Monthly Archives: May 2011

Weekend of parties in Long Beach!

Wednesday, May 25

Kevin and I got on the road on Wednesday evening with the Lola in tow.  The drive down was pretty uneventful (the best kind of trip down the 5 highway, I’d say!) and we got in at midnight.

Pretty cows out to graze!

Lola was quite intrigued by the cows

Our pretty little girl stretching out her legs

Thursday, May 26th

We were fortunate enough to stay at Kevin’s parent’s house for the trip and were treated to a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast.  We just hung out most of the day, running some errands and soaking in the sun (oh, the sun!)  As Dorothy was watering the garden, she quickly learned how much Lola LOVES the garden hose…

Watering her grandpup! Haha

That evening we met up for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ (our go-to place when we’re in town!) with none other but Brianne, Brian and Brianne’s sister Laura.

Oh how I’ve missed you!

Cutie pie

Kevin and Brian, stuffed silly

Kevin and Lola, posing for a photo at home

Friday, May 27th

For the few weeks leading up to our trip down south I was working with Kevin’s mom and sister Judith to plan a surprise graduation party for Kevin on Friday night.  We had a guest list of around 40 people and were anxious to get the party started!  But first, a lot of shopping and preparations to make sure that Kevin didn’t find out until the last possible minute (and since we were staying with his parents it proved to be a little difficult!)

The plan that afternoon was to have his brother Thomas take him out for a few hours while Dorothy, George, Judith and I prepared the food, cleaned the house, and got the backyard all ready to go.  Unfortunately, Thomas had to go to work at 6pm (the same time the party started) so he had to drop Kevin off at 5:30, so the surprise was a little premature.  Nevertheless, Kevin was extremely surprised and had not idea what we had up our sleeves!

The guests started arriving…

Dan, Judith and Kevin

Jessie and her niece Lola (with Valerie, Vanessa and Rose in the background!)

Dan, Chris, Kevin, Brian, Dominic and Jayme

Same as above plus Dorothy, Loren, Shani, Andrea and Ron

Jess and Brianne

Mmm…veggie skewers! Oh yeah, and burgers & hot dogs for the carnivores

Christian (my mom’s boyfriend Steve’s grandson)

Lola and her new best “friend” Christian (he quickly wore her out [which is not an easy thing to do!] and so she got a little annoyed towards the end of the party since he was still full of energy and wanted to play!)

Me and Brianne

Kev and Jessie

Jess and Matt

After chowing down we brought out the cakes and said a little something about the man of the hour–for those of you that don’t know, Kevin just completed a two year Aviation Mechanics program at the College of Alameda.  It was a full-time program in which Kevin went to school from 4:30-10:30 every night for two years.  He ended up at the top of his class (no surprise here!) and just last week, at the recommendation of his instructor, was offered a job at Rolls Royce working on the V-22 Osprey engine!  It was SO great being able to celebrate Kevin and all of his accomplishments with the people that love him and it was even more wonderful that he was able to announce his new job just a week out of school.  We’re all so proud of you, Kev!

Applauding the guest of honor

The ADORABLE airplane cake the Dorothy baked and Shani decorated

It also happened to be Dan’s birthday so we sang a little song for him and gave him a cupcake to celebrate

Christian said he wanted the candle (not the cupcake, surprisingly) and said he was going to save it to put it on *his* birthday cake

A Cookie Monster cupcake will do that to you

I think everyone who attended really enjoyed celebrating Kevin and his accomplishments, thank you to everyone who was able to make it!

Saturday, May 28th

The main reason we made the trip to Long Beach this weekend was to celebrate with my good friends Kim and Frank on the day they got hitched!!

That morning we met up with my mom, Jessie, the Julians and Matt’s girlfriend Alexis at what other place but The Potholder?!

The whole gang

The wedding was scheduled to start at 4:30pm at the Art Theater in Long Beach–such a cool wedding venue!

The marquee said “A Love Story: Kimberly and Frank”…so cute!!

Jess, Steve, me, Kevin and my Auntie Tina in front of the theater

Me and Jess all dolled up

Me and Kev on the red carpet

Inside the theater they were showing silent films

Steve chowing on some popcorn (they had bags of it in the lobby for people to eat!)

Me and my mama

The ceremony was short and sweet, officiated by Kim’s dad Guy (who actually married Kevin and I as well!)

Kim and her mama Terry walking down the aisle.  What a beautiful bride!

The reception was behind the theater under a big tent…

Beautiful flower arrangement centerpieces

Lots and lots of wine for the masses!

