Our annual visit to Nashville was one for the books as far as weather was concerned. As nice as it was last year in January, it was equally lousy this year with lots of rain and wet weather for early March. But we made it in time for Grandpa’s birthday (March 1) which we celebrated with a small cupcake party in his room the first day in Nashville.

Saturday was a road trip for Grandpa as a wheelchair van gave him a ride out to the cemetery. Again, the weather made things difficult and Grandpa actually slid out of his wheel chair in the van, but he did get to visit his parents graves which was the goal.

Other highlights of the trip include breakfast at Loveless Cafe, dinner with Uncle Bill at Bar B Cutie, Friday night pizza at the hotel, and a trip to Nashville’s most famous toy store.

Sunday morning we met Uncle Bill at Grandpa’s room and said our good byes. Hopefully we won’t be away for a year this time.

Continue reading “Grandpa’s Birthday 2013” →

James gets a surprise in a card from Uncle Ken and Aunt Criss

James was invited to Johnathans Birthday Party which was held at the Zap, sort of an inside carnival with huge inflatables, bumper car rides, laser tag, and plenty of games. James had a blast with his friends who he has not seen since school let out before Christmas.

James favorite game was the “Smelly Feet” game where you shoot a stream of water at smelly feet and if you do it right, the shower comes on at the end. You also receive tickets when you play the games that you can redeem for prizes at the end. 50 tickets get you a sucker. If you get hundreds of thousands of tickets you can get a Wii game so I am betting they hand out more suckers than Wii’s.

Continue reading “Johnathans Birthday Party 2012” →

James worked hard on Dads cake and placed a candle in the center. James is becoming a pretty good cook as he has had a cooking class at school. Things like spreading icing on a cake must have been taught there because he did a pretty good job with Dads cake.

Dad always complains that his birthday is so close to December that he does not get a fair shake on gifts and people would say “this is your birthday AND Christmas gift” when he was a child. Because of that most of Dads gifts are give November 1st which is the day after Halloween when Mom (and James if he is not in school that day) go out and get a bunch of Halloween stuff at discounted rates.

James visited “Pump It Up” after school and met up with some of his classmates at the Beech Daly/Northline location. Inside this facility are giant inflatables that the kids could play on constantly. James had a blast and ran from one giant inflatable to the next. Long sleeves and socks protected the kids from any “rug burns” on the rubber, a very good tip we received in the invitation which I am passing along for anyone who might want to visit this place. They also have a party area for food so you could have an entire birthday party here if you wanted to.

I realize the quality of the pictures is not the best, I believe it was a combination of a poor photographer (Dad), indoor lighting, and kids running constantly at break neck speeds.

Thanks to Stephen and his family for inviting us to this event, everything was paid for and each kid got a bag of goodies when they left.

Continue reading “Stevens Birthday at “Pump it Up” 2011″ →

James and Peg celebrated their Birthdays together for the 6th year in a row at Applebee’s (I think the first two were at Caesars but not sure). Richard joined us this year and picked up the tab. James got a bunch of cool toys, cash, and several Wii Point Cards (These allow him to shop for Wii games without actually using cash or credit cards). Peg gifts included mix and match separates to make 3 plus different outfits (Obviously I am still banned from buying Peg’s Birthday gifts).

Peg bought a couple balloons which you can see in the pictures, they ran about $12 each but were worth it. James got a Curious George balloon because when he leaves for school it is the only show on at that time. He has to record the shows to finish watching them since he has to leave in the middle.

James went home afterward and played with his new items, then we took him out shopping at Walmart and a Halloween store he wanted to visit. He did real well not spending anything which was ok because he could not find anything he really liked and decided to wait till he did.

Continue reading “James and Pegs Birthdays 2011” →

It was truly a toy story 3 birthday celebration for James, his day began by playing his video game early while Mom and Dad secretly decorated the kitchen. Dad and James went to pick up Aunt Peg and Mom went to pick up Grandma and we met at Applebees for lunch. James and Aunt Peg went to Toys R Us where James spent all the money he got from relatives on Toy Story games including another Toy Story Wii game (thanks to all who made this possible). While James was at Toys R Us, Mom put the finishing touches on the kitchen decorations and when James came in he was greeted with a table full of toys, cards, candy and more cash. After sharing some cake with the neighbors, James played with just about everything and toward the end of the night he was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open but kept playing till he fell asleep (His cousin Mark would be proud). We think James enjoyed this birthday more than any others because it was so diversified. Aunt Peg who also celebrated her birthday received several gifts as well including having Happy Birthday sung to her by her sister Criss.

Thanks again to all who made this possible.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday James and Peg 2010” →

Mary had a very interesting and different birthday. She has lost much weight and all her souvenir shirts from past Mackinaw visits no longer fit her, so while we were there we tried to replace most of them. You can see the new souvenir shirts displayed by Mary that she got for her birthday.

When her birthday actually came, James helped decorate the house with balloons (not one did he blow up). We took Mary to her favorite outlet mall in Birch Run, then took a quick trip to Bronners Christmas store in Frankenmuth. It began to rain so we headed back and Mary had one of her favorite meals of all time, barbecued ribs and chicken from the Boneyard restaurant.

Thanks to all who sent cards, gifts, and well wishes.

Continue reading “Mom’s Birthday” →

James has been signing his cards for the last couple years but this is the first card that he ever made up himself. He carefully chose just the right color (red, his favorite) and wrote a happy birthday letter to his Aunt Criss. James waved it in the air to make sure all the ink was dry then posed for a picture with the card. James really enjoys doing things like this, something that his father was never very good at.

So Happy Birthday to Aunt Criss from James, Mary, and Chuck and hopefully we can stop by on our way back from Macinac (hopefully we make it there, not sure now what Peg’s status will be that week).

It should be noted that James does not like talking to people on the phone, don’t know why, he does not talk to anyone on the phone including his parents. When he was 3 he had a phone in his room and he dialed 911 and hung up. The police called to see if everything was ok and if we needed help. Since then James has not had a phone in his room so maybe this is his protest for taking the phone out, lol.

Continue reading “Happy Birthday Aunt Criss 2010” →