The Party

The Hopkins & Jim

Although every guest was special these two were our truly honored guests. This is Orene and Carl along with my happy hubby! I surprised him by finding them out there in retirement land where people are sometimes very hard to track down. Orene was Jim's very first boss at the county and she truly mentored him and helped him on to a very successful and fulfilling path over 37 years ago. She has been retired now for 19 years so it has been that long since he has seen them. We are so appreciative of the effort they made to come over. In their 80's this was no easy task but they did it and Jim was thrilled.

Diane and Jane

These ladies are Jim's current bosses. Diane is on the left and she is the Principal at the Ranch. She has several other programs and Jim fills in for her as site administrator when she is away several days per week. The other lady is Jane and she is the Director of Court Schools. They are both delightful, fun people.

Steven and Gary

These are my brothers, Steve and Gary and they did all the BBQ duties and cooked about 30 pounds of steak and many ears of corn in the big kettle in the foreground. the corn was picked the day before and so delicious and the meat was great too. These guys are so adorable, I love my brothers with all my heart.

They cooked two laundry baskets full of
freshly picked corn from Lynette's farm!

These are the remains of the appetizer table, we had some scrumptious munchies. This post would not be complete without a picture of my four very dear friends that took care of the kitchen for me during the party. Everyone has been commenting on what wonderful friends they are and how they wish they had some like them. I couldn't agree more! Thank you so much to Gary, Steve, Maureen, Connie, Lanette and Barbara, you truly are my sisters!

Connie, Lanette, Maureen and Barbara!
Aren't they adorable?

Some of the 62+ people lining up at the
buffet table on the right.
We had the BBQed tri-tip steak and sausage,
baked beans, corn on the cob,
macaroni salad, a spinach salad,
a cabbage salad, cherry pie salad, etc.
There was an over abundance of food
thanks to many people bringing things
along with what I cooked.
The dessert table looked pretty great too
with lots of variety, again thanks to the people who
generously brought food.

We had a bunch of tables scattered
around the patio for people to sit,
relax and eat and enjoy their friends.

As the sun went down it started to get cold
so Jim built a fire and that was great.

Lots of friends never to be forgotten.

Everyone had such nice things to say about working with Jim, it left quite an impact on me. I saw first hand what the rewards are of doing your best everyday, never slacking and working hard to reach your goals. Day in and day out he has had a brilliant career in teaching and affecting many lives of the boys and his co-workers as well. One thing I know for sure, Jim will always be a teacher, in or out of the classroom~he's a natural! Love you, Babe! It is going to be great!

Here is a link to photobucket and the photos Jeanne Kern took at the party.

1 0f 2 posts about the party day.