Oh... It was such celebration! Sounds of tin-tin-nab-u-la-tion! All about the jubilation! Roasting! Toasting! Boasting!....... It was an amazing an AMAZING BIRTHDAY DAY BASH!
Yep, we gathered all 25 of our kids, their spouses and our grandkids together, plus a nephew and wife from California, and celebrated Norm's 70th year. What a grand time !
It begin (officially) on Friday with everyone walking over to Riverfront Park for carousal rides, and family photos.
Imagine what it is like to get a crowd of 25 people - ages one month to 70- years - organized for a family portrait! So, this is the "Harless version" of a formal family picture :-)
Then it was back to the motel (VERY nice one where Pete works and he'd gotten us fabulously low rates ) for a libation. Some of the kids went swimming, but we 'older folks' just sat around the deck and the story telling begin. there was plenty of 'remembering when' going on !
Evening brought the Italian Birthday Dinner at Leigi's. We're such a rowdy crowd....heck, we're just such a CROWD, that they gave us our own room upstairs to wine, dine and roast Norm up royally. Mary was in charge and she did a bang-up job of involving everyone - even the little ones as they each reported one of our favorite "Normisms" like MOTHER of PEARL ! WHO-DE-HAW ! and "You can do anything until, you're stopped." There were plenty of Normisms to go around and the next day everyone was still remembering ones we forgot!
Mary led the gang in a game of "Norm Jeopardy" just like the television game show. How fun ! Quinn served as her able assistant on the laptop and everybody participated in answering questions like "Name the seamstress priest who followed the family around," and, "What kind of car did dad drive that sucked more oil than gas?"
Next the kids all told a few 'rememberances' of their growing years with a dad/stepdad like Norm and that just got it started. The story telling continued well into the next day! Which was the day of the BIRTHDAY PICNIC out at the "Bowl & Pitcher." This was the day Norm had something planned to surprise the grandkids -- well EVERYONE for that matter ! He opened up a large duffle and brought out the makings for 27 marshmallow blow guns ! Everyone (even the little ones) had to construct their own weapon and then the games began ! What fun ! (We left a huge marshmallow mess behind us with everyone hoping that the squirrels got a sugar high before the park ranger found them LOL) We had a picnic and all took a walk over the 'scarey bridge' then caravaned back to Joe's house where the stories continued and continued until early evening when we all returned to our rooms and homes very tired, but very very happy.
It was such a celebration! I can't even imagine how we can top it when Norm turns 80 ! I better start working on it now :-)
And the beat goes on....
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
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