Gorgeous weather added to the event this year as we had two parties going on, one outside and one inside.

The Halloween setup starts early in the morning as it takes 5 hours to turn on all the props. Then we have to go to Walmart to pick up fresh fruit and ice for the 3 coolers (caffeine, non caffeine, and beer). After the visit to Walmart we go and pick up the cake. The graphic for the cake we made in photoshop and sent to the cake shop about a month earlier so that it would be ready on this date. We then pick up some of the kids who do not drive, then come back home and finish turning everything on.

Its a lot of work but it is a labor of love. We really only host this one party so why not go all out for it.
Continue reading “Halloween Party 2025” →

James turned 22 today and had a busy day as he likes to schedule annual appointments on this day such as his annual physical.

Things got better as he had a birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Austin and his Dad (along with Mom and Dad of course) and then came home for cake and ice cream.

If you look closely at the pictures you can see a little of the Halloween decorations going up as we have begun getting ready for the annual Halloween party.

Great day for James and he did pretty well with his physical as well.
Continue reading “James Birthday 2025” →

Happy Birthday Mom

A real fun birthday celebration for Mom with a great catfish dinner (one of Moms favorites) from Captain Jays. The flowers you see in the pictures were the first time Dad bought colored flowers for Mom as Mom’s birthday is the next day after our anniversary. They make the Roses these beautiful colors by placing them in water with dye and as the flowers take in the water, it causes the flowers to change color.

Great cake, great gifts, and a fun time for Mom.
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The entire family celebrated out 23rd Wedding Anniversary. This year we went to a Polish restaurant in Allen Park and brought James along to enjoy the meal.

Thinking back to our wedding 23 years ago we are reminded that the dreadful events of 9/11 delayed our wedding for a year and even when we did finally get married, the air travel made flying in or out very difficult for people to feel comfortable so we had a very simple ceremony at city hall, not wanting to put our friends and relatives in an awkward position.

Congrats Mom and Dad and hopefully we have 23 more wonderful years together.
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Once again we held a garage sale and once again we sold off Halloween props to help pay for the new ones coming out next month. This means our garage sale has a creepy look to it despite selling many of the standard things you would find at any garage sale.

The garage sale was very successful and most of the Halloween stuff sold so we should have a little bit of a budget for the upcoming Halloween season.

Mom Dad and James took turns watching the tables as it was very hot this year, being close to 90 degrees, fortunately the canvas kept us out of the sun for the most part.
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Its hard to believe it has been 50 years since the little friends graduated from St Alberts. That means its been 58 years since we have known each other.

The reunion was at Ford Lanes and was very well attended with over 20 people attending, about half of the class. The other half were probably too far away to attend or not on Facebook.

This is one of the few posts where most of the pictures were taken by someone else, but Dad did manage to click a few pics off. A great time was had by all and hopefully it won’t be 50 years before seeing some of these childhood friends.
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The annual finale to another great season of VIP Camp came to a conclusion with a party at the local bowling alley. Plenty of games and fun for all the campers and their hosts. James got to do plenty of bowling and this year the parents had a chance to bowl as well if they like. Mom and Dad decided against joining into the bowling as it has been decades since they have.

The competition between the campers and their parents were competitive this year and I think the parents actually even won a race. All attending had a blast and a big thanks to the VIP camp counselors who put on another great show and a great time was had by all!
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Once again the fund raising dinner for VIP camp was at Texas Road House.

What do you do when the power goes out? You make the best of it with a trip around town. This time we went to Big Boys for their breakfast bar for the first time in over a year, then we made our way shopping in Trenton. With the power still off we went through Elizabeth park but even then the power was still off, so finally we made our way to Belle Isle and enjoyed the sights of the island. Eventually while we were on the island the power did come on and so we finished up our day in Detroit and finally went home to a house with power. Luckily we never opened the refrigerator or freezer so all our food was still cool/cold. A very interesting day for sure.
Continue reading “Belle Isle 2025” →

Once again we did not have to leave our block to see a great firework show. We grilled out with the new grill and pretty much took it easy this 3 day weekend.