Me and my party dress

Guy greeting my Auntie Tina and Jessie

Kim coming by to say hi

Hugs all around!

Matt and Alexis with the bride

Portrait of the bride…

…and the flower girl Bella

Me, mom, Tina, Jess and Kim (LOVE this photo!)

Me and Shan

Kim and Frank cracking up at Stacey (maid-of-honor’s) hilarious toast

The shoes…so perfect!

First dance

And Bella decided it was her time to show off her firefighter pole slide!

Susuico family dance (Stacey, Jay, Bella and Tasi)

Mom and Frank dancing

Kim and Steve dancing

Dancin’ shoes (mom and Jess)

Mom and Steve

Diane and Dave

Jess and Terry

Pretty sister!

Me and Kev (our obligatory shot)

They had an awesome candy bar for people to fill up little popcorn bags with treats…

The kiddos could be found swarming the table most of the evening

I swear she posed that way on her own! Haha

Their cake was AMAZING–made by one of her girlfriends Diana!  And it tasted better than it looks, no joke.

The adorable orange bride and groom to go with the citrus theme.

The ol’ hula gang!  Sayuri, Cat, Kim, mom and me

Finally warm enough weather to wear something that shows off my tattoo!

The evening was perfect and we felt so incredibly fortunate to be able to celebrate with our good friends Kim and Frank as they start a new life together!!

Sunday, May 29th

After a late night we met up with Brianne and Brian at The Coffee Cup Cafe for some good eats.

Me and Bri

We hung out with them for a few hours trying to distract Brian as Brianne went out to prepare for his very own surprise party, this time to celebrate his birthday!  That afternoon we had to pretend we were saying bye for good and that we wouldn’t be seeing him again until our next trip down, but little did he know that we’d be turning right back around to their apartment a few short hours later to celebrate with him and friends/family.

A video of the surprise!

Birthday banner made by Brianne

Cake!

We got the chance to see our friend Lara and meet her brand-new baby Audrey!  Audrey was a total sweetheart and it was great being able to meet her after only seeing photos all this time.

Lara, Brianne and Audrey

Ted and Lara

Me and the flying baby!

Monday, May 30th

We were treated to a home-cooked breakfast of waffles covered in strawberries and a breakfast veggie stir fry (or bacon if your name is Kevin).  It was nice being able to spend a couple of hours at home with Dorothy and George before making our way back home to SF.

Unfortunately the ride home was nowhere near as smooth as the ride down.  9 1/2 hours later we finally parked in front of our house.  Let that be a warning to anyone who thinks they can avoid the awful traffic on the 5 on a holiday!  🙂

We had SUCH an awesome trip, thanks to everyone who made an effort to see us and we can’t wait to go back!

Lola the movie star

My good friend Beka who I met when going to Redlands is in her second (and final) year of the MFA program at Stanford University–her final project is a 15 minute documentary called “Sick as a Dog”.  You can see the preview of the film at this link (and support her cause by donating as little as a dollar too!)

She had completed most of the filming but wanted to get a  shot from a dog’s-eye-view so asked if she could borrow Lola.  She and Kevin strapped a camera to her itty-bitty head and off to the dog park we went!

I think this could be considered animal abuse, don’t you think?

She was totally embarrassed around the other dogs! Hahah.

This is Pablo. So stinkin’ adorable!  I asked Kevin if we could take him home and, unfortunately, Kevin said no. 🙁

After about 30 minutes of trying to get Lola to run around while keeping the camera balanced on her head, we took it off and let Lola go free.  Then Beka got the brilliant idea to strap it on her head to see if she could get a good shot, haha!

Beka’s film (along with all of the other student’s films) will be shown at Stanford on June 11th and Kevin and I are going.  Hopefully Lola will get her 2 seconds of fame!  🙂  Here’s the info. about the film screening if any of you local folks are interested in going.  I went last year and was blown away by the films and we’re really looking forward to going!

Food truck heaven

To celebrate Kevin’s first Friday off of school (!) last week we decided to spend some time at Fort Mason to do some exploring (since Kevin had never been) but most importantly to eat our way through food truck heaven!  There’s an organization called Off the Grid that hosts food truck markets every week in the city.

We got to Fort Mason a little early so spent some time walking around and exploring.  Our first stop was the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery.  There wasn’t too much to see but I was in love with this artist’s work (not necessarily with the subject [although I love me a good sugary treat] but with her style):

Then we stumbled into the Long Now Foundation‘s space which was a total trip.  Their purpose (in a nutshell) is to “creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years”.  Now if that in itself doesn’t blow your mind, then surely some of their projects will…

This poster is supposed to be posted in your time machine.  Yes, you read that right: your time machine.

