Family Party Time

My family has always been a bunch of partiers. My earliest memories include some sort of family gathering at my grandparents house and many of the rest of my childhood memories involve get togethers at my parents', Auntie Carla & Uncle Trevor's, Auntie Diana & Uncle Tommy's or some other party-loving relatives and of course, my favorite - the big family campout (usually at my request for my birthday).

Growing up there was a big party for everyone's birthday, then the usual holidays of Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July, Groundhog's Day and of course our annual Mayflower party for Columbus Day. Just kidding about those last two - did I catch you scratching your head about those Auntie Carla?? On some occasions we've combined celebrations, for example we now just have the "July Birthdays" party on one date instead of getting together every weekend in July to celebrate of our birthdays.

Last weekend we celebrated cousin Hannah's 3rd birthday as well as celebrating the arrival of her little sister Ashlee. They both occurred back in August, but with a new baby schedules get, ahem, a bit hectic, and the party was postponed a couple of months. Still, it was another food and smile-filled party, despite the power being out for the first hour or so. Fortunately dinner consisted of delicious salads and barbecued tri-tip and wasn't too affected by the power. Just as it was getting a bit dark the power returned and the party continued as usual, with lots of laughs while watching the kids.

Miss Em thought her cousin Amy should hold her instead of the birthday girl

The boys weren't all that interested in the "girly" presents

The birthday girl

Blowing out her candles with little sis on mom's shoulder

Great Grandma (or "Big Grandma" as McGee calls her) reveled in feeding Miss Em some of her ice cream cake. Seems she couldn't shovel it in fast enough for our ice cream loving girl!

The two baby cousins getting acquainted

Mommy & Daddy enjoying a cuddle

Ahh - I love watching these two play together! Reminds me of cousin Joel & I and all the fun we had! See that little blue & yellow truck on the floor? That was Joel's and I remember playing with it when we were kids.