Mom's 90th Birthday Celebration

Although Mom's birthday was yesterday, we held the party this evening to make it easier for friends and relatives who were driving to Las Vegas to make it to the party. Here is the birthday girl and her special guy. (I will put more photos up after I get them from Tomiko who is a professional photographer who uses a real camera and not a phone.) There were 20 people at the party, Tomiko and Erica (who is also a professional photographer) coordinated the rest of the photos by family groups.

Dad & Mom at the birthday party; white ginger lei courtesy of Mae.

It turns out, the Maile Room where we held the celebration was the scene of the 2001 Takatani family reunion. They even still had the white lattice screen with the green artificial ivy crawling through it that could serve as a backdrop for another series of family photos.

Page from the reunion booklet produced by Aunty Judy.

Miranda was our contact at the catering service for the California Hotel. Via e-mail we requested a marble cake with strawberry filling and white frosting with purple lettering. There was a little glitch so we ended up with red velvet cake - and a refund. (Sorry, forgot to take a picture before we ate it all. It was red velvet, what else can I say?) When I got here in person to pay for everything, Miranda asked if it was okay to have white table cloths with purple napkins; which it was since purple is Mom's favorite color and which Miranda picked up on when we requested purple lettering! Here's a table with the party favors that Gladys brought with her.


We started out the day with breakfast with Val. Although Aunty Florence, Karen, David, Justine, & Ursula had arrived at the airport in the morning, they had been snacking quite a bit and were not hungry for breakfast so we went ahead without them.

L to R: Mom, Curt, & Val.

When they got to the hotel later, we split up. Aunty Florence & Val stayed with Mom & Curt and I went with Karen, David, Justine & Ursula; the girls wanted to do some sightseeing. We ended up at New York, New York since they wanted to ride the roller coaster. On the way there, the girls made some friends whom they dubbed Ketchup and Mustard.

L to R: Ursula, Justine, & Ketchup.

L to R: Justine, Mustard, & Ursula.

Ursula also did the Bliss Dance by Marco Cochrane. Mustard, Ketchup, and Bliss Dance are all part of The Park, which opened in April 2016.

Ursula and Bliss Dance by Marco Cochrane.

On the way to New York, New York the girls decided they did want lunch and chose Bruxie as our lunch stop. They serve chicken and waffles. And some other things. Here's our lunch order. (I was still full from breakfast so I only had a strawberry lemonade. Will have to try the Chicken & Waffles some other time.)

L to R: Justine, Ursula, David, & Karen.

Then we headed to the roller coaster at New York, New York. A portion of the roller coaster goes through the building to get to the loading and unloading zone; that 's where I got the photo below. It turns out Ursula was unable to go on the ride because she was too short, so Karen had to go instead; not that you can really tell who is sitting in the seats in my photo.


Tomiko arrived just after noon and has hungry. She and Aunty Florence and Val went to the Noodle House restaurant that is also located in the California Hotel.

L to R: Val, Tomiko, & Aunty Florence

We had a pre-party party in our room before dinner.

L to R: Val, Mom, Justine, Ursula, & Tomiko.

Mom ended the day talking story with Val & Tomiko,

L to R: Val, Mom, & Tomiko.

Happy Birthday to Jessica & DanVo'nique!