Happy Birthday, Ariana!

Where have all the years gone?

Today Ariana turned 20 years old. It's hard to believe that she's already that old. It sort of reminds me of the song from Fiddler On the Roof ~ Sunrise, Sunset:

Is this the little girl I carried,
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older,
When did they?
When did she get to be a beauty,
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?

It was Ariana's wish to celebrate her b-day at the Tokyo Restaurant in Mattapoisett, at the Hibachi table. Joining the festivities were her Nana Carol, Barbara, Jeremiah, Ryan, and yours truly.

The weather was rather wild today ~ first starting off with snow in the morning and then changing over to rain later on in the day.

The roads were treacherous in the mid-afternoon, and there was some fear that the party may have to be postponed.

But within a couple of hours, the rain had washed away the snow and ice that were on the road. And the party was saved.

Yay!

Even though the reservation was for 6:30 PM, we had a slight delay in getting started.

It took Barbara longer than usual to get to the restaurant from her in job in Providence because the thick fog made driving a bit difficult. (It was a real pea soup out there.)

But once Barbara arrived, we were ushered to the Hibachi table.

Shortly after we were seated at the table, Ariana opened her present from Barbara ~ a lovely pair of pajamas.

Our Hibachi chef tossed and twirled his cooking utensils.

This is the part that I was waiting for ~ pyrotechnics!

To the right of the chef is Barbara, Jeremiah, Ariana, Ryan, and Carol (whose back is facing the camera).

Here is a better view of Carol.

We have Carol to thank for this festive occasion. The wonderful time that we all had at Tokyo Restaurant was Carol's birthday present to Ariana.

Here are more pyrotechnics as the chef prepares the noodles and veggies.

(You may have guessed by now that I like fire.)

The onion ring volcano is spewing a good head of steam as the chef is preparing the noodles, which were very tasty.

In addition to the pyrotechnics, this is the other occasion that I was waiting for ~ the restaurant staff beating on drums in celebration of Ariana's birthday. She even got a little dish of red bean ice cream with a candle on top.

Back at the house, we had birthday cake ~ strawberry shortcake which Ariana picked out.

After cake, Barbara brought in Daisy, her teacup Chihuahua.

Daisy weighs only 4 1/2 pounds, but she's a real cutie who has an exceptionally sweet temperament, especially for a Chihuahua.

It's too bad that Neil wasn't here to share in the celebration of Ariana's birthday. But he did call her this morning.

Ariana was still sleeping when Neil called. But she very quickly woke up after she opened the birthday present that Neil had sent to the house ~ a 16-gig iTouch. (Great! The means I get Ariana's old 8-gig iTouch!)

Also after we all got back from dinner, Ariana called Neil and put him on speaker phone so that we all could get a chance to talk to him.

All in all, this was a pleasant day.

And celebrating Ariana’s birthday the way we did ~ with just a small group at the Hibachi table at Tokyo Restaurant ~ was a much better celebration than what Ariana originally had in mind a few months ago, which was a big house party with one of her friends serving as DJ.

(Words could not describe how grateful I was for that change of plans!)