The End of My Birthday Celebrations for 2008

Friday evening Ryan and Lisa and the children came for dinner. Madeline spends Friday afternoons with Auntie Lisa while Shannon is in school, so they brought Madeline too. Shannon would be coming later in the evening. Bob had made sure everything was ready for our guests. The house was clean, the table set, and the food prepared including two cakes he made from scratch.

He made my favorite cake, angel food with no icing! And then he made a new recipe, butter pecan cake. He browned the pecans in butter and added brown sugar then he sprinkled them on the cream cheese icing. It was delicious. There was a bowl of left-over praline nuts and the boys didn't waste anytime in checking them out when they arrived.

Their usual one hour trip to our house turned out to be an hour and a half. It had been snowing all day, but the lake effect snow kicked-in late in the afternoon and evening and we received some heavy snow for a few hours. Ryan thought I should call Shannon and tell her not to come because the roads were really bad. I called her and just caught her as she was walking out the door. She was disappointed. I told her that Ryan said if she tried to come she would just end up in a ditch and then he would have to come and pull her out. She wasn't too happy about his lack of confidence in her driving skills in the snow, but she said it was comforting to know that he would come and pull her out. She decided not to venture out if we would send a doggie bag home for her.

After dinner, Ryan saw my camera on the counter, and started taking random pictures.

He just wouldn't stop taking pictures, so Lisa finally got his attention by putting her hand in front of the camera and saying, "STOP"!

Then we headed to the family room to relax and visit. That's when I picked up the camera and started snapping a few pictures.

Ryan and Lisa relaxing on the love seat in front of the fireplace.

The boys worked on a jigsaw puzzle of cardinals.

The girls had fun playing with the dolls upstairs.

I couldn't believe that Gracie could go up and down the stairs all by herself.

Ryan and Lisa and the children have me a dinner bell. It will be great to have it outside the mud room door to ring this summer when grandpa and the grand kids are outside in the garden and it's time for lunch!

My birthday celebration lasted longer than I have ever had a birthday last with cards, gifts, visits, and telephone calls that made for a very memorable birthday week. I love you all. Thanks for making my birthday special in every way.