Solar synchronizer, anyone?

My favorite quote: “I think of the oak beams in the ceilings of College Hall in New College, Oxford.  Last century when the beams needed replacing, the carpenters used oak trees that had been planted in 1386 when the dining hall was first built.  The 14th-century builder had planted the trees in anticipation of the time, hundreds of years in the future, when the beams would need replacing.” -Danny Hillis

“In having children–in engendering them, in loving them, in teaching them to love and care about the world–parents are betting, whether they know it or not, on the Clock of the Long Now.  They are betting on their children, and their children after them, and theirs beyond them, all the way down the line from now to 12,0006.” -Michael Chabon

Kevin’s mind? Officially blown.

I kind of felt like my brain was melting in that place.

Then we did some more walking around, anxiously waiting for the food truck extravaganza to start!

The time had finally arrived!

Hungry people

Zombie Curry Thai food

Mac ‘n cheese spring rolls!  Gotta try those next time.

Kimchee quesadilla! Gotta try that one next time too!

But I did help myself to a tiny cup of kimchee even though we didn’t buy anything from their cart. It was so tasty.

Kevin in line for lumpia (Philipino egg rolls)

Me and my okonomiyaki with an egg on top (soooo good!)

Musubi Kings! I LOVE musubi but unfortunately they didn’t have a vegetarian option…

But the Hawaiian truck IZ IT had a vegetarian option: musubi with tofu katsu

My tofu katsu musubi and Kevin with his Hawaiian beef taco

Dessert was horchata kettle corn, mmm!

Kevin enjoying a handful (or two) of the kettle corn.  It was windy that day so we were trying to throw the popcorn in the air and catch it (because everyone does that when eating popcorn, right??) –but because of the crazy winds we had to throw it to the side so that the popcorn could blow towards our mouths.  We were doing that on the side of the road for a few minutes not realizing that the traffic stopped at the red light was watching us…when the light turned green someone in a car yelled out “Good job! Do it again!” Hahaha!

Bird’s eye view of the event

We had SO much fun and we will definitely be making a habit out of going to these events more often.

Bay to Breakers 12k

My brother Derek and I ran in the centennial race of the Bay to Breakers 12k on Sunday 5/15–it was the first time that we ran a race together and I was so excited when he decided to run it with me!

The day before the race Derek, Kevin and I headed over to the B2B Expo to pick up our race bibs.

We saw Dean Karnazes!  He’s the “ultra marathon man” who recently ran 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 days!!

It was so cool seeing our names right next to each other

We had fun in the historical exhibit, showcasing 100 years of the race…

Me and Derek next to the infamous pink gorilla costume

Posing next to the 1983 shirt (the year I was born)

Derek not so happy about the lavender/pink 1986 shirt (the year he was born)

On the way back to the car we noticed this frightening sight…a random woman’s photo in a drain pipe.  Wtf?!

Race morning!  We were up bright-and-early to jump on the BART downtown to meet with all of the other runners.  It was really cool being on the train full of runners, some even in costume.

Beautiful morning!  Luckily the rain stopped for race day.

Sun breaking through the clouds over the Bay Bridge, minutes before the start of the race

Derek’s race number (out of 55,000 participants…he JUST made it!)

We felt like cows being herded to the starting line.  Some folks decided it would be a good idea to bring bags and bags full of corn tortillas to fling amongst the crowd.  Nothing like flying tortillas to pump up a crowd, I guess.

The aftermath

Starting line!  Only 7.5 miles to go…

There were TONS of characters I saw along the way…

A group of people dressed in tighty whities

Flight attendants along the road directing the traffic

Smurfs

Escaped prisoners from Alcatraz

Muppets

Salmon (running upstream)

Mahna Mahna muppets

Up the awfully steep Hayes Street hill…

But at the top I was rewarded with the smiling face and the cheers of my co-worker Jayme!  She even made me a sign saying “Go Lisa!”, so sweet!  She and her husband came down from Marin County to visit with a friend who lives off of Alamo Square park so had front row seats to the race.

Me and Jayme

The “Up” characters

Bumblebees

Oompa Loompas

As I was nearing Golden Gate Park I finally saw my sister Jessie!  And within a few minutes of our visit we saw my brother pass us by too!  What perfect timing.

Running through Golden Gate Park

Mile 7!!

