Mom's 90th Birthday

John's mom will turn 90 next week so today we had a birthday party for her.  I am no event photographer..... I don't care to hide behind my camera while family is there having a good time.  However by request of the birthday girl I did bring along my camera to capture some of the day.

It's been awhile since some of the family has seen Elly and she has grown up a bit.  

The family all brought candles to mom and gave them to her at random times of the party.  She was totally confused as to why she was getting them.  

She likes her kisses from the great grandchildren and not just one but two or three or sometimes even four.  

90 candles from the family for mom to dig through and remember each and everyone one of us.  

A little help to cut the cake

Another request was to have a picture taken with all 18 of her great grandchildren.... This is not an easy task.... lots of moms running after kids to get them to sit still.

But they are all pretty amazing and did it.

Oldest grand child is almost 16 and the youngest is 5 months.

Now for the grandchildren.... they like to tease grandma about smoking and drinking when she was their age so they had a little fun with her.

And she does still know how to smoke it.

All her sons.

We tease Shawna that she is the Hemmer sister 

And the wives....  her 5 wonderful daughter-in-laws

Ken's family (missing Leanne who had to work and we missed her very much)

Ed's family   

Paul's family

Ron's family

And John's family

Ava and Mallory were connected at the hip.  BFF's

Great party with great people.

Anniversary Weekend Up North

It's been 32 years since John and I started this thing called marriage.  We were both young, like way too young, I'm not sure what we were thinking, but it worked.   We spent a long weekend up north with a drive to the Northwoods on Friday to pick up some paint.  It really wasn't a trip to just pick up paint but just a destination to spend the day together doing something fun on a snowy November day.

While driving back I asked him to drive down this one road I thought looked pretty cool so I could take some pictures.  

After a few miles we were forced to make a decision to go either direction a long ways out of our way.  John picked one and we drove..... until I started to recognize things.  He went the way that he knew drove by my dad's.  It was nice to visit with dad and Joanne on our adventure.  

They had a few other visitors while we were there.

The rest of the weekend Lynn and family came up for the weekend.  The kids were excited to spend time at the cottage but it's a bit different when we spend more time indoor than outdoor.  

We drew a city on long paper to entertain them for a few hours.  

Baby sister Melanie enjoyed her time being spoiled by everyone.

A little Frozen video with singing and dancing reeeeeaaaallly close to the TV.

Maggie watching us from the snowy outdoors.

It was time for a walk 

A couple quick pictures of Melanie with Grandpa and Grandma since she's growing like a weed.  

Miss Fish Lips

It was a great weekend for making memories with the kids.  Lots of relaxing, adventures in the woods, yummy food and a GREAT dice game even if we had to threaten the guys to play.  They liked it and just wouldn't admit it.