MawMaw’s Birthday Book

My grandmothers 70^th birthday is April 15^th, which is also the day that I leave for Kenya.  A few months ago my sister Laura and I started to think about what we could give her as a birthday gift.  I came up with the idea of making a photo book of all the kids, grand kids, and great grand kids so she can have current pictures of all of us in one place.

Thus, the nagging began.  I was in charge of gathering all the pictures from everyone and Laura was in charge of designing the book.  I sent a text and email two months before I needed the pictures in, hoping that someone would send their pictures in early.  No such luck.  After a few month nagging phone calls and texts, I finally sent (when we only had two weeks to get it designed, printed, mailed, and signed) a final text that said “I need the pictures by XXX, if I don’t receive them by XXX we will put a big square that says ‘this child was too busy to send in pictures for your book MawMaw’’  I wasn’t kidding and my family knew it. ;)  You could say that I am very persistent and I get what I want.  

Finally the pictures started rolling in and we could design the book.  We were specific that we wanted current pictures and pictures that we didn’t have to crop random people out of.  We wanted single pictures and family pictures so the book would be special for her.  Laura created each page for each child reflecting their personality.   Notice a flamingo on my page?  Imagine that!

The front cover was a collage of pictures of all of us that we had left over.  Also, there is a big 70 on the front.  Laura found this sweet passage and put it on the front page.

Each child got their own page, along with each grand kid and great grand kid.

The back page was where everyone signed it in gold and silver paint pens.  We had to mail it all over the country New Jersey and Texas to have everyone sign it. 

My Aunt Tracy and her husband Ken had come down from New Jersey for Easter, so all of the kids and grand kids were in town (minus 3 grand kids) so we decided to give her the book then.  We wrapped it all up and presented it to her after lunch by the pool.

We figured she would cry when she opened it, but she didn’t.  Everyone else cried though as she was all “Oh, this is so special”  and “Oh, I just love this” in her super soft voice that means she really did like it. :)

Now we need to come up with something for Paw-Paw’s birthday too!  Any ideas?!

Painting with Grandmother

The Friday night before my marathon me, my sister Laura, my stepbrother Brandon, and our cousin Leigh Ann all took my grandmother to a painting party as her Christmas present.  We found a Groupon  for Vino Artino in Spring for a three hour class that we each bought, and also one for Grandmother.  This was my third time painting and Laura’s second time, but everyone else’s first time.

Grandmother isn’t a very crafty person, but we figured she would have lots of fun spending time with us and a painting would just be bonus.  I think she was worried about how the painting would turn out, but the painting was just some trees, so how bad could they turn out?  Hmmm.  Keep reading!

First we all went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Mia Bella off Louetta.  I had been carb loading all week in preparation for my marathon, and since it was right before I needed to continue to carb load so we opted for Italian food.  Leigh Ann and I live near each other so we drove over together.  Brandon came straight from work and Laura and Grandmother rode together also.  The restaurant was good and they gave us tons of bread!  Score.

We had a reservation for the class so we had our seats set out for us and didn’t have to worry about saving seats for everyone or getting there super early.  We each got a blank canvas , two brushes, paint, and a mixing tray to start out with.  

The instructor guided us step by step so we wouldn’t get lost.  However, if you know me, you know how much I like to talk, my family is no different!  We kept cracking jokes and laughing amongst ourselves and our two other table mates that we had just met so we kept getting lost and not hearing the directions completely.

Vino Artino is a BYOB wine and art class, but since we were with Grandmother and Leigh Ann was pregnant, we didn’t BYOB.  We did BYOC though with cupcakes from Treat Cupcakes!!

As the paintings went along we each decided that we didn’t like them and we must have lost a direction or two somewhere along the way.  I really don't know how it was so difficult to paint trees!  SMH.

The original.

Mine

Laura’s

Brandon’s

Leigh Anne’s

For some reason, I don’t think I got a picture of Grandmothers!  Oops!  Just look at the group pic.

We had a blast though and I am so glad we got to go!  On the way home that night Laura asked Grandmother if she had fun and if she would go again, Grandmother said “Yes, but not too soon.”  I guess it was a hit but I think she had more fun with us than actually painting a picture.

Happy Halloween

Jabba and I wanted to wish you a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!   We hope it is Spook-tacular, full of candy, and just a tad bit spooky.

Jabba wanted to share his Hallooween costume with you all that he is wearing TRICK-OR-TREATING tonight.  He saw this costume and went 'batty for it'.

Happy Halloween everyone and HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY to my sister Laura.