My Brother Ben turns 50.........

My brother Ben Rios, (the second oldest....I have four of them ;-) turned 50 on February 6, 2008. My brother had told my sister-in-law that he didn't want a birthday celebration. He made my sister-in-law promised him that she wouldn't. (Well, of course, we agree that promised need to be broken). My brother deserved a big birthday celebration. So my sister-in-law and I planned and plotted to have the party. We invited family and his closed friends. There were about 80 people there.

Much to my brother's dismay......when he walked into the place we had the party, he was stunned. He was truly surprised. (later he mentioned that he had no idea the party was being planned because he trusted his wife to keep a promise....hehehehe. He got over it.)

When he saw all the family and friends that he loves so much...he started to laugh and went to each table kissing everybody!! We had such a great time! I did a picture presentation and it was a blast. We decorated the tables with his favorites things; his family, the New York Mets, the Minnesota Vikings, Carpentry and his job, Fireman.

My sister-in-law had candy ordered that we use to buy when we were little kids.....talk about a blast from the past.

By the end of the night, the joy on my brother's face was priceless, which made it worth all the running around we did (especially Lilly), trying to keep this a secret.

Here's my brother with mom and dad. My father wrote a tribute to Ben that reduced us all to tears!!!

With his wonderful wife, Lilly, son Elliot, (my godson) and his precious daugthter, Evie (my princess).








Here we are "The Fab Five." That's me with my four brothers, Jose, Ben, Edgar and Obed. I love my family!!!!