Self-portrait

The ocean, so close to the end!

The finish line!

Derek finished in 1 hour, 6 minutes and I finished in 1 hour, 34 minutes.  Go us!

You can see our finish line photos here (my bib # is 47906 and Derek’s bib # is 54982).

You can also see a video clip of us crossing the finish line here!  For some reason the first video clip shown isn’t of us, but if you just wait it out for a minute or so and let the video refresh on its own you’ll see us cross the finish line about 30 seconds later!  You have to look us up individually by our bib numbers.

Gorilla dad and kids at the finish line

So unfortunately Derek and I hadn’t come up with a meeting place for after the race.  I had my cell phone on me so was able to get in touch with Jessie but we had no way of getting a hold of Derek!  And with 55,000+ people there, it was proving almost impossible to find him.  We searched for at least an hour and Jess and I decided to just sit on a rock on the side of the road in hopes that we see him…and within 10 minutes guess who came walking by!

Proud finishers with our commemorative medals…

We then shuffled our way to breakfast at the Bashful Bull diner.

Derek and Jess

Such a beautiful day!  The view of Bernal Hill from our apartment.

Lola getting some lovin’ from her Auntie Jessie

I was so incredibly sore after the race so after taking showers we all took a nap (in typical Delmar kid style!)  It was so much fun running the B2B race, especially since Derek was there with me and Jess was there to cheer us on!  We’ve got plans to run it (all three of us, and hopefully in costume) next year!  🙂

Mexico City!

I was given an amazing opportunity at work to make a trip down to Mexico City in early May and I had such an incredible time!  I will be taking over Registrar duties for the Teacher Education students that study at our Mexico City campus and so I went with my boss and another administrator to visit the campus, visit some K-12 schools, and work on a plan for the fall semester.  It had been many years since I last visited Mexico and the only places I had ever visited growing up were Tijuana, Rosarito, and Baja California so I was really excited to see other parts of Mexico and to be immersed in a Spanish-speaking country again (the last time I did that was in 2004 when I was studying abroad in Nicaragua).  I have to admit, I was really nervous about how I’d do with my Spanish but I was SO happy to find out that it came back pretty quickly!

A map of Mexico for those of you not familiar with where Mexico City is…

(I may or may not have needed a refresher myself before my trip!)

Monday 5/9

I jumped on a plane from SFO in the afternoon to Benito Juarez airport in Mexico City.  The flight there is 3.5 hours and it was a pretty nice, easy ride in.  Dinner was $7 worth of cheese, crackers and dried fruit…

4 crackers, 4 pieces of cheese, 3 pieces of dried apricot and 2 pecans. Scrumptious.

We landed around 8pm (Central time, Mexico City is 2 hours ahead of CA) and after crawling our way through customs we were finally standing on Mexican soil!  We took a cab to our hotel (more on our hotel later) and after checking in it was around 9:30pm but we were starving so we went to the restaurant on the first floor called Sanborns Génova.  We were given a basket of bread, crackers and tortilla chips (all in the same basket) to hold us over as we waited for our food.  I ordered the most amazing shrimp tacos I have ever eaten in my entire life and I swear I dream about them even now!  Hahah.

The most delicious shrimp tacos ever created.

After dinner we went up to our respective rooms to try to get some sleep before the next day’s activities.

Tues. 5/10

We met for breakfast on the first floor and I was so impressed with the breakfast brunch!  There was such an amazing spread of fresh fruit (including papaya and mango) and some amazing fresh-squeezed orange juice and a huge basket piled high with pan dulce (my favorite).  And to top it off, there were about 6 cages filled with parakeets chirping along in the breakfast lounge.

The beautiful breakfast lounge on the first floor.

Oh how I wish I could eat like this everyday.

Chirp, chirp!

Our university’s campus is within two blocks of the hotel we stayed at and it was such a beautiful day so the quick walk was enjoyable.

El Monumento a La Independencia El Angel (The Angel of Independence monument) just a few blocks away!

Neat outdoor decorations in front of a church

The hotel and university are in the Zona Rosa (Pink Zone) which is known as the gay-friendly part of town

Beautiful statue of Diana La Cazadora

The following are photos of the Alliant International University (the university I work for) campus in Mexico City:

The front of the campus

The front entrance (once you get past the security guards, of course)

Beautiful courtyard in the middle of campus!

I loved these posters, showing our different campuses (San Francisco, San Diego, Hong Kong, Tokyo amongst the others in California)

The library

I would LOVE to have that view from my desk!

