Peter's Silver Birthday!

Today my baby brother turned twenty-five (25)! *Confetti*

While Mom and I had a few rather elaborate plans in mind at first (such as renting a cabin at Farragut or having a potluck and swimming party there), we eventually decided to let the Birthday Boy choose his activities. Bro isn't exactly into big whooptidoos, even for milestone birthdays.

Who needs cake, anyway?

So it happened that Mom and I made the traditional Birthday Cheesecake (Peter's favorite dessert EVER), and a peach pie for ourselves. Because of Mom's egg and wheat/gluten allergies, cheesecake is kind of a no-no for her, and it's a bit too rich for me, having the same egg allergies (although I usually have a sliver when it's aged a week). So we made peach pie from some fresh peaches purchased at a local farm stand. We bought some canned peaches, too, to fill out our deep-dish pie pan, and so we wouldn't have to sacrifice any of the fresh peaches to make the glaze.

From this...

...to this!

Note to self: Don't make pie again unless there are other people to share it. Especially glazed fruit pie. At the end of a week we ended up pouring the filling over pudding and tossing the very soggy crust. Ick! But I digress....

Since Peter's birthday was on a Sunday, he chose to go out to lunch at a Chinese buffet in CdA called Top of China. While it wasn't as big as I'd expected, and I must confess I think Panda Express has better food, it was still a fun experience to choose from all the tempting entrées. This giant fish and miniature mountain sculpture added interest to the place, and Bro and I got a good chuckle out of the closed-captioning on the TV (they kept using V in place of W).

Miniature Mountain

Mr Fishy

Birthday Boy dishing up

Mom indulges her shutterbug daughter

Here's a pic I snapped in the mirrored back of one of the serving counter thingies. I had to squat to get my face in the picture!

What I'm Wearing:

Dress: “Breath of the Sea” thrifted

Necklace: “Wild Irish Rose” Wild Rose Designs & Laurie Sarah Designs

Earrings: Pearl Earstuds gift from Jordan R.

Hairstyle: “Swedish” Braids

I wanted to dress up in honor of the occasion, and my newest dress, christened “Breath of the Sea” because of its color, seemed fitting. I'll try to get a better picture of it later (unless the weather decides to get too cold) and do a proper fashion post on it.

A nice lady at the table next to us took this picture of all three of us:

After lunch had settled a bit, we changed into swimsuits and street clothes and headed over to Kiwanis Park to explore a bit.

View through the trees

CU of the House on the Hill

While most of the flora had died down for the year, there were still a few wildflowers to greet visitors to this very nice park. 

Wild Aster (?)

Purple "Aster"

Alfalfa in bloom!

Not only was the natural beauty of the area well-preserved, there were also proper facilities, with an inviting green lawn around the well-cared-for main building. Something in which other parks we've visited were sadly lacking.

As an added perk, Kiwanis Park is right by the Spokane River, and there are well-marked and easy-to-walk paths leading to it (now you know why we wore swimsuits). Of course we took a dip, although Mom only waded so's she wouldn't get anything in her eye before her surgery the following Tuesday.

(Across the River) Love that meadow!

 My bathing suit—a pair of purple/blue poly-taffeta swim trunks and an aqua and blue Spandex “surfer shirt.” 

More convenient than a modern one-piece, with a lot more coverage! (Although I'd feel better if the shorts covered my knees....)

Walking through the Wild Roses (sadly done for the year)

In a way I wish we could have done a little more to celebrate Peter's reaching the quarter-century mark, but on the whole, I think he had a nice day, and that's the main thing.

Love you, Bro!

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~“Tom”~