Saturday, September 11, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me ~ A Belated Report


Look at those cool wavy neon candles! Love 'em!

So this birthday post is belated. Maybe I am moving more slowly since I turned 50. Oh well, here are the highlights of the big "five-oh" last month. It was a good day.

We had my birthday party and "cake ceremony" at Jack's home. This is how it looked when I walked in:

Helium Balloons and Piles 'o Presents!

I was seated at the table and then Jack brought in the flaming cake. The guys were singing the Happy Birthday song to me, so maybe that accounted for the dorky look on Jack's face in this photo (or maybe he just looked dorky):

Jack and the birthday cake he made ~ chocolate, of course



So here's the flaming cake:(Bob was standing by with a fire extinguisher, just in case)

Beautiful cake! Dangerous flames.


Here's me just after I blew out all the candles (Jack wasn't quite quick enough with the camera):

Sort of looks like I am praying (or saying my mantra)

We saved the cake eating for after dinner and I went on to open that stack of gifts, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of that part of the celebration. I loved all of my gifts. The guys did a great job on wrapping and gifting.

We went out to dinner at our local Japanese restaurant a few miles away. We usually sit at the sushi bar or get a table in the dining room, but this time we decided to sit at the teppan yaki table where the chef cooks our food in front of us while entertaining us with a performance, "Benihana" style.

We started with drinks:

I had saki and hot green tea ~ in separate cups

Jack had Japanese beer

First course was miso soup:
Miso Soup

Then started the entertainment as well as the cooking of our meals:

Egg Balancing and Tossing!

The chef artfully sliced up a big onion and then stacked in the form of a volcano, to which he added some "fuel":

Fueling up the onion volcano

Then he lit it on fire, and boy did it flame up!

Flaming onion volcano!

The volcano quieted down and started to smoke while he turned his attention to the preparation of our main courses:

Chicken, shrimp, calamari, scallops and a smokin' volcano

Next he chopped and cooked the veggies and finished the meats and seafood:

Our dinner, artfully prepared


This was my birthday dinner plate:

Veggies, beef & shrimp

We ate until we were stuffed. I took home about half of mine. Had to leave room for some birthday cake and ice cream, don't ya know.
Chocolate birthday cake with my favorite natural peach ice cream.

All the food, the singing, the balloons, the gifts and the love made my 50th birthday a perfect celebration. My thanks to my partners, Jack and Bob, for making my special days even more special.




© Copyright 2010 Mountain Harvest Basket

7 comments:

Hardware Bob said...

It was a fun 50th birthday celebration. Seeing you smile at the multi-colored balloon people, and giggling non stop while opening the many presents always brings a smile.

I enjoyed the entertaining teppan yaki food prep, very fun stuff. The erupting onion volcano was beyond cool. Don't do this at home without fire department backup.

Jack's cake and the yummy ice cream was almost too much after stuffing myself at dinner.

Happy 50th Farmer Jen, a new beginning is here with new adventures ♥♥

Wendy said...

What a beautiful birthday! full of love, lots of fun gifts, the food makes me hungry just looking at the pictures and the fact that you're turning 50 and aren't bemoaning it like so many women often do..This is a very inspiring and beautiful post as one who is turning 47 next month. Wishing you a birthday year with magickal happenings, delicious times with family and food and the sweetness of turning 50; a very auspicious age :)

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Bob,
It was a good birthday celebration. Thank you again for everything. The balloons especially pleased my little girl.

Hi Wendy,
Thank you leaving such nice comments. Actually, I did bemoan turning 50 in the post just prior to this one dated August 19th. Hopefully I was more reflective than complaining though!

Happy birthday to you next month. May yours be magickal too.

Danni said...

Wow, what a party! That was a celebration fit for a woman who is loved and honored by the people around her - very special. :-)
Love the onion volcano..and the food looked delicious.

Nosey me wants to know what was inside all those festively wrapped presents... :-)

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Danni,
Thanks for the special praise. I was planning to show off some of those birthday presents in a separate post. (I am about 10 posts behind. I have so many stories swirling around in my head!)

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Wow, you three really know how to celebrate. How blessed you are to have your two partners who are truly good friends in your life, Jen. Can't wait to find out what was in that pile of presents!

Farmer Jen said...

Hi CA Grammy,
Yes, I feel very blessed to have love and friendship in my life. We had a great time celebrating.