80

Another fun event that we got to celebrate while in Lyons?  Grandma Anne's 80th birthday.

Grandma's actual birthday is Christmas Eve, and we celebrated it like we usually do: dinner at Aunt Laur and Uncle PeeWee's house, followed by presents and then the Christmas Eve service at the Presbyterian church.  Little did she know, her children (my mom and her siblings) had planned a surprise party for her to take place three days after her birthday!

My Uncle Tim told her that he was taking her to lunch at a local restaurant.  Not out of the ordinary, since he and his family were leaving the next day to celebrate a belated Christmas with (his wife) Kelly's family.  We left Grandma Anne's house a little before that, saying that we were headed out to Laur and PeeWee's for some sledding. 

Once we got in the car, we told the girls where we were REALLY going.  Definitely couldn't've told them ahead of time, they would have ruined the surprise!  They were a little bummed that we weren't going sledding, but perked up when they learned that there would be cake at the party (more on that momentarily).

Well, Grandma Anne really was surprised when she arrived for a quiet lunch, only to be greeted by roughly 70 family members and friends, including her almost-ninety-year-old brother, who lives in a nursing home up the road.  After lunch, Uncle Tim gave the party attendees an Anne Blaisdell history lesson, with corrections and additions from the guest of honor here and there. 


The emcee extraordinaire



Some old friends of Grandma's also shared stories about her, and there were some out-of-town friends who couldn't make it, but wrote lovely letters to her, recounting favorite events and wishing her a happy birthday. 



Aunt Lez reading a letter to the guest of honor



Highlights included a great slideshow that ran throughout the party and centerpieces (seen above) that incorporated many other photos from the past 80 years, as well as the sweet (pun intended) now-and-then cake below. 

Cake

I said there was a story about the cake... What you can't see from this angle are a couple of child-sized finger swipes through the frosting on the left side.  Aunt Lauren saw Amelia do it, and told her that she wasn't supposed to do that.  When she was caught with a fingerful of frosting for the second time, she was reprimanded, resulting in a fit of tears and a trip to the restroom to calm down.  Come to find out, though, another adult at the party (who shall remain nameless) had encouraged her to stick her fingers in the frosting!  When faced with two conflicting directions about frosting, which do you think the four-year-old is going to follow: the one that lets her eat it or the one that doesn't?  Yeah, that's a no-brainer. 

In any case, the party was very well-attended (despite all of the snow) and a complete surprise to Grandma Anne.  Impressive that no one slipped, as it had been in the works for months!

Party planners

Grandma Anne with all of her children

Happy 80th birthday, Grandma!  We were so happy we could be there to celebrate it with you.