Bound for Birmingham for an 80th Birthday

Instead of heading over to "The Ridge" this weekend, we wound up in Birmingham, AL to attend a pre-celebration of Pa Pa Neal's 80th birthday.  His actual birthday is November 1st, but we meet up with the majority of the family to eat out and celebrate on Saturday night.  Some of us started the celebration early on Saturday by going to thrift stores, while others rested and saved their strength for the party and meal later in the evening.

Conley, aka "Strawberry Shortcake" was able to squeeze in a Halloween Party in the afternoon, in between the thrift stores and the 80th birthday party.

We are heading over to "The Ridge" this weekend where the party will continue with two (2) additional participants, as the girls will head over from UT on Friday.  Part of the crew will hit "The Ridge" on Tuesday, while the remainder of the Birmingham crew will join us on Friday.

Conley, aka "Strawberry Shortcake" is dressed and ready for the party.



The birthday boy gets a balloon.  Happy 80th Dad.



Stella and Grandmother get the celebration started with the birthday boy.



JoLynn, Tommy, Rebecca and David await the entertainment.



Thomas and Becky encourage the birthday boy to drink the beverage with the umbrella.




Brent tells the birthday boy to ease up on the umbrella drink.

With a loud applause Conley steps up to the grill and throws the egg for the enjoyment of the crowd.  I think our group is up to the challenge of eating all the rice.



To increase the difficulty of the challenge, Grandmother attempts to throw and catch the egg with her eyes closed.   Our "Asian" chef was from Mexico.





To all who competed in the egg throw (which also included Thomas and Brent), only David was successful in catching the egg on the side of the spatula.  It was a great time.