Charlie turns 5 years old

Mary, my baby sister, and I

Julia, Bill Dunn, Jeremy Dunn, Grandpa Dunn, Charlie and Ryan Dunn

Charlie's first gift!

Saturday was Charlie's fifth birthday, Andrea, Ryan, Charlie and Julia came on Friday about 5 pm. We ate pizza and Andrea and I ran to Sam's Club in Mt. P for the food for the party. Ihad spent the day making cream filled chocolate cup cakes, which turned out yummy. I had never used a pastry squeezer before, my hands are nice and soft from the cream I got all over them. I ended up eating a lot of cream filling, it was on my fingers, what's a grandma to do? Most of the cup cakes had enough cream in them. I have a whole new appreciation for Sharon, who makes these in Texas in her fifth wheel!

After we got back, Andrea made my mom's strawberry cake. And that turned out very good. Better than my memory. Mary, my sister, came to the party and we remembered the cakes mom used to make.

All of Ryan's family lives around here, Weidman area mostly, so around 30 showed up for the 11 am party. Ryan's grand pa Dunn came and they got a 4 generations photo. I think all of his aunts and uncles showed up as well as cousins. They didn't get home for Christmas and it was fun to have this get together. And my sister, Mary and hubby Dennis came, and we enjoyed visiting with them. And Stephanie came for the day from Grand Rapids. She brought me a nice Mother's Day gift, but the best was she cleaned the floor in the kitchen after everyone left. I forgot to mention that it was in the 40s temp wise, 20 mpr winds and rain. So this was a house party.

We made Texas ranch baked beans, scratch mac and cheese, and my old Betty Crocker sloppy Joes. Paul grilled Koegel hot dogs. Left the beans and mac and cheese in the over a bit too long, but they were still good. I am going to post the sloppy Joe recipe and the strawberry cake recipe soon. They were popular.