Surprise Party for Joel's 30th Birthday!

Joel is turning 30 on Wednesday!

Much celebration was necessary for this momentous occasion, so last Saturday (with the help of many family and friends) I threw him a surprise birthday party! It was a PERFECT night - the weather was gorgeous, there weren't any mosquitos out, there was plenty of good food and great company.

Joel has a pretty predictable routine, so everybody showed up around 6:30pm, Joel finished working a little after 7:00pm, rode his bike home, went through the front gate and got his surprise when he came around the corner to see everyone on the deck! I tried to get a picture of his face, but he was still riding his bike, so I got a blurry picture of the fence instead :)

Here's the birthday boy:

Everyone hanging out, waiting for Joel to show up...

Joel, Josh, Jamie and Luke

Aaron "manning" the grill

My favorite 30-year-old (well, 30 in two days)

Many, many thanks to everyone for coming to help celebrate Joel's birthday! Special thanks to Robbi for helping me get everything ready that day!

The Taming of the Tomatoes

My tomatoes were out of control. So one of my weekend projects was to give them a little more structure in their lives. :) After a couple hours of detangling and staking and tying, here are the results:There are literally hundreds of grape and yellow pear tomatoes on these two plants. The two smaller tomato plants (in the front on the picture above) are full-size tomatoes and are just starting to yield.

Now that I've staked up the big tomato plants, my poor little pepper plants can get some sun too. They were being overshadowed by the tomatoes.

By the way, those stakes are six feet tall. The plants are actually taller than I am. Pretty sure they are going to take over the world soon.

Also on my weekend project list was repainting the outside trim of the sliding glass door. That did not go as well as the tomato taming project. I am apparently very bad at painting "in the lines." I will leave the remainder of the painting to Joel and I'll stick with my plants. I seem to be doing well there. Have a great week, everybody!