Still More Celebrating to Go!

What a fun few days we have had! It started early morning in Gainesville when lots of the family gathered to cheer on Harrison and Hudson at their track meet. The kids always spend a week every summer with my brother and sister-in-law and since my brother is still the director of the Alachua County track club, the boys get to participate that week.

 Many ribbons are won and a fun time is had by all!

Saturday was a big birthday in our house...hubby's #70! Yikes!!! How did this happen!??! After I got over the sheer shock of it all, my girls convinced me that this day deserved some special recognition. Even though I know my husband does NOT like being the center of attention, I figured we could squeeze this one through if he thought we would be celebrating daughter #1's birthday as well (just the day before)-which we usually do-and Father's Day for all of the fathers. It wasn't until we put out all of the "Yankee" themed decorations that he began to catch on that this might be for him. Any way, he got over the surprise rather quickly and reveled in the celebration.

I always like to do a little something for all of the fathers and uncles for Father's Day. I knew I would be making my "famous" Famous Amos chocolate peanut butter cup chocolate chip cookies for the party but knew there was a pretty good chance the dads wouldn't get to them before all of the little munchkins did, so I made a little gift bag for each with their own personal "little stash". Then I found this cute chalkboard tag, downloaded and printed it. I tied them all up with twine and I was good to go...thanks again Pinterest!

Even though my house is decorated to overflowing for the 4th, The girls wanted a special theme for the party and since my husband has loved "his" Yankees since he was a little boy, that theme seemed to speak for itself...and, it was pretty easy as he has received so many Yankee mementos over the years. Jennie did up this favor bowl with lots of baseball themed goodies.

And, even though it didn't quite fit the color scheme, this edible bouquet that he received from his sister was a "hit".

Lots of peanuts and popcorn...and Yankee napkins that daughter #2 found online-just perfect!!

My pig joined in the fun. We started the day with LOTS of yummy appetizers and ended with a dinner of ballpark themed goodies: hamburgers and hot dogs in baskets, corn on the cob, tossed salad, macaroni salad, potato salad and baked beans.

The three youngest kids made this banner and some fabulous birthday books while they were up in Gainesville.

My pool is starting to fill up...just the way it should always look!

The birthday boy with his baseball cupcakes made by daughter #3 and really delicious! I might have gone a bit too far by using the relighting candles. Everyone thought it was kind of funny but I should have taken into consideration the age of the recipient...guess he could have passed out hyperventilating-haha.

Always love a "4th of July" photo with all of the grand children. Today we were missing the two oldest-Hannah couldn't get off of work and Caitlin is out in LA seeing the sights and attending UCLA film camp. Both girls did call Papa with lovely birthday greetings, so it kind of made up for how much we missed them!

Papa and two of his girls...the third one says she will take a picture today after she is made up-haha.

So that was our celebration so far. Today is the "real" day so I know there are more exciting plans for that as wellas for the upcoming week as daughter #3 and Liv stay on for a visit. I will keep you up-to-date. Stay tuned.