Birthday Party

The party went well yesterday.  C and I managed to get a couple of great posed photos along with a ton of action shots!  Fun was had by all.  I was disappointed in the lack of response from people but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt knowing that many of them may be out of town.  The kids really enjoyed the friends that did make it to the party.  Just seeing them have such a great time makes it all worth while!

O and his friends pause for a quick photo.

M and her girls looked so pretty!  M must be related to C's mom--always caught with her eyes closed!

O and M with their b-day cookies.  O=baseball.  M=butterflies.

Sharing the b-day throne.

April Birthdays

We celebrated April birthdays over a week ago but I'm just getting around to posting it.  M still has some face paint from a b-day party on her face if you are wondering!  We actually celebrated on the 26th which is my sis' (TV) b-day so I was looking for the numbers to make 39 in her honor.  I found a 3 and decided we could use that in the tens column then we had a 4 and a 5 in the ones column!  Then I realized I put them backwards so that the 3 was in the ones column and the 4 and 5 were in the tens column.  Oh, well.  They still lit and blew out nicely just like candles should!  

Happy Birthday to our April loved ones

Blood Relatives:

Traci V--my sis

Cousin Dana F

Cousin Susan P

Cousin Bobbie M

Cousin Dahlia M

New Babies:

Nicholas B--neighbor/friend

Jaliina H--good friend

Serafina R--good friend

Friends:

Pam S

DeAnna D

Conner R

Brandon W

Jack S

Juniper J

Lovely Day

My fabulous family treated me to a lovely day yesterday.  We never really officially celebrated my birthday and they wanted to make up for it.  We had a beautiful, yummy brunch on the patio.  There were flowers (red roses chosen by O and pink flowers chosen by M), balloons, donuts, kolaches, mimosas and fresh strawberries.  Yummmmm!  The weather was perfect.  I very much enjoyed myself.  Thank you to my wonderful family.

Oh, and Chinese food for dinner!  Also yum!  I also had time to study for my upcoming quizzes.  No stress.  It was a lovely day.

March Birthdays

Since Grandma and Grandpa were here and we ate so much we didn't have an official birthday party for March birthdays.  Grandma and my birthdays are in March so we celebrated.  And celebrated some more!  But, I wanted to make sure our fellow March friends knew that we were thinking of them on their special day.  

Grandma (C's mom)

Cousin Colin

Cousin Bethany

Cousin Brian (same day as mine!)

Great Aunt Ginnie (now deceased) 

Great Uncle Herb (also now deceased)

And numerous friends including:

Anna-Marie

Kappi

Colin W

Corbin C

Hope you each had a perfect day.  Love to you all!

February Birthdays

We celebrated February birthdays this evening.  Smoked pork chops, asparagus, quinoa with mixed veggies and a fudge marble cake with chocolate frosting.  Pictures are of O & M before blowing out the candles then the smoke after blowing out the candles!

February birthday people we remembered this evening:

Dad-dad/Tami's dad

Grandma Wake

Uncle Bob Parker (2/12/47-3/1/08)

BFF/Auntie Deidre

Cousin Gavyn

Aunt Charlene

Cousin Kevin

Cousin Justin

Good Friends:

Brent

Paivi 

Chris

Happy Birthday to all and much love on your special day.

January Birthdays

Just wanted to take the time to honor those friends and family who have January birthdays!  Between the post-holiday food coma, C's birthday cake and 2 different batches of Magic Cookie Bars  for two different occasions, I chose not to make a birthday cake/dessert.  But know that you were all thought of just as much when we were eating the other stuff.  We sang too.

Hope you all had/have a wonderful birthday!

Craig M

Mom/Nana/Trudy J

Karen N

Grandma J

cousin Sydney V

cousin Tom J

cousin-in-law JoLyn J

cousin Charlie M

Uncle Ron J

Uncle Jim S

Uncle Jim M

cousin Ricky P

Marisa M

Nina R

Todd W

Eric R

Love to you all!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Just wanted to wish my wonderful mom the happiest of birthdays.  You are and have always been a great inspiration.  Thank you for being my mom.  I love you to pieces!!

