Taco Birthday Party

We are all standing one step
above Matthew to be less short!

A year ago, we started planning for a great big party for last weekend for my Grandma's 102nd birthday. She told us to throw a party - and when Grandma tells you to do something, you listen. When she passed away in November, we were all shocked. And while we knew that the far-flung relatives were not going to come back to Minnesota in May, it didn't feel right to not have a party. She did tell us to, after all. So my cousin Rachel, my sister, and I discussed and decided the party would still happen. It's going to be an annual event. Grandma would like that.

Since that day of the party fell on Cinco de Mayo, we also decided to have tacos. We're not so sure what she would have thought about that. And she did actually get to come ... we haven't done the inurnment yet, so my mom brought her in her fancy pink urn as the guest of honor. To make up for the tacos, Rachel also made a couple pies from scratch - including the crust! She's basically a rockstar! And we could all feel that Grandma was proud (so were our bellies!).

We had six of the nine Minnesota great-grandkids there. Rachel's two girls had commitments and Matthew's littlest is in Virginia with his mom at Air Force training. Matthew and family are in the process of moving to Alaska as Susan is being transferred there. The kids had so much fun playing with Mika and Colton - and they are even sadder that their cousins are moving. The calls to visit Alaska have increased in frequency in the last week.

The kids enjoyed the beautiful day, the four-wheelers, visiting the cows (Quinn was hoping one of the cows would give birth while we were there ... but thankfully, that did not happen), playing with the trucks in the dirt, and seeing their cousins. Jimmy made Dec's day by letting him sit in the bobcat.

It was a lot of driving for one day, and while the DVD player continues to give me fits, the kids were troopers for the long day in the car.  And we had the best time celebrating one of our favorite people.

Jimmy hid from me - but I got the rest of them to smile