Happy Retirement Dude!

April 29th, 2010 was such a crappy day! Ok, ok... it definitely had it's smiles and fun times, but it was a really hard day for me. My bestest buddy at work retired after 25 years. Here are a few pictures from the shindig....

Candace aka Dude/Brat, Jack aka Jackson/Jacko, and Roberta aka Berta/Bobbie

We were pretty much the 3 musketeers... or... maybe more like the 3 stooges!

Co-workers: Rachel, Berta & Anel

Mary, Cathy & Melissa

Berta & Anel again (they just love the camera), Joyce & Sharon

Mrs. Retiree, the punk that retired :) Jolie & me - in other words, Jack & his girls!

I planned, plotted, schemed, stressed, decorated, shopped, coordinated, and baked my heart out to make this party something he would remember for always. He deserved all the spoiling and attention, he was my best bud at work, and I really don't know how I'll get through the 10 hour days without him!

Jack had one request for his party... he wanted Salma Hayek to jump out of a cake for him, well she was a bit busy that day, so she sent her stunt double! :)

Happy Retirement Jack, I'll miss you Dude!

(A HUGE Thank You goes out to my sistay Amy... thank you for all you help, therapeutic advice and talks, and as always, thank you for helping me learn to bake this awesome cake!!)

Happy Birthday Uncle Kelly!!

Saturday night I helped my Aunt Elaine put together a surprise party for her hubby & my uncle, Kelly. I was so excited and happy to help - Kelly means a lot to me, he's the "father figure" I looked up to on my mom's side of the fam & he's the only man I trust to ride a motorcycle with!! Being raised by a single mom for a number of years allowed me to spend a great deal of time with this family. I'm grateful for that time, for those experiences and for the relationships it's given me with each person. Thank you Elaine and Kelly for being my 2nd set of parents, I think you did a pretty good job raising me if I do say so myself!! So here's to you Uncle!

The party was soooo much fun! We surprised him good and spoiled him rotten!

Happy Birthday Uncle Kelly - I love you!!!

Showin' off his new coolness - lookin' good!!

Happy birthday Grandpa!

Happy Family!! (Sean was otherwise engaged, but we still love him)

Elaine and Kelly were beyond surprised to get some brand-spankin' new luggage from their kids - and filled with fun things for their upcoming vacation! They were pretty happy, if you couldn't tell!

Kelly needed just a little help blowing out 50 candles, thanks buddy!

Happy 50th!!

Bachelorette Party!

Friday night I threw a bachelorette party for my BFF Mellers - we had an absolute blast!! I cleaned decorated, spent hours in the kitchen making Peanut Butter Bars, Andes Mint Cookies & Chocolate Covered Popcorn! She couldn't get enough of the popcorn... silly girl had an upset tummy by the end of the night! But all in all it was a FABulous time - time spent with friends she hadn't seen in months, playing games, talking, eating & painting toenails :)

Melissa & her popcorn!

The party! Showing off their sexy legs from L to R: Me, Rachel, The Bachelorette, Tammy, Elisha, Janessa & Caitlin!

Before the party I quizzed the fiance, then asked the same questions to Melissa - for every question she got wrong she had to eat a bubble gum. It was hilarious and we learned just how silly these kids are but the poor muffin had a pretty sore jaw by the end of the night! (Not to mention some nasty looking gum to spit out...)

And of course there were presents!! (I promised not to post the pictures of what was inside the bag - what happens at Candace's stays at Candace's!) Love you Mellers! Happy Wedding!

It was such a fun night and I'm soooo glad I was able to put the party together for her - she sure deserves it! A shot out to my little sister Kacie for all her support to me throughout the process. She was there to get endless pix messages of possible invitation layouts, helping with menu, shopping for essentials, game ideas & keeping me giggling and dancing the whole night. THANK YOU BUG!!! I Love You!

Let's play catch up!

So, I've been a slacker this last little while... I've spent my free time preparing for parties, retirements and well, just getting over illness after illness so now I'll catch up on fun times not blogged about...

