One-Yard Wonders projects

Sunday, March 20, 2011

80th Birthday Party, Spring and Baby Gifts!

What a family- and fun-filled weekend! We saw lots of relatives on my side of the family at Grandpa Keith's 80th birthday party on Saturday. We held it at the Methodist Church basement in Panora, along with a longtime friend of Grandpa's who is also turning 80 this month, Bob Laidley. Bob's granddaughters Kelly and Amy were good friends of mine all through my early life so it was fun to catch up with them and their family.

Aunt Cindy found lots of fun old photos and memorabilia for the "memories" table, including Grandpa's prized arrowhead collection. 

It was also nice to see my brothers and their families, who I don't see all that often. Bandy's little girls are so sweet! They have no idea who I am but hopefully they will one day learn what a fabulous auntie I am! They left before we took family pictures.

 Grandpa Keith with most of his children and some of his grandchildren. Grandpa is the dapper man squatting in the front row, he's dwarfed by my brother Troy in white. He's not really that small.

From left to right: my dad Kevin, Grandpa Keith, Aunt Cindy from Mississippi and Uncle Dougie (missing Uncle T from Cape Cod who attended Grandpa's pre-80th birthday last fall)

We served cake, treats, punch and coffee from 2 to 5 p.m. and it was a packed house most of that time. It says a lot about you when you draw that big of a crowd for your 80th.

 The 80s club: Grandpa Keith and Bob Laidley

 Mazy and cousin Marla playing dress-up in the church preschool! Love those glasses!

The dessert table -- that's my Great Aunt Bev on the left. 

After the party, we changed out of our dress clothes and into our wienie roast clothes. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Shawn and Bo were not at the party. Bo was napping at the farm, and Shawn stayed with him and made two pans of DELICIOUS mint smores brownies! Seriously, they were good!

Once warmly dressed, we all went to Grandpa Keith's house for the wienie roast. It was a bit cold, and the wind was blowing like a hurricane at times... But wienie roasts are always fun and bad weather makes those burnt hotdogs taste even better.  However, we had some uninvited guests show up:

 Only in Iowa do you have a wienie roast in a cow pasture... with the cows present. They were very interested in our warm fire but  appalled at our all-beef franks!

 Grandpa and his cows.

Aunt Cindy passing out wine. It is never too cold not to enjoy a beer or wine in our family.  :)  And in the lower right corner is Bo with his "rooster" stocking hat sucking down a flavored water. 

Thanks to cousin Jeff for the last three photos, since I forgot my camera at Mom's. The party lasted until about 9, with the last hour at Grandpa's house for cake and coffee. It's such a bummer that it was so cloudy out. We couldn't see any stars or the Super Moon -- which the boys would have loved seeing. Oh well, we'll catch it again in 40 years.
We spent the night at Mom and Dad's house and this morning we had Belgian waffles with strawberries, bacon and sausage patties. Yum! We considered staying for lunch but wanted the boys to take long naps so we headed home instead,-- but not before checking out Mazy's maple tree in their backyard.

 My little tree hugger. 

My little waffle eater. Grandma Katy makes one mean Belgian waffle!

And finally, a few peeks at the projects I've been working on the last couple days:



Happy spring, everyone! It looks like rain showers the next few days for us, which means it's the perfect week to focus on the boys' room and get it cleaned up and redecorated for them! I'll keep you updated on our progress.

1 comment:

  1. It was so fun to see you and the rest of the family - certainly missed those who weren't there. Tobe, Jordan and Cody, Heidi......but for those of us that were there - we had fun. Also really enjoyed lunch with you girls. Your boys are so sweet - and I didn't see Bo throw on fit, even a little one! They are both very sweet, cute boys and fun to be around! Thanks for all that you did for the party. Couldn't have done it without you, your Mom and Jean. Thanks Love and miss you - Cindy

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