WEEK NUMBER THREE

Week number three was a busy one & we still have two more days!

Actually I should start with this past weekend. We (Dad, Tricia, Austin, Aidan & I) constructed a patio for Mom' birthday.

It was an experience to say the least, between trying to hide what we were doing from Mom (thank goodness she is totally unassuming!) and then the actual construction...it was a "making memories" moment!

We started out Saturday by just puttering around the house, "pre-cleaning" for the party. Mom told me to ask my father if he would take down the boxes that were overhead in the garage so she could go thru them when she got home from working at the Historical Society booth.

The thoughts running thru my head at the time were, "When does she think we are going to have time to do that?" Not remembering at that moment that she was unaware of our impending masonry work.

Dad is just awesome, because while she was still here, he went out in the garage, climbed up on the ladder and proceeded to drag down all her boxes of treasures, some of which had been packed up there since we moved into this house in almost 26 years ago.

Well, Mom, Tricia & I started to go thru them. We found her high school diploma, a plate that was my great-great grandmother's that Mom had been looking for, yarn, clothes & among other things, Maggie's Cabbage Patch Kid, Lisa, who Maggie thought was long gone due to Dad & Tricia's cleaning up & burning stuff over the past few years.

Here is Steve with one of the treasures we found. Doesn't he look smashing!

After going through most of the boxes, Mom had to leave to go down to Community Day. Then the work began. Actually the night before, Dad & Tricia had started work on the patio by laying out the edgers & moving ground.

After she left, we poured leveling sand into place, carefully laid out the pavers & then filled in with sand.

She came home from working at the Harbor Creek Community Day down at the township building (actually she walked home!) and came out on the porch to find us putting on the finishing touches. Needless to say, she was surprised, and she said "But all I wanted was a Borders gift card!". Hmmm...not gonna happen. It look really nice. I must say we did an excellent job!

View of new patio from up on the porch.

View from down in the yard.

Our next big project was getting ready for the party. Sunday, we rested & just hung out around the house, Steve, Maggie & Charlie came up for the day & it's always fun to spend time with them!

Noooo...he isn't spoiled at all!

There was cleaning to be done, food to be made, rearranging of outside furniture...all in all there was a lot to do, but we all worked together & got it done.

The party was a huge success, attended by approximately 73 people, lots of food & definitely lots of fun!

The Rodland/Ebersole/Morton boys enjoyed playing together. They had quite a game of football going. Even Steve & Kendra joined in!

My poor nephew! He looks adorable in his frog hat that Shamma got for him, but I'm sure he'll hate these photos when he gets older!

The evening was capped off by a terrific fireworks display courtesy of Chuck, Mark & Matt. It was really nice. There was a little bit of excitement when something malfunctioned on the platform (yes we are rednecks, Chuck has a fireworks launching platform) and a stray firework came flying across the yard at about five foot off the ground & hit Chuck in the back of the neck.

All in all the evening was terrific. It was so good to see everyone, visit with people I hadn't seen in ages & just to be with family & friends.

On July 4th, we attended a picnic at the home of a family friend where there was more tasty food & lots more fun. Aidan was thrilled because Ed was there & he had just commented to me the other day that he hadn't seen Ed for a long time and hoped he would get to see him soon.

We then came home & spent the evening with everyone (Saba, Shamma, Tricia, Maggie, Steve & Charlie). The boys played softball & football with their aunts & uncle, Dad burned the huge "white trash" pile out back & we just relaxed & had our usual good time.

Me - doing my favorite thing - spoiling Charlie!

Today is Mom's birthday & we are all going out to dinner at Freeport. I hope to get some photos.

Tomorrow Dad leaves for two weeks on a business trip to Asia & we have a graduation party to go to. That will wind down our whirlwind vacation extravaganza.

Will hopefully have more photos to share!