We were in a few meetings through mid-day but my boss and I got lucky with having the entire afternoon free to explore the city.  Our tour guide Sarah (who works for the university) led us downtown for lunch, sight-seeing, and some shopping.

We went to lunch at a restaurant called El Mayor which is on the roof of a building that oversees the excavation site of Aztec ruins.  The view was INCREDIBLE if you can imagine and the food was pretty darn good too!

Overlooking the ruins of the Aztec pyramid Tenochtitlán

La Catedral Metropolitana (The Metropolitan Cathedral)

After lunch we made our way to El Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (a really neat museum) and passed along the way…

A few life-size, plastic Jesuses

Necklaces with the Pope’s face

A beautiful Día de los Muertos statue

A gorgeous street scene

The museum is in an incredibly beautiful building with a gorgeous courtyard in the middle…

Beautiful, intricate details everywhere

Lots of gorgeous stained glass windows

Breathtaking murals

Incredible walkways

Most of the exhibits were closed that day but the one exposition I was able to see was the photography of Flor Garduño.

This was my favorite photo of hers (Google her name and you’ll see some incredible work)

Sarah left us at the museum to go pick up her kids and then met up with us again after about 45 minutes of exploring the museum.  Her kids are Beatríz (10) and Oliver (7) and they were so incredibly adorable!  They have such great, spunky personalities and were fun exploring the city with.  We took a cab to an outdoor market to do some shopping.

A beautiful church we passed on the way

Me, Bea and Oli in the taxi

The outdoor market

Beautiful alebrijes (brightly painted fantasy creatures, so cool!)

Sarah and Oli about to jump on the metro

Trudy on the metro

After parting ways with Sarah and her family, we had an hour or so to relax at the hotel (read: take a nap!) before heading out to dinner.  The concierege recommended Fonda El Refugio for dinner which was just a few blocks away and it was the perfect choice.  The special for the day (manchamanteles) sounded really good but I wanted it without meat (it came with a choice of pork or chicken) so I asked the waiter if that would be possible and it was cracking us up because he and about 3 others waiters stood in a circle and discussed if it would be possible for a few minutes before letting me know that they would be able to make the exception for me.

At the end of the meal we were provided with three lollipops covered in plastic wrap and a small bowl of hot water and were told to dip our lollipops in the water for a few minutes until the plastic fell off and then to suck the lollipop.  I had never experienced anything quite like that before and it was interesting to say the least!

After dinner I decided to explore the hotel a little bit to capture some photos.  We stayed at the Hotel Geneve which was built in 1907 and is an historic hotel and building.  My room was on the third floor and there were so many little corners and hallways to explore, I don’t think I saw even half of it.

View from the street

View looking out on the street from the 3rd floor hallway window

The third floor hallway (kinda spooky!)

The lobby was one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen in my life: floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with old books, chandelier, stained glass windows, gorgeous seats, fresh flowers, art everywhere…

Courtyard

Some neat details found in the lobby…

Vintage telephones

Antique safes

Display with women’s clothing

Display with a bullfighter’s clothes

The bar/lounge (too bad the singer they had performing that night was awful otherwise we would’ve spent some time in there!)

Me sneaking in a photo of myself (proof that I was there! Haha)

Wednesday 5/11

We woke up bright and early to meet at the campus so that we could begin our day visiting two K-12 private schools in different parts of the city to work on partnerships with them.  Both schools are bilingual so all students are fluent in both Spanish and English (and not just speaking but in analyzing literature and philosophy in both languages).  I was so incredibly impressed with the schools and, although I realize they are private schools and are not the typical experience for every Mexican public school student, these schools reminded me of how far we still have to go even with our public schools.

We did a lot of driving that day, from one part of the city to the other.  We passed Los Pinos, which is the residence of the President of Mexico.

And we also drove through Chapultepec Park which is the largest city park in Latin America.  It reminded me a lot of Golden Gate Park in SF and I’d love to explore the park more next time I’m in Mexico City.

After the all-day visits we ended up back at the campus for an evening reception for our recent graduates who earned their Master of Arts in Education: Teaching degrees.

We got back to our hotel around 6:30pm but I wasn’t feeling too hungry so decided to make a visit to the hotel’s gym downstairs to run 4 miles on the treadmill in preparation for the Bay to Breakers 12k race I had signed up for that was only four days away.  I hadn’t run on a treadmill in a long time and I realize how much I thrive running out in the open and not in a cramped room with no fresh air and no pavement/gravel beneath my feet!  I think next time I’m out of town or out of the country I’ll plan it better and go for a run out in the city instead.  But it was nice having the gym to fall back on!