Birthday Boy

Wednesday was C's 38th b-day.  He had a tough day at work so the kids and I tried to put nice things for him at the beginning and end of his day.

The kids made him cards and gave them to him before he left for work.

Then his parents sent him a care package of  Zweigle's White Hots  (Wikipedia Explanation here) along with the required Zweigle's Hat.  I searched out a Carvel Ice Cream Cake  which is also a birthday staple of his childhood.  Along with wonderful cards from many family and friends I think he had a nice day.   

December Birthdays

Saturday night we celebrated December Birthdays.  We had smoked pork chops, home fries, corn and a yummy french baguette.  For dessert, I tried a new recipe for crock pot cake.  Chocolate cake and we put Redi Whip on top.  I also made sure I showed the kids how to shoot Redi Whip into their mouths.  I cannot have my sister show me up!  The cake was different and I'm not sure I like it.  Maybe I cooked it too long?  I may try it again but it really didn't taste as good as it looked and smelled.  Sorry to all of you December Birthday people for making such a lame cake! 

We had fun remembering:

cousin Ella S.

Chris B.

Laine B.

Kendra S.

cousin Sherry

cousin Karen

Grandpa Maynard (12/25/1909(?) - 7/31/91)

cousin Riley S.  (little sis to Ella above!) 

Happy Birthday!

November Birthdays!

For November birthdays we had "Yankee Chili" for dinner with corn bread and, for dessert, a strawberry cake, strawberry frosting with sprinkles.  Yum!  I call it "Yankee Chili" because I put meat, spices, beans and veggies in my chili to make more of a stew compared to the southern version of chili which consists only of meat, tomato sauce and spices.  C and I loved it but the kids were only happy with the corn bread!  But we ALL ate cake.  

We sang happy birthday to:

Aunt Jeanne

Uncle/Brother-in-law Scott

Siggi

Carmelo

Christie S

Kerry F-H

A much shorter list than October birthdays but all loved and cherished just the same!  We hope you all enjoyed your special day!

October Birthdays

My sister reminded me through a post on her blog about a family tradition that her family has started loosely based on a family tradition from our childhood which she explains very well in another post on her blog.

In short, the entire extended family always got together on birthdays to share a meal and dessert of the birthday person's choosing.  It wasn't a big party, usually few decorations, but my mom made everything from scratch (most of the time) and the entire extended family made it a point to be there for the event.  If my mom would have decided to not organize and cater the event and/or the family chose not to come, it would have been a very big deal.  Lots of crying and hurt feelings would have had to of been dealt with.  It really was THAT important to us all.  

So, since we live away from our family, we have carried this tradition on with local friends and it has become a tradition that we enjoy here.  But, we miss attending birthday celebrations of those family and friends who aren't local.  To compensate, I am copying my sis and starting a tradition where we have birthday dinner and dessert each month to remember those dear to us who have made it through another year.  Just know that if you don't get a card or a phone call, you have been thought of, sung to and have had a candle blown out in honor of your special day.

Here are the October birthdays we remembered Saturday night:

Grandpa Jordan (10/5/1916~9/14/1996)

Aunt/Sister Cindy

Cousin/Niece Kora

Cousin/Niece Cora

Isabelle (French sister)

Cousin Suzy

Cousin Mark

Uncle Irv  

Aunt Diane

Cousin Sammy

Aunt Norma

Esther (wonderful friend)

Uncle Bob

Other friends who we haven't seen in awhile:  Amy V, Cathy S, Marla P and Jori E.

Please let me know if we left anyone out.

We had a lovely green chili casserole, mixed veggies, garlic bread and very yummy home made frosted brownies from a recipe handed down from my Grandpa Jordan's sister, Mabel.  The kids helped make the food and we talked about each and every one of you and what you mean to us.  It really is a busy month for birthdays.  Hmmmmmm...... many happy New Year's parties or a blizzard/cold spell perhaps?! 

Happy Birthday all around and much love to you all!