Monday, July 9, 2007

Blessing Finley and Mark’s Birthday, Whew! It Was Quite a Day!

We had quite a crazy weekend, and a happily busy one at that, packed to the gills with fun and entertainment. We blessed F on Saturday morning, and then had a luncheon right afterwards. It was so much fun, and turned out so wonderfully, I am so thankful for everyones help, it all went so smoothly. And I am so thrilled that both of my grandmothers got to be there as well as my Auntie Patti to see F blessed, it made it all the more memorable for me. (D was there for just the blessing, and gave a lovely opening prayer, but had to leave before we served the food) F looked so handsome and sweet for his big day, and to complete his outifit I was able to finish making his special bonnet out of a vintage Irish linen handkerchief. It’s meant to be worn as a bonnet, and then once you remove the stitching it turns back into a hanky and you can give it to your son for his future wife to carry on her wedding day (or daughter to carry on hers if you do this for a baby girl), and then it can be remade into a bonnet again for their own babies. So fun! The hanky I bought had drawnwork on it, and my Granny told me that she had learned how to do drawnwork as a very young girl growing up in Ireland, and if I ever wanted to learn she would be more than happy to teach me (there is no question I will be taking her up on this offer). Anyways, after the blessing, the girls (my sister, mom, grandma, auntie and myself) all went to the D.I. for some fun scavenging, and I came away with two bags of awesome finds. Then I went home so Craig could leave to go motorbiking, and everyone else left for town to get ready for Mark’s birthday party that night.
The theme for Mark’s birthday party was “Arrested Development”, and Mel did an awesome job of making things tie in (I for one loved all of the signs and that everything was “Alliance Approved”), and it was made very well known that “Family Love Marky”. The birthday party was incredibly fun, and we all agreed that the magician was very entertaining and pretty funny. I know my favorite part was when he juggled fire, it was awesome! We loved it when A was called to come up and be a part of the act, he was so funny, but we all laughed really hard when Gary was called upon to come up and participate in a card trick. I know he was hating it, but he was an incredibly good sport, and even looked like he was having a good time. Afterwards, the “Arrested Development trivia game”, which Mark won hands down, had us all laughing, and then we had “Marky Trivia”, which was also hilarious (although references to D.G.&L. were lost on some people). And there was a slip and slide set up for the kids (or adults if they were gutsy/brave enough), and it was a HUGE success, and everyone from W and G-bee on up was taking turns going down and getting wet. The “Points Auction” Melly had was a great idea too. I won a pair of “Alliance Approved” handcuffs, and C got “Mother’s ‘R’ Horn”. (I am still laughing about “Gene Parmesans eyebrow disguises”, did Ryan trade them to Gary after all? and who ended up with the hook?) Anyways, Marky got to open up all of his fun gifts, and then we cleaned up, loaded up the car and headed home. It had been a very long, exciting, fun filled day for all of us, and we all collpsed into bed exhausted but in a very good and happy way.
Thankyou so much to everyone for helping us make F’s day so special and memorable for his blessing and so much fun. And Marky we are so glad we could be there for your birthday party, Melly you planned a super fun one, we all loved it! The kids are still talking about it, and playing with their magic kits, you did an awesome job!