Birthday Memories, Part II

This has been an exhausting 12 days, and I am way behind in finishing the birthday celebration stories. I won't feel complete until I do this post. The reason for the exhaustion is that Kristen developed a terrible horrible infection and was literally in bed, sleeping much of the time, for over a week. She was so sad to have missed all of the festivities, which is why I had the kids in my care. They were all with us for 12 days and nights, and I began taking them to visit her for a few minutes at a time after about a week. They were so good, but this grandma is tired. More about that in the next post.

Mom told somebody during the week-end that she only remembered ever having two birthday parties in her life. I think the reason for some of this is that her birthday is so close to Mother's Day and they got blended quite often. But Mom enjoyed every minute of this special week-end for her and is still enjoying the memories of all the surprises we planned.

Sunday morning everyone was sitting front and center in our church sanctuary. It was so fun to see everyone out there as some of us were in the choir. When we were teen-agers, my sister, oldest brother, and I were in a quartet with a good friend. We decided it would be fun to sing one of the songs we used to sing back in the day. Our youngest brother was coerced into singing with us, and DC took the place of our missing brother, who couldn't make it from England (we were so glad his wife was able to be here). My brothers were so goofy during rehearsal that I wasn't sure we could make it through the song without getting the giggles.

We had so much fun singing this old song, Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul. I wish I had a way to post the video --


After church we got together for a quick lunch at my sister's place, then headed back to the church to decorate for the second party, attended by many church friends. I don't have lots of pictures of the decorations, because I was too busy doing the work. But we had round tables with yellow tablecloths and yellow long-stemmed roses on each table, along with 5x7 copies of the pictures I shared with you here. It was fun to see all the interest in her past.

When we were doing all the set-up, my SIL, Morning Glory, had the brilliant idea to bring the play pen up from the nursery. I didn't think they even made play pens any more. It was a life saver, and even kept the big girls happy!




Mom's dress was her birthday gift from my sis and me. One of the young women in our church is working on flower arranging as a career, so we asked her to do our floral arrangements for us.


I had found these dresses for all 4 girls at Sam's awhile back, and this was the perfect time to debut them.


We had such a good turn-out and it was such fun. I was so thankful for all of the help with the babies --


There were so many pictures being taken. Here is what ended up on my camera. This is everyone in the family who was privileged to be there.

Here is a shot of all the grands/spouses who were able to come.

There are literally hundreds of pictures being taken by dozens of cameras. I wish I had all of them! Don't worry, I wouldn't think of posting all of them, even if I had them.

Thanks for joining in the celebration --

Birthday Memories

Before I continue with the birthday celebration, I would like to acknowledge this wonderful award from Hootin' Anni. Here is a bit about the award:

The Prémio Dardos is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

Receiving this award from Anni means a lot to me. Here is the criteria she used for her choices.

They have all contributed to my enjoyment with their originality of their blogging style either with down home atmosphere, love of family values, humor, or instigating a vivid interest on a given subject which I research further after reading the daily entry. All are inspirational for me in some way. Either their writing style, their humor, their photography, their faith, the recipes, their tours shared, family devotion, many many reasons---

Thank you so much, Anni!




Thank you for your fun and kind comments about my tribute to Mom. It is so interesting - all of my growing up years, everyone thought I looked more like Dad and my sis looked more like Mom. I never once thought I looked like my mom - ever. So many people at the party saw resemblance in some of the pictures - especially the one of her standing in the little Corpus Christi apartment. Several of you have mentioned the same thought. As we have aged, my sis and I seem to look more alike every year. Strange.

On to the celebration --

The fun began Thursday night late when my oldest brother (# 3 in the birth order), my SIL, and two nieces arrived. #5 sibling, my youngest brother and his #3 son, arrived around noon on Saturday. They stayed at our house.

Kristen has been very sick with a nasty virus and has been on heavy duty meds for almost a week now. We've had the kids, all 4 of them, since Friday. That turned out to be an interesting blessing, because if they hadn't been here, they wouldn't have had the chance to have so much fun with their second cousin, who is 13, and about 6 feet, 2 inches tall - just like his dad, who grew that tall at about the same age. He turned out to be the best playmate and the girls were all very sad when their visit ended and they headed back home.

Saturday morning Care Bear did her usual thing - planning the events. She had art class going on and was teaching lessons to her grandpa, sister, and cousin. Then they began playing all sorts of games with plastic and styrofoam cups.






Cousin L turned out to be a fabulous babysitter for the twins, and it was such a blessing to me - he and many others just pitched in and passed around the privilege of playing with them. It took the littles a bit of time to warm up to him, but L soon won them over and they were inseparable most of the day on Saturday.

They pretty much won everyone's hearts.

We had a lovely buffet sandwich and salad lunch.


Care Bear was more interested in writing yet another book than in eating.


We had a great surprise for Mom - her sister, niece, and great-niece flew from Minnesota and arrived while we were eating. Several people formed a wall so Mom couldn't see their arrival at the house.



I have never seen Mom so shocked - she was totally and completely surprised. I don't know why the lighting on this shot is so bad, but you get the idea.



Emma enjoyed the birthday cupcakes as much or more than anyone.



Mom opened her gifts - I love this picture of her modeling her new hand made apron.


My brothers at their best --




The biggest guy takes the couch for a bit of a snooze - everyone was pretty tired by this time of the day.

More to come - the celebration with church family and friends.

Happy Birthday, Dear Mom

Mom was born on May Day in 1929. My grandparents farmed in Minnesota. She was the only child until she was 13, and I think she had a rather lonely life. I don't know a lot of details about her young life because she hasn't talked much about it. I don't think she was unhappy, but I think her home was rather quiet and subdued, at least until they moved into town.

I do know that Mom was very smart and was passed from first to third grade. This is the only picture I have of her as a child.



Dad had to stay home from school for a year to help his dad on the farm, after it was destroyed by a tornado. Consequently, though they were 3 years apart in age, Mom and Dad graduated one year apart. They met when they were 14 and 17 and dated for 3 years. This picture was taken during that junior high period of her life. I just can't believe she's only 13 or 14 here!

Mom graduated from high school at age 17.

This was her yearbook graduation picture.

Three months later she and Dad were married. Dad was 20.

They had a short honeymoon in northern Minnesota. Dad was in the Navy and didn't have much time off.

Dad was stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, at that time. Here's a picture of her first lovely kitchen - good thing she was so tiny in those years - and she was all of 18 by now. She was pregnant with me in this picture, and went back home to Minnesota to give birth. Dad was being transferred to Memphis.




Dad hitchhiked from Memphis to Minnesota only to miss my birth because I was late. He headed back to base. In this time before cheap phone calls and computers, he didn't know until he got back to Memphis that he had been given an extension by his commanding officer. Unbelievably, the CO let him go back home to see me.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mom with my sister and me and our dolls. I'm the blonde without the glasses. Don't you just love the walls in this luxury apartment??

I'm not sure when or where this picture was taken, but I think it's a lovely one.


Fast forward many years to the last time we were all together - the first one is Mom and Dad with the five kids. The second one is them with the grandchildren.

We had a great week-end celebrating Mom's 80th birthday. I will be back soon with the stories.

Have a great week!

Happy May Day!

Today is my mom's birthday - 80 years ago she was a May Day baby. We have big plans for the week-end, which I'll share on Monday.

Today is dreary - so here is something cheery to brighten my day and yours, I hope. Don't they just look like they're smiling??







Have a blessed week-end.