Sunday, April 13, 2014

Festivities

102/365

Yesterday was the first Willman Extended Family Easter I'd made it to in quite some time.   Missing a year for being sick has been crummy.  I missed last Christmas for Jake getting RSV, and the Easter and Christmas before that for bedrest.  I made it the Thanksgivings, but not everybody gets to send representatives to that holiday.  This year we had a pretty good turn out for Willman Easter, and to celebrate Grandpa's 98th birthday. And the boys and I were all healthy enough to make the trip. :)
We met up at the Teppanyaki, a chinese/american/sushi bar in Marion.  Pretty good grub, I like a buffet for these fam get togethers, that way if we talk so much that our food gets cold, we can just go get more. ;)

First, I had a couple finished projects to give away.  I had just barely finished these hats in time for Easter.  And though it was 70 degrees outside, and not remotely weather for knit hats, it's supposed to get colder this week, maybe they'll get some wear this year after all, ugh.  Anyway, I walked in and saw Holly first, and said, Hey!  I have  a present for you, it's in the diaper bag.  There was some snickering regarding other things in the diaper bag, but she was definitely more happy when I pulled this out, as opposed to other festive things that could be found in Jake's diaper bag. :/


For those who know Firefly, it's a Jayne Hat.  


I also made one for cousin Kyle, who wasn't able to make it to the wingding, but he posted this picture later, pretty cunning, don't you think?


Meanwhile, there was an overdose of Cuteness.  
Our nephew, Baby Cole is now 3 months old, and his eyes were wide with taking in all the crazy. 
He got pretty tired pretty quick, so he eventually fell asleep on Grandma.  


Here's Lexi checking out Baby Cole. 


And Jacob and Jeremiah checking each other out.  
They are about the same size now, how crazy is that?!


Chris and Sam's favorite toy to play with of the day, cousin Lilly, who is a year younger, but half a head talller than Chris.  Chris, Sam and Lilly were running around the room, giggling like maniacs.  It was so cute.  


The littles: Jake and Cole, being sweet in the sun.  I don't think Jake could decide whether he liked the wind or not.


A Cupcake Cake for the Birthday Boy .... 98! 


The boys gather around and talk geeky for a bit.  It slays me that Jake waddled himself right into the center of the geekfest. Just one of the boys.  


Christopher helped Grandpa open his presents.  He's the oldest great grandson, so he got the job. There were a ton of puzzles, they are Grandpa's favorite activity, and though at 98, he's slightly slowing down, they could still be donated to the rest of the Home for entertainment.  

We weren't able to stay very long at the home visiting, not long enough at all, because we had to get home.  We were also hosting for our church's Progressive dinner.  If you've never done one, it's Awesome!  First we meet at the church, and then go to various members houses for different courses, 4 usually - appetizer, salad, entree, and back to the church for dessert.  This year, we didn't have that many hosts, so instead of hosting appetizer like we usually do, we drew salad course.  The theme was Caribbean Cruise.   

 So, we had to dash out of Willman Family Easter to go home and prepare.  We made a salad buffet - build your own, and we put out a bunch of toppings:  mixed greens, pineapple (fresh from Maui), mango, cheese, black beans, corn, tiny shrimp, red/orange/yellow pepper, red onion, cilantro, Jamaican Jerk chicken, and Nice Guy (not jerky, not spicy) chicken.  We tried to be careful not to confuse Hawaiian from Caribbean, so the only crossover was the pineapple.  Well, they grow pineapples in the Caribbean too.  For Drinks (which was very important!)  we offered:  pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris (we could've stopped there, but we didn't), Dark and Stormies (ginger beer and dark rum), Red Stripe beer, Landshark Lager, ginger beer, lemon water Mom and Dad kept the big boys and I intially kept Jake, then they swung by on their way home to grab him so that we could be child free for the evening.   They took the yahoos to the park to entertain them.  And it worked! 


Dad sent me this video of Jacob in the swing he took.  
And Mom sent me this last picture of the kids taking a bath afterwards.  



Rubadubdub, three yahoos in a tub!  

This was the first time Mom and Dad watched the boys and Jake didn't lose his ever-lovin' mind.  History! 
It only took us 11 1/2 months.

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