Family dinner

Part of the sweet weekend I referenced yesterday included my family's celebration for my brother's upcoming birthday! We all met at my parents' house for dinner on Sunday night.

My brother had requested spring rolls for pre-dinner snacks and this marvelous saffron-coconut milk shrimp pasta that my mom makes. I found out the menu on Friday and had to wait until Sunday to see it unfold.

Here is my brother and my sister's boyfriend assembling the spring rolls. (My mom tried making the accompanying peanut sauce for the first time, and it was a winner.) Also, I love the wild phone cord.

Because it was a gorgeous evening, we gobbled the spring rolls out on the porch and eventually came back inside to eat dinner.

Wish and my sister caught up with each other:

We have some good birthday treat-related traditions in my family. My dad gets lemon meringue pie every year, and I get a lemon pudding cake. (I don't think that's the actual name, is it? Mom! Help!) My brother gets a green caterpillar cupcake.

I was loving the setting sun shining through the window and tried to capture it with my camera, to varying degrees of (un)success:

We were arranging some combinations for family photos on the porch when a neighbor and her dog (much to Wish's chagrin) moseyed into the yard to say hello and ended up snapping a picture of the whole group!

Unsurprisingly, we also practiced our family wave:

And, of course, we sang to him! Happy almost-birthday, Brother.