My Papa's 90th Birthday!

Today was my Papa's 90th birthday. I was in charge of all the food. Lemon cake is his absolute favorite so I made a lemon cake and cupcakes for him.

His favorite colors are blue and yellow.

I kind of did a "story of my life" theme with his cupcakes and so they aren't going to make much sense to you.

I'll just have to explain....

Papa used to hop trains that would take him to different cities where he would try and find work. If you have ever seen the movie "Of Mice and Men" it was kind of like that. Just traveling around looking for work. Hopping onto moving trains hitching rides with all sorts of different people.

When Papa was a young man, he was an AWESOME baseball player. The St. Louis Cardinals wanted him to come to their tryouts one year. They scouted him. But back then, they didn't pass out million dollar contracts. Instead, you had to pay your own way to try outs and he was just a farmer, he could not afford the train ticket and never made it to the try outs. His buddy did and he made the team. Papa was just as good as this friend and he made it in the baseball hall of fame. Papa always wondered what his life would have been like had he been able to get that train ticket. It would have meant a whole other life for him meaning a whole other wife and kids as well (he has been married to my Nana for over 63 years!) so I think he is pretty dang happy he never got the money for that ticket. (So am I!!!)

After his retirement, he took quite a few cruises with my Nana. They loved to travel.

My Papa was a cotton farmer for awhile. So this cotton ball was a perfect addition.

He was born in Oklahoma and moved out with his family to California as a young man.

He played football and loved to watch it with my dad.

He played golf for many years. Until he wasn't able to get around as easily an he had to give it up.

Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of the Army Helmet that I made. It turned out really cute and you can kind of see it up above in the picture with all the cupcakes. It was too blurry to post. My Papa was in World War II.

Today was an awesome day. I was so happy to be able to provide the cake and food for my family.

Ahhh... the sweet smell on success. It smelled like lemon cake.