Saturday, March 18, 2023

Spring Celebration

This month our family celebration centered around GG turning 82 and Cory turning 30! It was a rousing good time. We missed JaRissa (and Noah), and Luke...but loved having both Nolan and Allie at home.  KRISTA IS IN TOWN and it's always a treat to see her as well. There were 23 of us. 


As earlier noted, the girls and I had a morning event.  We arrived home with 2 hours to get salmon skinned, prepped and the house set. We knew Michael was busy with sermon prep and wouldn't be able to help. 

What an AMAZING SURPRISE to walk in and remember Nolan had taken the day off. He was HOME...and he had brought up the two extra tables and set them up, unloaded the dishwasher, cleared the island of clutter and cleaned it...the house was shining as the girls had done floors and dusted before we left. 

We had an unexpected situation requiring both Michael and I, and CyRi arrived shortly after. They jumped right in and helped the girls keep the upstairs momentum moving. It was great fun and a huge relief. Josiah skinned all the salmon. I threw the recipe for the sauce to Carrie, and she went to town on it.  Everyone jumped in though I don't remember what every person contributed...when it was time to put the salmon in the oven...everything was ready. The house was clean, the table set, the sides done...teamwork at it's best. 

I had a wild idea I wanted to try. My idea was met with a bit of skepticism from Michael, but I was sure if he saw what I was after, he would tweak the idea and it would be magnificent. I wanted a board with holes in it....birthday candles could be fitted into the holes as needed. Each celebrant would have their own with the right number of candles and the candles would not be ON OUR CAKE. In other words, the fun of candles but no spit on said cake.  Michael was sure it was a good idea but that it would cause a fire.  I planned to use paper plates but then saw the cake boards in the pantry. Perfect.  Krista and Carrie took over. Krista melted wax and stuck GG's candles on, Carrie used a hot glue gun.  As you can see in the above photo, it worked! Thanks, girls! Love Danny's expression - he isn't quite sure what they are doing, but it looked inviting! 

Bringing the idea to life

Here are more photos of the day in no particular order. Oh, and as the fish are multiplying, we had cheesy salmon. Several were skeptical and chicken alfredo magically appeared. I had planned to make mac and cheese for the kids who don't like salmon so this worked well...but in the end most the skeptics came around and the recipe was shared with several...with the notes that I add much more garlic and lemon to the recipe. We barely made a dent in the newly discovered freezer of salmon. 

I believe they are playing, "Cover Your Assets" - or maybe I made up that name. LOL 

Stacia, Arielle, Cory, Jamin, Nolan 

Some more of the tribe

Cory's candles

Trudy (4 months) and Allie 

Some of the crew

Nolan, Cy and GG

Annie reminds me much of her Aunt at this age

GG's candles

Can't decide which I like better - I'LL use both 
📷by Carrie 

Michael and I had a race to see who could light all their candles first. He used the flame thrower, but he had over twice the candles. I'm not sure who finished first...it was getting hot. We'll need volunteers to light candle boards if we keep doing this or the first ones will melt before we are done. LOL 
📷by Carrie

Izaak doesn't get to join many of our celebrations. He has been out of town a lot this year and when he is home he's been working HARD to complete a Master's degree. He is nearly done with it and plans to move on to his Doctorate. THIS month he was home and on school break! We loved having him join us. 
Cy and Izaak 📷by Carrie 

We had a great time. It is our hope this provides a monthly time for all the adult children to gather...for them to connect with those they don't see in their daily life, for us to connect with them. It's a great catch-up time...but recently, we've noted a new element.  Really, not a problem...a reality. In the winter it is hard to have this many of us in one spot. We don't have a huge living room or family room. We have an open concept. When we all are here there are 9 children 6 and under, and 1 - 3 over that age. There is a basement, but it's not child friendly and would require adults to go watch kids.  With little space the racetrack through the living room, into the dining/kitchen area comes into play. That isn't bad when there are 2 or 3 toddlers...but it is loud at this point.  I bring games up for the kids to play but that seems to add to the chaos. This is not a problem when we can run OUTSIDE...we have lots of room and outside play structures/games. It's gotten so chaotic that quite honestly, it's hard to talk....so brainstorming has begun as we have one, maybe two more months before we can avail ourselves of the outside space and winter will come again. LOL  Josiah sent a link to a bouncy house that may work in the basement with parents taking turns watching kids...Michael and I talked of clearing out the area so it's available for kids to play but this is where I need to start seeds...so that has some challenges. We're brainstorming...how to insure adults can connect and children have a great, rousing time when we are forced to be inside. 

Spring Crafts

Stacia invited several friends (all the girls) from youth group to meet at the Art Cafe. They have been texting about it for a month or so, and it all came together today! 

Allie, Jenni, Noelani, Lorelei, Jess and Stacia 

It took about 20 seconds for me to realize some of my favorite people have youth daughters! I sent out a text and asked if they'd like to grab coffee or a table and do our own crafts. That is just what we did....and while this photo caught me mid-speaking - it's the only one with Nora in it and so I'll suck it up and post it. ::snort::

Me, Krista, Nora and Melany

Krista worked on a guitar that turned out really cool! 



Melany painted a pretty mug with wildflowers on the sides...

I painted a mug and figured if it doesn't turn out others will assume one of the kids or grands made it for me and they'll tell me its pretty and precious anyways! LOL 

This was a relaxing breather in the midst of a busy day. It was on to salmon and family.  This was doable because the girls jumped in and helped a LOT on Friday and Saturday morning. 

Do you know the story in the Bible about the fish and loaves and how the fish kept multiplying? I thought we were nearly done with salmon for the year. When I inventoried, I discovered TWO FREEZERS full of salmon....