Monday, May 07, 2007

happy birthday sylvianator raider


so the real excuse for poor blogging can now be told....for the last few months my siblings and I have been planning a surprise b-day party for my Mom's 70th. I flew out to Utah, solo, to celebrate the event on the 5th of this month. My contribution to the gala was the above invitation, which anyone who knows me knows that I find mailing anything a serious challenge. I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I was able to complete the invitations and mail them on time. Shocking, I know. Anyway, I think the night was a success and I am so thankful that everyone in my family pulled together to make this happen and also I am so grateful to all the friends and family that came and helped make the evening special for all of us. Oh, and of course thanks to a wonderful Mom who deserves 70 years of celebrations but must settle for this one night. So here are some fabulous pics, thanks to Jennifer Grigg photogragy


Surprise!
The next six pics capture her initial reaction.
Notice my wonderful sister-in-law Keri's great face on the left, love it!


my brother Gerry, we are the same height


me and my Mom


My mom and her brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Loretta


my cousins Darrel, Shannon and Susan




my beautiful niece Samantha




Me with Tom's beautiful sister and Mom, Heidi and Pam--I'm so glad they came!


my other beautiful niece Nicole, she masterminded the video production recapping briefly mom's 70 years


My brother-in-law Scott and my nephews Jake and Caleb


My other beautiful sister-in-law Michelle


More nephews, clockwise starting with the blue tie: Donny, Jared, John and Josh


Me and my nieces Syndee and Lecy. Syndee's birthday was the same day as the party. Happy Birthday Syndee!


More fabulous nieces: Amanda and Hannah above,
Sydnee, Lecy, Autumn and Siera below


the birthday cake

the quilt my amazing sister Dona pieced together and hand embroidered all in a week while still being a mother of 8.






Mom and Autumn


my other brother Grant, we look so much alike sometimes he get mistaken for my father


the fan dam: Grant, me, Mom, Dona and Gerry


It has taken me two weeks of napping coupled with two or three before-noon-diet-cokes to recover from that whirlwind of a weekend. I think I slept a total of 10 hours in 3 days--something I used to be able to do in my youth bu,t as Tom always reminds me, I'm an old woman now. Anyway, I had a great time and my girls ate out all weekend with Tom. They hardly noticed I was gone.