party at our place

The Map Man's Mom celebrated her 70th birthday recently, so we threw a big shin-dig for her at our place, complete with tents, lots of guests, and enough food to feed a small army. Friends and relatives came to help her celebrate her big day, and to help us eat all of our food (they fell short by quite a bit, we'll be eating leftovers for the next two months!).

J shares a laugh with one of his Aunts. This Aunt did a great job of organizing fun outdoor games and activities for the kids in attendance, so that we adults could concentrate on throwing a party and not worry about what our kids were up to. She definitely gets the Captain Kangaroo award for the day!

Zoo Boy serves up some icecubes, and a lot of laughs. He was pretending that the food tent was his restaurant, and that he was the waiter. He took the whole thing pretty seriously, which only added to everyone's amusement. In reality, my Mom, my sister and I were inside cooking up a storm, and my friend Christine (who we can also thank for all these awesome photos!) and I were trucking them out to the tents. Lots of appetizers, a few Mudslides, and a dinner of Chicken Marsala were on the menu.

The Map Man did an incredible job playing host while I hid out in the kitchen. Really, I was impressed with him, as he does not like being the center of any sort of social attention, but you'd never know it by his congenial, welcoming attitude on party day. My hero!!

The birthday girl blows out her candles while my kids looks on (and drool in anticipation of cake!). The kids were really excited to have a big party for their Grandma, and it was fun to include them as a part of the whole process.

Everyone had a great time and said that we should do it again soon (um, maybe again some day, but not soon!) and that I should go into a catering business (um, like never). Meanwhile The Man and I are very quietly celebrating our 19th Wedding Anniversary today. One party this week was more than enough for us!