Celebration, silliness & yumi-licious

Surprise! for Genevieve

 We threw an early birthday bash for Genevieve. Her dad had the day off, Aunties Cherise and Alyssa were here and Uncle Rylan had a rare Sunday off so we had a PARTY!!! I think she was a little surprised.

Ordered a Pizza Hut feast online and they had it at our door in a half an hour. Everybody loves pizza, pasta, pop from Pizza Hut and it went perfectly with the watermelon that was left from brunch. With eight grandchildren at the table! It was a super super supper.

This is reminiscent of birthdays of bygone days when our kids were little. 

Lyssa, Lita, and Reesie

 Or as they're known today as Mom, Mommy or Momma
 sometime known as Alyssa, Lalita and Cherise.
Joylynn brought a VCR over last night and we watched hours of tape of these three & her dancing and lip-syncing to all kinds of '80s and '90s songs. I wish Lalita had been here to see them as well.

I love watching these guys interact

Garrett and Katie are soooo two! What he lacks in verbal communication skills, he makes up for in non-verbal button pushing. They get along like great buddies and then they scrap like cats and dogs. I'm sure that they are going to be great friends when they grow up.

The play house looked a bit like a clown car this morning with all of the kids packed in there playing.

Rowan wanted to pretend to  be a robot, so Grampa got him an empty red vines container for a helmet.  Pretty soon we had a whole passel of them. Good thing Harlan saved all of our red vine containers from our movie watching over the years. We usually use them for popcorn these days. But they make pretty cool helmets.

The Clackamas Old Spaghetti Factory

Cherise and Kiel went to their local, San Diego, Old Spaghetti Factory the night before Cherise flew up here.  Alyssa has been craving their food ever since she heard that. So we just had to go there for lunch before Reesie and Anabelle headed back home.

The gang that was able to be there.

The trolley was a big draw for the kids. Alyssa took them there for a look-see before our meals came.  I took them back over there after they were done eating.

Playing around outside

It's so hard to keep little guys with full tummies to sit and wait for the rest of the gang to be done. We headed outside. Aside from some cars at the very end of the parking lot, ours were the only two vehicles around.  It was a great chance to run off some energy. Garrett likes having big kids around and tried to imitate everything Rowan did.

Rowie walked the full length of the curb and balanced the whole way. Garrett stepped up with his right foot on the curb and stepped forward in the dirt with his left.  He didn't understand the balancing thing but it was fun following his big cousin.

Back home only to leave again

We got home with 10 minutes to spare before Wyatt, Genevieve and Danika got out of school. I had everybody get out of the van and I snapped this pic of Gar-bear as I was pulling out.

Life is pretty full these days!

Anabelle and Cherise Weekend

Waiting for the Friday rider

 Evie and her family, Cameron and I went down to pick Harlan up at the Milwaukee Shopping Center. We waited and waited til finally Lyssa took the girls and Cam and went to Albertons for a few things.

Rowan stayed in the car with me and pretty soon we were joined by 

SUPER GRAMPA!

 Harlan rode up and surprised Rowie who was busy with a game on my iPad.

TA-DAH!

Saturday morning airport trip

It was nice to sleep in on Saturday but Cherise and Anabelle didn't have that luxury. They were on a plane at 6:30 heading to Portland.

 It was a beautiful day to fly in for a visit.

Cherise's plane's fuselage is in the foreground  of the picture on the left, you can't see the tail of her plane. Katie wanted me to take a picture of the "pretty plane".  I guess she takes after my sister Kelly in her affection for Hawaii.

Five girls

 Harlan was happy to have some one on five time with these girls that no longer live near. Beaches at the airport is one of our favorite breakfast places.  I wish they validated parking ;0)

In support of our military  

 This display is prominently place in the main part of the airport so everyone coming into Portland can see it as they head off to baggage claim of their transportation.

Carseats and carts and cousins

 We've had to get creative and sometimes cramped to be able to do things all together. We've taken two vehicles to places and loaded the van beyond capacity just to spend as much time as possible with each other.

Our Annual Talladega Brunch

The Uncles pitched in on baby detail while others of us were busy getting ready for our Nascar party. 

Tom Z was our omelette chef again. He and Kim Z, and three of their girls, Katelin's boyfriend and grandson, Vinny joined our gang to eat good food and watch the race. Vinny even let me cuddle him for a couple seconds. 

 Alyssa, Courtney and Molly in a moment of mutual affection. Love those girls!

We are family....

 We had all the kids together for a photo-op at Courtney's wedding almost two years ago. It's about time we got them all in one place again.  

We threw a surprise early birthday party for Genevieve last night.

Courtney and Charlie had plans but they swung back by to make sure we got this picture taken.

And this one!
All our darling daughters!

We are blessed to have this wonderful gang!

Owie kitty and some fun times

Blessing of bread

We are blessed on most Thursday mornings with a bread delivery by our friend, Gary. This week we were treated to Friday Harbor and McKenzie Farms. Yum toast for the kiddies.

Poor Chloe Kitty

 Courtney's 14 year old cat has an infection in her cheek.  We suspect she may have gotten bitten during a fight with another cat. The vet told us that she is getting old and her immune system isn't what it used to be. She loves being outside though, so I hate to make her be an indoor only cat for the rest of her days. According to one website she is getting to be around 100 cat years old.

 Mob at the Mall

 We didn't get a whole lot of shopping done the other day but managed to find a few things that we "needed". Hayden met us after he got out of school. We walked over to Panda to get some to go food for lunch. The group stopped to pose for a picture.  Alyssa was taking a photo of me taking theirs.

Hayden made it across Weidler with Katie and Rowan before the light changed. Garrett and Evie, aka the stroller brigade, had to wait for the next walk signal.

Piles of pumpkins

 Packing them to the porch

Alyssa and Courtney unloaded the future jack-o-lanterns from the back of the van.

Meanwhile down in Southern California...

The kids went to the beach again this week.  Henry loves building with and digging in the sand. Anabelle loves the water and waves.

Henry earned a ride in this cool fire truck at the mall.  His sissy looks like she is having just as much fun as he is.

Next post? Cherise and Anabelle in Portland!

More cousin fun!!!