Thursday 5/12

We were up at 5am to pack our bags and get ready for one last school visit (our appointment with the school was at 8am and it was in a hard-to-get-to part of the city, hence the ridiculous wake-up call).  After that final school visit we said our goodbyes to Sarah and the other staff and made our way back to the airport.  The flight back was 4.5 hours and luckily I slept most of the way!

I had such an incredible time and feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go there for work.  Although I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me to take on the Registrar duties for our Mexico City students I’m really looking forward to it!

¡Adiós, México!

Movie/pool night at Brando’s

Our family friend Brandon lives in San Bruno and invited us to his apartment for some dinner, pool time and a movie night.

Brandon’s caprese salad

Jessie showing off our caesar salad and spinach/strawberry/poppyseed salad.  We also had some amazing mac ‘n cheese made by Jess and sweet potato fries made by Matt.

Brando and Matt sharing a seat

It was Mother’s Day so we Skyped with Brando’s mom (and my second mom) Diane along with his dad Dave and brother Matt.

Dave showing off the roses from his garden

After stuffing ourselves silly we headed downstairs to the pool!

We could only handle the pool for a little bit so rushed over to the hot tub to warm up (and take some group shots)…

Matt, Brandon and Jess

After soaking in the water for a time we decided to dry off and chow down on some fudge brownies that Kevin and I made.

Kevin under water

After pruning up a bit we decided to head back to the apartment to watch a movie.  Our choice?  “White Noise 2” (which was good for a laugh!)

Lola vs. the duck pond

Kevin and I spent the past amazingly gorgeous and warm Sunday at McLaren park in our neighborhood.  It’s a quick 10 minute walk from our apartment and it really is one of the hidden gems in San Francisco.

We started out with a walk around the duck pond

Lola keeping a close eye on the ducks swimming in the pond

We let her sit at the edge of the pond and when Kevin called her to get her to start walking away with us he said “Okay Lola, let’s go” but of course the only word she heard was “Okay” and, in an instant, she jumped head first into the duck pond!  It happened so fast I wasn’t really sure what happened until I saw Kevin pulling her out of the pond!

Wet dog

Trying to shake off some of the pond scum.  Let’s just say we didn’t let her get close to us the rest of the afternoon and gave her a bath outdoors the minute we got home.

The park has some great trails and boardwalks throughout along with so many picnic tables hidden amongst the trees.

Kev and Lola on the boardwalk

A beautiful old tree

The hillside

Once at the top of the park (it was a pretty steep climb up from the street level) we spread out our blanket in a small field of wildflowers and soaked in some sun.

My idea of heaven, a blanket on the grass in the sun

The view from where we were laying

Me and K trying to get a tan!

A photo I took from an old tree stump–me, Kevin and Lola laying out on the blanket, enjoying each other’s company

Jessie’s b-day/karaoke night!

Jessie and her friend Scottie celebrated their birthdays with a party at The Mint Karaoke Lounge in the Castro.  They, along with 40 of their closest friends, took over all of the tables in the front of the bar and sang til we couldn’t sing any longer (or until the KJ [Karaoke DJ] kicked us off the stage).

We’ve gone to this karaoke bar a couple times before (last year for Jessie’s birthday [does anyone see a pattern here? 😉 ] and once when my mom and Steve were in town) and we probably had the most fun this past Saturday.

Kevin made some vanilla cupcakes from scratch for the birthday peeps

Duck face!  Hahaha

The pretty little birthday girl!

The birthday kiddos–Jess and Scottie

Carleigh and Scott enjoying the tunes

Me & Kev

Scott & Carleigh

Just some of the birthday kids’ adoring fans

First up from our group was the courageous Jessie with Diana Ross’ “You Keep my Hangin’ On”…

Sing it, girl!

Next up was me with my signature song “Hurt so Good” by John Cougar Mellencamp…

I love Jessie’s fist pump in the front row! Haha.

Then one of Scottie’s friends got up for a turn and Scottie jumped on stage to do some break-dancing moves…

Then Lisa R. got up to sing Fergie’s “Fergalicious” (she always surprises us with her song choices!)…

Then Scottie got up with his two creatively-dressed back-up singers for “Take me to the River”…

And last but certainly not least, the Delmar sisters gave a kick-ass performance of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough”!

Can you tell we were born to perform?

I loved spending yet another birthday with my favorite sister in the whole entire world!

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