Birthday Party Day - April 17, 2015

I started off my day by checking the lilacs, and I have my first picking!  Placed right next to my computer, life is good.

I was up early and got 2 loads of laundry started before the house began awakening, except Jim, who is an early bird like me. Paul was up and gone even before I got up, on his way to Indianapolis to pick up his wife and daughter. Joe, Cathy, Jim and Joy headed to town for breakfast, but I had a mission of my own this morning, I wanted to get down to Princeton to visit my families' graves, and I am meeting Barbara at the Decker Chapel Community Center to help decorate for tomorrow night's Decker Chapel Alumni.

Maple Hill Cemetery is not being kept up very well, the roads through the cemetery are full of potholes, and it doesn't look like they have mowed here yet this spring, although we have had a lot of rain and it just might not be dry enough.  I never have any gardening tools with me, so I just add my little bouquets to the headstones.  My first stop was my mother's grave, followed by my father's.

I also made stops at my grandparents' graves, an aunt, a great uncle, and my sister that was born dead. 

From there I headed to Decker Chapel and spent a couple hours visiting and decorating, putting tablecloths on tables, etc. The Alumni president had received photos from some of the alumni and I came up with the idea of putting them into a scrapbook-sized 3-ring binder.  I happened to have one in the car with me, but I decided to run into town to see if I could find a red one.  Also, I had come up with an idea for an auction donation, so I needed some supplies for that.  After a stop at JoAnn's Fabrics, and Walmart of course, I got back to the house just as the birthday party got underway.

 I didn't try to count the attendees, but we had a house/carport full, with lots of children running around.  We had Bobe's pizza and salad, then Lucille blew out the candles and we cut the birthday cake.

 

She had to blow out the candles several times for pictures, so it was good that we only had two candles instead of 99.

It was a lively evening, lots of family and extended family around.  She got several gifts, including boxes of chocolates that she wasn't inclined to share.  But she loves entertaining her family and friends, so it was a good party.

 I went out to the RV to work on the the scrapbook for the Alumni photos as well as my auction donation -- a picture of the Decker Chapel emblem from my sister's 1962 class jacket.  I framed it and it really turned out looking very realistic (I forgot to take a picture of the finished product).  But during that process, I managed to drop the glass in the picture frame, so I couldn't finish it.  The red background in this photo is the actual scrapbook album I used for the Alumni pictures.  I had expert help from Joe Myers.  It's a real perk to have talented family around, as wel as computer geeks. 

 
I know I bought the last one of these picture frames in Walmart, and Vincennes does not have many options for shopping.  Joe suggested we drive back to Princeton in the morning to see if we could get another picture frame like the one I bought today.  So I wasn't able to get my project finished, and another trip is on tomorrow's agenda.

I invited Carmen out to see our RV, even though I had left everything in a mess from all my creative processes.  Eventually, Tom joined us, then Mike, and then William, so we ended up with a camper full of people.  It was a late night, but a good birthday!