Grandma's & Grandpa's Party

Most every year Grandma and Grandpa invite lots of their friends over to the lake house for a big party (and every year they vow not to do it again). ; ) I think it began this year as an impromptu thing when Grandma found out that the Vedders' newest daughter in law is from Florence. Having them over gave us a great opportunity to talk about that town as a possible place to live, if Brian gets a job there! (And, sure enough, the party ended with me getting the numbers of both Stephanie and her parents! What a great source!) And, of course, there were so many other people there that we know and love as well: Cindy & Frank Downs, Greg & Randa Downs (with their two children), Hayley & Jonathan Downs, The Crumptons, The McCarthas, Alan & Cassie, Uncle Joe, and lots of others that I'm probably missing. ; )
But the highlight of the party for Leia was the boiled peanuts, which she LOVES. : )
And the highlight of the party for Annie was making faces with Mr. Frank (Downs), which she LOVES! : )
And every summer there seems to be something fun & funny to share with "Dr. Bob" (McCartha). One year it was "Dr. Bob has worms" with Leia referring to his fishing lures. ; ) And this year, it was the two of them doing ballet together! : )
Then little Alex Downs came over and was thrilled to see two things: #1 That Leia Rose had a cool model airplane that really flew! and #2 that Annie had on a Super Girl dress! (Alex is really into super heroes!)
Aerin (I forget how to spell her name, but it's an unusual spelling of "Erin") and Annie played with cars together. And it was really funny, both Aerin and the other little ones Annie's age at the other parties were constantly screaming out "MINE!!!" to Annie. Well, that's just not a word that we use in our house, I guess. Anyway, Annie had never heard that word before, and so when another child would grab a toy and yell, "MINE!" Annie would just put on a mean/confused face and yell "AAAHHHH!" right back at them! Ha! (And, um, I had never been more glad that my kids did NOT know that word. Ha!) Really, though, Aerin was a VERY good girl and played very well with Annie.

And in talking to Randa and Greg again, Brian and I could tell that if we just lived closer our families would be GREAT friends. We all just click, you know? Brian and Greg bonded over video games and tivo. Randa and I bonded over kids shows and yoga. Aerin & Annie bonded over cars. Leia and Alex bonded over chalk & airplanes. : )

And right after Dr. Bob's birthday cake (Ha!) the kids got REALLY rowdy jumping on the front couch! Can anyone tell it was time for bed?!?

But did we end the day there?!? Heck no! We were supposed to go out on the McCartha's pontoon boat to watch the lake fireworks on the water, but the wind made it far too rough, . . . so we drove to them instead. Fireworks display #2. ; ) Another really good (and even longer) show! They were a bit further away this time, so we didn't need earplugs. : )