it all happened.  As usual I stressed and baked and stressed and baked, and cooked but it all turned out wonderfully, and the most important thing was that Brett had a great time and felt very loved.

The fire got started:

And so did the festivities!

There were a lot of cute kids in the party crowd:

And we had an entertaining bunch of adults as well:

We kind of tricked our neighbor Karl into coming.  He works six days a week and works way too hard, so when we asked him if he could get one of his work trucks to help load wood out to the beach for the fire, he had to be neighborly and bring the truck and the wood , his family, AND HIMSELF.  His wife was pretty happy about our devious plan!

Felicity, Jesse, and Riley made an unexpected appearance.  We will be "expecting" more visits in the future from them!!

Our friend, Mark (on the right with the big smile), was bequeathed with the birthday hat at the end of the night since his big 5-0 is coming next year.  We might just have to visit Tel Aviv to attend his party.

Our great friends brought some delicious food and the tasty part of the night began:

Rikke's extra thoughtful blue birthday cake was a hit!  Thanks, Rikke!

These two inmates had a grand time romping on the beach until their puppiness got out of control when Smudge started following a Qatari in a truck who was walking his dog the easy way (can't blame Smudge for his instinctual desire to follow a truck) and Freckles confiscated a hot dog out of the hands of a little party goer.

As the sun set it was time for dessert and a BIG BEACH HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG:

A Texas Sheet Cake was the best bet for chocolate lover Brett!

The candles wouldn't light because of the dusty wind and then the number 5 broke, so the ceremonial blowing out of the candles had to be abandoned.  At least the candles made it intact to the Doha beach all the way from Utah!

The party was so much fun and we are so thankful for those friends who came and helped us celebrate.  Thanks to Wayne for helping with the hot dogs on his grill and thanks for Gurur and Anil for staying until the very end to clean up.  If all of our friends and family from the U.S. had been here we could have called it a perfect day.


The next day was Brett's actual birthday so he spent part of the day in his pajamas and accepted presents like this delectable one from our friend Afton who is a gourmet baker.  I thought it was MY birthday when I bit into this creamy piece of heaven.

It was a great 50th birthday for Brett.  He was thrilled with his new set of scriptures that I had purchased in Colorado when I was there in January and maybe even more thrilled with the laptop cushion for his computer from Abbey that has a built-in fan to prevent an over-heated lap.  This man has brought me so much joy and happiness and continues to make my life meaningful, fun, and blessed so here's wishing for another 50 years of Brett!