Birthday Celebrations

We are officially on Spring Break, which is why there has been no blogging lately. I wanted to update, although I won't have any pictures until the weekend at earliest. We've been traveling and are at my parents' house visiting right now.

We celebrated Anna's 4th birthday at Bible study on Friday night. I made a "Sonya Lee" cake. For those of you not hip to the preschool scene, Sonya Lee is a Fisher Price Little People character.

Saturday we got packed up and drove to PA for another birthday celebration. This time is was for Bob's dad, who celebrated his 85th birthday on Saturday! Bob's sister Ann planned a lovely dinner for him at a local conference center. We've had other celebrations at this place. It's really nice because we have a room all to ourselves, so the kids can get down and walk around after they're done eating. Plus, the staff is always very nice.

We got there a little bit early Saturday evening, so we parked far away and let the kids play in a deserted part of the parking lot. We had brought the 3 ripsticks that we bought the kids for Christmas using the money Bob's folks gave, plus a basketball. It was good to let them all run off some steam after being cooped up in the van all afternoon! I very gingerly tried out the ripstick as well. I was not instantly successful, that is for sure. In fact, I only would move if Bob was holding my hand. Bob is always trying to get me to go dancing with him--who knew all it took was a ripstick?!

For the dinner, our family was split up, since we are too big for one table. Bob and the boys sat with his brother Paul and his son Brandon, and we 4 girls sat with Bob's sister Rose and her 2 daughters. There was a fruit cup on the table when we sat down, and then they brought out ceasar salads and bread for everyone. At that point, we went through a buffet line, which was set up outside a set of double doors (which were open). The girls, Caleb, and Jonathan all had kids' meals of chicken tenders and french fries, instead of the buffet.

After I was finished eating, I wandered over to the boys' table to see how they were doing. I was surprised to see that only one chicken tender was left out of the 6 from the 2 meals. It turned out Nathan had polished off Jonathan's meal, which surprised me, since there was plenty of food at the buffet. Then the server came around and said she was going to be taking away the cake to cut, so if we wanted pictures of the cake, we should take them now. We all went over there to take pictures, and Bob said, "So, usually before you have cake, you eat the main course . . ." We all thought he was being funny, since we were stuffed and were wondering how we were going to make room for the cake. But no! His table had completely missed the fact that everyone else was bringing back plates from the buffet and eating the main course! No wonder Nathan was so starved! We all had a good laugh about that, and they quickly filled their plates and ate while the cake was being cut. They had been wondering about the slow pace of the meal, LOL. Luke said that next time, he was sitting with me! It was funny.

Ann had put together a nice slide slow of pictures of their dad and his family that we all enjoyed seeing. Bob's cousin Peggy, who is the unofficial family historian, I think, was there to clarify who some relatives in some old pictures were. There were pictures of Bob's dad's mom as a little girl, all dressed up in Slovakian dress, along with her family. The pictures were taken before 1900, before they had come over to America (at least I think that's right). I love old pictures--so fascinating!

So we had a great time at the party. The nicest part was that all 6 siblings were again able to be together. It also happened last year in May, when we all met at Rose's house for her daughter's first communion. Twice in one year! That's a record!

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures, both of Anna's cake, and of the party in PA, after we get home. We drove from PA over to OH Sunday afternoon to spend a few more days of Spring Break. The kids let us sleep in Monday morning, and then Bob and my dad took the kids, minus Faith, bowling at the base bowling alley. The boys love bowling. This was the first time for Anna and Grace, but they also had a grand time. The bowling alley not only has those lanes with the bumpers that eliminate gutter balls for kids, they also have this slide contraption where the child put the ball up on top, gives it a push, and then it rolls down onto the lane, hopefully gathering enough speed so as to not stop in the middle of the lane, which has happened to us before! It was a success!

Today we spent the day over at Amy's house. The weather was beautiful, and the kids played outside a lot. We also ate spaghetti and had cupcakes and ice cream in honor of Zachary's 10th birthday. When we finally got back to my parents' house, showers were definitely in order, and the exhausted kids are all sleeping soundly. Hopefully they will let us sleep in again tomorrow! We are loving this relaxing Spring Break!