Joan on the Road

We always enjoy a family celebration and today was another special one. Naomi, the oldest grandchild, celebrated her 27th. She's still young enough to tell her age :) Here's the Birthday Girl and her little helper, Evan.

We played a lot of music, mostly oldies, and Evan showed off his dancing skills. He loved "We Will Rock You" and really got into the stamping and clapping. Then he threw in a little break dancing and somersaulting. Wonder where he gets all this talent ? :) Thankfully, Uncle Jim captured it all on video!

As daughter Renee said, one thing we do real well is get together and eat :) Jim brought his Asian coleslaw and Thai dressing (which is actually a recipe from daughter Laura). I think everyone had 2 bowls of that. Then Renee and Tom prepared pizza with all kinds of toppings for the Birthday Girl. Tom cooked a couple of the on the Weber Grill, the rest were done in the oven with Pillsbury thin crust. All were delicious!! We really stuffed ourselves.

Then we relaxed around the fire pit on the new deck. It was a lovely coolish evening and the fire was just the right size to warm our toes. After the pizza settled we had the birthday cake ceremony. Evan was so precious singing to his Mommy :) (And we missed you, Jimbo!)

Naomi had requested my Old Fashioned Coconut Cake so yesterday I spent time at Renee's baking and frosting the cake. It turned out a little flat (cooked it too long) but the flavor was great. I do love to bake cakes! Everyone seemed to enjoy it even tho it was a bit "depressed" in the center.

We ended the evening watching the Red Sox go down in defeat to the Tampa Bay Rays. Guess there will be no World Series watching for us.

There are times in these family gatherings when I look around and my heart overflows. How can I be so lucky to have such a nice bunch of kids? Laughing, singing, dancing, joking, teasing....I have to take a deep breath, smile and click a mental picture to capture the moment.