Menchu's birthday, June 18, fell on a Saturday this year so we decided to have an outdoor pool party to celebrate. We invited many of our nearby Filipino friends and turned it into a combination Filipino-Pool-Birthday party.

Although the party was for Menchu's birthday, we also had several other things to celebrate. It was also the birthday of Menchu's twin sister, Girlie who is in Davao in the Philippines. Malu recently passed her NCLEX exam for her RN license in Illinois and will be starting her first day of employment as a nurse in the United States on Monday. In addition, Malu and Philip just purchased their first American car.

This originally started out as a small party with just a few close friends. By the time the party was over, virtually all of our Filipino friends had arrived to join us. We finally had to quit when it got dark and started turning cooler.

Larry

Preparing the food in our kitchen is: Cookie, Richard, Nancy and Malu. Everyone had a hand in preparing or cooking something. Malu made some great lasagna and Menchu made her own dish.
Malu and Philip had just purchased this used Dodge mini-van two days earlier. The mini-van was undoubtedly a good choice because it has enough room for the kids and groceries. They found a van they liked from a dealer we trusted and then our local bank in Polo gave them a loan. Only in America can you buy a car before you start work . . . provided that you know who to ask.
Part of any pool party is the swimming pool. The girls had just finished getting the pool set up and filled for the summer and the water was still on the cool side. However, that did not stop the kids from jumping into the pool and having water fights. Note the raft with the palm tree . . . which unfortunately is leaning over. That is our house in the background.
This photo of the girls was taken before everyone arrived. A few people are missing because they are busy working on the food. Most of our Filipino friends live nearby in the Dixon and Sterling area.
Here, the guys are sitting on the other side and talking about guy things. They helped run the outdoor grill and cooked the steak and hotdogs.
Here, Menchu blows out the candles on her birthday cake. Nancy was kind and only put four candles on the cake.