Event 1 - learning how to make a cake in a Pampered Chef Batter Bowl. This is truly an art to be perfected and one that I could NOT have accomplished without my awesome big sister. I turned this attempt into a grassy hill covered in Easter eggs which also celebrated my niece's birthday. Turned out sooo cute I think!

Event 2 - Celebrating my mom & 2nd oldest sister's birthdays!

My brother and cutest baby girl.

Me & my girl Shianna - such a cutie!

Me scoring another picture with my mom, I wasn't able to catch the thought bubble that read, "Good heavens Candace, who are your parents?!" :)

Me and my hot big sister - she's sporting a new hair-do and I think it's FABulous!!

My adorable nieces! LOVE YOU!

Not such a great shot of me, but this little cabbage patch kid makes me think that someday in the future I could try having kids of my own.

Event 3 - Easter at Mom-In-Law's

This is a serious task my friends, one must have complete silence and total focus when coloring eggs - this is a job for a professional!

Mom-In-Law with the grandkids - such a fun tradition!! Keep it up!

Event 4 - HAPPY EASTER!!!

The Easter Bunny came to our house!! I'm so glad the change of address didn't mix things up this year :)

And that's the gist - I have a few more pictures here and there, but these are the highlights. I hope you enjoyed it! Hopefully I'll keep this more up to date!

Better late than never?

So... more happy birthday to me - family party time! We gather together on a monthly basis to celebrate the birthdays that occur during that month - there were 6 (present) so that means 6 tasty desserts!

Happy Birthday March Babies!

I made Andes Mint Cookies & added some Strawberry Shortcake to my plate because, how can you resist that??

I was born on my Grandpa's birthday, every year he says to me "It's you and me, kid!" I love it!!! Makes me feel oh so special and closer to him. I love you Gpa!

This is me and my Beautiful Damsel Grandma who has graced my blog before, I love having pictures with her - so here's one to add to the collection! I love you too, Gma! xoxo!

Lunch w/Friends!

My girls at work took me out for lunch yesterday for my b-day, we went to the Royal Eatery - soooo tasty. Just a great burger, fries & diet coke. Pure happiness! On the way there we saw this awesome wall and I just knew we'd have to stop on our way back for a little photo shoot :)

I LOVE THIS!! I'm amazed at what can be done with a little spray paint!

Me and My girl Rexy being silly - I have a stupid look going on cuz she's making me laugh so hard, good times I tell ya!

Me and my girl Berta! Love this girl!!!!

Montana wanted to crawl up this doorway because there was a Black Widow spray painted in there... With some help she got up there eventually!

Montana and Roberta - so cute girls!! Thanks for a great lunch - you are all fabulous!!

More Happy Birthday!

My birthday continued into the weekend - I didn't get to see any friends on my b-day so we celebrated on Saturday! I had SOOOOOOO much fun!!! I even had one of those moments where I cried because I was laughing so hard! I love that!! Here's our night:

Tyson and Melissa surprised me with brownies that were covered in frosting, sprinkles and Happy Birthday candles! My friends love me!!

Me and Jidge at Wingers - tasty food! Jidge tried their Atomic Buffalo sauce... whoa buddy, they were spicy little buggers!

Sean-a-maniac and Drewbee making me giggle as usual!!

To kill time between dinner and OBT, we hung out at the Planetarium - ok, ok... we goofed off at the Planetarium! Sean and Andrew look confused about why we're on Mars, apparently JJ is abusive on other planets, and yours truly? I guess I'm a bit of a klepto - who wouldn't want an actual Mars rock in their living room?? I know I do!

Mellers and I were loving that weightless feeling on the Moon! :)

After we were done visiting other planets, we made our way to the Off Broadway Theater!! My favorite place downtown!! Improv comedy is the greatest I tell ya. Jidge and I haven't been there in forever so we were super excited to return. Melissa had never been there, so I was excited to take her - but she got a bonus! They called her on stage!! They did a skit called "Human Action Figures"

I have a video of this hilarity but I can't get it to work on here... maybe later. I'm sooo sad it didn't work - It was awesome! Thank you for a great night!!