A fitting party!

The central Florida storms of today made for a very interesting afternoon to hold our final official "Palm Tree Bikers" party of the 2012-13 winter. Our party goers waited patiently in their vehicles for the driving rain to abate to scurry into our house. Those are 4" downspouts!

 

Fortunately, we decided to hold our party inside rather than outside. You see, our final party was also to be a surprise birthday party for Darlene. We pulled one over on her! We had to do a couple of sleuth emails and kept Buzz out of the loop. Everyone did their job. Darlene walked in the "trap!"

Watching the rain blow sideways made Darlene an easy "mark."

Friends "appeared" from the corners and caught Darlene off guard.

Still reeling from the initial surprise Darlene proudly donned her birthday "deelee-boppers!"

It was time to party.

Although, a few party goers just didn't want to leave the view of the intense rain.

Eventually the migration to the interior commenced (when the food hit the table).

Now that's more like it!

We dodged a few leaks in the lanai.

But we didn't have any trouble finding the counter and table where the food was.

Bellies full it's time for some serious chatter.

The crowd meandered from the lanai to the kitchen and back. We lost power just as we welcomed our last arrivals and we made the best of the afternoon with no problem. A battery lantern enabled us to find the scrumptious homemade goodies on the table. That is, until we realized we needed the lantern in the spare bathroom. Fear not, the power eventually came on just as the sky was showing breaks in the clouds.

Our group got to enjoy the company of a couple of visitors to our group. Pat's long time best friend Cathy, was visiting with us for the weekend. (Who always managed to hide from the camera!) We also welcomed Alice's return, Jack's better half.

Everyone enjoyed the "meet and greet."

 

What's a party without cake? Of course we had cake, and what a cake.

(Disregard the wine bottles, Larry and Judy along with Ray and Rose were told they were walking home in the rain! No one wanted to be the designated drivers, the roads were to slippery to drive.)

All in all our final PTB party was a huge success and the stormy weather never dampened our spirits.

Best of all the "Birthday Girl" was surrounded by so many awesome friends on her special day.

"Happy Birthday Darlene!"