Yesterday Uncle Jr., Aunt Jeanette and Aunt Neenie met at our house for a cocktail before the party. Left to right, age 91, 87, and 95….God, I love these people!!!
We loaded up the 110 deviled eggs and 7 lbs of spaghetti salad, got the elder family members settled into their Caddy, and Den and I drove them out to Lake Holiday for Kelly’s 40th Birthday Party. We knew they would never find Kel and Cin’s house, and Uncle Jr. isn’t suppose to drive after dark…(Den drove all 3 back to our house before the sun set and they drove themselves back to Montgomery safe and sound…WHEW! )
Kelly enjoyed all of his friends and family..Left, my brother and our youngest daughter (I think these two look similar)…Center, Kelly and wife, Cindy…Right, Kel greeting Jack, the one who got Kelly interested in EMS.
Cindy had a surprise planned…We all sang Happy Birthday to him, and just as we finished…..
The Bagpipes showed up and EVERYONE was surprised…especially Kelly. They were married in Ireland, so this was very special…Below are some photos from Ireland….They LOVE it there, and have made at least 3 trips.
…After Kelly recovered from the great bagpipe serenade, He sat down to open his gifts….
..This drawing he is holding was drawn by HIM, when he was in kindergarten…I think he was destined to be a firefighter…This little drawing was a sign of “things yet to be”. I found it amongst old stuff in our basemen, framed it and wrapped it up for him. I remember when Kelly was little, and the Sandwich FD was called to our hospital when someone was being transferred by helicopter…There were no landing lights, so the fire trucks would go up and shine their headlights on the landing pad…Kelly got to go with his Dad a few times, and I think it really impressed him. After his stint in the Navy , and the Persian Gulf War, he came home and became an EMT in Sandwich…He then became and EMTI, which means he could give meds…then he became a paramedic with the Oswego Fire Dept. Now he is a Lieutenant …Like I said..destiny.
He got some really neat stuff… a set of Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Champion shot glasses for their new bar …..
And on the right he is holding a beer keg tapper that has the Chicago Bears logo and says “Cave’s Pub”.
Kelly, Cindy, sister Vivian, Chris, John and Aiden were all here for some of my breakfast casserole this morning. The Wolffs were on the road back to Indy by 10:30AM, but this time had an extra passenger. Elmo wouldn’t let Aiden leave without him, so John made sure Elmo was strapped into the seat next to Aiden, and away they went. They lose an hour going back to Indy. They have their house on the market, looking for a little bigger one, and they had a house showing this afternoon.
After everyone left our house, and it got strangely quiet again, it hit me how unbelievably fortunate we are in this crazy, goofy, fun, jazzed- up family. Yesterday, we were lucky enough to have some of our “elders” with us, some of the “almost elders” (that would be OUR vintage), OUR kids, THEIR kids…right down to the little ones…This was kind of like a “burgoo” stew of Cave Dwellers….all gettin' down and partyin’ like there was no tomorrow….Now that’s enough to put one’s life in perspective, eh?
Since there were a goodly amount of the family present, we HAD to get a photo…These past few days seemed to be one endless photo shoot!!!
NOW THERE IS REAL BUNCH OF TROUBLEMAKERS!
Thanks for coming to Kelly’s party with us. We hope you had a good time….WE HAD A BLAST!!!
(My baby boy CANNOT be 40 years old!!???)