Ron's birthday dinner

Every time Arlene, Ron, Rick or I have a birthday, we remember the fun times we had with Dad going to nice restaurants, spending time with siblings, spouses and Dad. But when Dad became too sick to go out, we had dinners at one of our homes hosted by one of us. After Dad passed away, we vowed to continue the tradition. This year Ron and Colleen hosted Arlene's birthday in January, Rick and Renee hosted my birthday in April, and I took on Ron's this week. Since I was working on Wednesday and wanted to do some crockpot cooking, I told the group that we were doing a Western Themed party and everyone had to come dressed as their favorite western character. Rick won the award for the best costume. He came dressed as Hoss Cartwright and brought along Hop Sing to help in the kitchen. We had classic chuck wagon pot roast, corn bread (OK, it was Marie Callendars...but I did cook it), Lola's unbelievable soup, beans and dump cake with ice cream. Rick brought over a game. We divided into teams and tried to identify all of the cowboy families of the 50;s and 60's TV seasons. As usual, Arlene won. Then we set up the camera and set it to take our family portrait.