Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Birthday Celebration Fit for a King

Grandpa's 75th Birthday celebration was a whole week event. In fact, anyone that knows Grandpa, knows that he normally begins celebrating at the start of his birthday month (28 days before the actual day) and sometimes he is successful in continuing to celebrate into the following month. This time it worked as we all gathered together about a week after his birthday to celebrate. We picked 4th of July as the party date and the main birthday celebration. We also combined it with the 4th of July celebration.



By this time, Allie was pretty comfortable with her big family. She was getting lots of attention from her cousins, Aunts and Grandparents. We were excited when her Uncle Mike showed up to meet her, too. I have 5 brothers and sisters, a step sister and step brother and 12 nieces and nephews - none of which live anywhere near us. So, there was a lot of people to meet. We had the majority of family members there for the celebration - minus my brother, Kevin, and my step brother Micheal and his family and my Mom and her husband, Bill. I think it was too nice in Florida for any of them to leave the state and head North to come join us (ha ha). Anyway, it was a crowd and it was a lot of fun and Allie seemed to jump right into the action.

My family grew up in a placed called Sleepy Hollow. Yes, as picturesque as it sounds and a great place to grow up. Our Dad was Mayor of the town in the early 70's. This year, he was in the town parade to celebrate his past leadership and all of us walked with him. It was so much fun to have all of us together and there celebrating my Dad. Of course, I got carried away and Allie and I just pretended it was all about her. She was really funny. As soon as we turned the corner and people were lined on the side of the road she started waving at them. Her little princess wave was adorable! We were all dressed in our 4th of July finest and Allie had an adorable outfit that her Auntie Trisha bought for her.

Later that day we enjoyed lots of good Granma cooking and hospitality and we lit sparklers and just enjoyed the day. Unfortunately, we did get some rain and we by-passed the fireworks. I think the plan was to watch them on TV, but now that I think of it... we just enjoyed each others company and forgot about that.

It was a fun filled day and I was so glad we could be there for my Dad's 75th Birthday.
Happy Birthday, Dad/Grandpa!

2 comments:

Katie B said...

I'm so glad you got to be there for your Dad's 75th! I'm sure your family just ate up Miss Allie. We were up in Northwest Indiana visiting family the week of the Fourth too, and it was cold and rainy!

Anonymous said...

Dear Allie:

We so enjoyed Mom's July 26th posting to your blog, seeing you with animals at our Randall Oakes Petting Zoo, and Mom's slide show of the Sleepy Hollow 4th of July Parade, and activities at Grandma and my home.

It was great to see so many pictures of our family and to read your Mom's story about the trip.
Hers was a very courageous Alabama to Illinois driving excursion with a year and a half daughter.

Thanks to you Allie, and Mom, and the rest of the family, for coming to celebrate this special event with me and all our family.

Love, Grandpa