MIL’s 80th

We had a family party with some of my mother-in-law’s requests for her 80th birthday.

• P’s sister and family came from Ohio and they (the 5 of them) did special things during the week.
• We had a family dinner out on her birthday with all but Miss K in attendance.  It was fun and a special place.
• She also asked for “birthday cake”. 

After dinner, we took cake to their house complete with candles, a singing candle, 80th candles, and sparkler candles.

For as many photos as I got, I also wish I had gotten a video as she was pleased as can be with her birthday cake and candles.  So happy!  🙂    She sat for several minutes watching the candles and just enjoying her moment.

She was so thankful we were all together for her day.

 

She looked lovely and commented she chose the purple top as “when she is old, she can wear purple”.  We noted that that phrase was for her 50th birthday, we groaned a bit, and then let her enjoy all the purple she wanted.  Some of us aren’t ready for purple yet.  🙂

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Birthday Buddies

My FIL and his best friend have shared a lot throughout their lives.  Their birthdays are only 6 weeks apart and right now we are just between them both turning 80 years old.

So… I talked with the other local daughter-in-law (Kris) and we planned a joint birthday party for them.  Both wives had told me that neither one wanted a party! Well, Kris & I figured we didn’t always have to listen to them anymore.  🙂    I had a wrong number for her so the planning had a late start.

But once I called the center back for rental space, the date that was open worked well for another sibling coming from a few hours away so all was fine.   Phil’s sister wasn’t able to make the long trip and neither was one of the sons from the other family.   We missed them and others asked about them but we totally understood!

I put this in the local paper for advertising.  We also sent invites to their churches.

It is times like this I really wish there were digital cameras back 80 years ago and we had photos of them playing together!

They attended the one-room school near here together.  Their family farms are just 1 mile apart, the way a crow flies.  As adults, they helped each other with farming back & forth.  They were in each other’s weddings.  And then they even had their heart surgeries 6 months apart!  They each needed different help but the buddy was a great chauffeur in those first few weeks of lots of check-ups and therapies.   Now they are walking buddies keeping each other in good health.  They live on the same road so have a system of meeting up and walking together.   Their friendship is quite cute and we thought it fitting that they commiserate over their birthdays together as well!

(We all think it helped the other swallow the party idea, knowing the buddy would be there too!)

I don’t have a number of how many showed up midst cold wind & drizzle but it had the men greeting visitors constantly for the whole 2 hours.  They loved it!!  🙂

(I was busy keeping the food table stocked but got in a bit of visiting as well.   But only this one photo during the party!)

Of course, I’m always happy for another photo of my kids!  K was just home for a bit that day but we all were so thrilled she had come.  And then I was glad to get a family photo by Phil’s cousin.

Read Full Post »

His 80th Birthday

Finally, on the 23rd of December, my father-in-law celebrated his 80th birthday.  I say “finally” as his gift has been done since the very beginning of October and I was finally able to give it to him!  🙂

Meet the Farm Quilt:

The quilt is 52″ x 90″… I know, long & skinny, but so is Grandpa!  This represents an aerial view of the family farm and the way it was planted for the 2011 crop year.  The darkest green fields were corn, medium green were soybeans, some hay, and the gold fields were our wheat fields. The quilt has a lot of story that I’ll share with you next month in another post.

Since this is about FIL’s birthday… here they are as Phil held the quilt up as they started to figure out what it was all about.

 

Later, MIL made him pose by the quilt with the cards he received that had 80th birthday on them.

 

They were pretty quiet during the big reveal but that is sort of what I expected.  They were interested in the story, my award and the guild show where I had entered it, and the whole process of making it.  At one time, he said, “How did you think of this?”  I laughed as it has been stewing in my mind for years to make a farm quilt.

JP stayed a bit longer for cake & ice cream with them but Phil & I came home as I had more cooking to do yet.  It was 9:20 — past their bedtime as well!!   As we left, FIL thanked me again for the quilt and said, “I’m overwhelmed.”

They were here on the 25th for dinner with some family and he brought it along for show & tell.  🙂  I think he is pretty proud of it!

Read Full Post »

Quilted Box for Mom

Back in 2006, I made a quilted box for my mom.  I was inspired by an article in Quilting Arts magazine as well as the book, Embroidered Boxes by Janet Edmonds.

Special thanks to niece-in-law Sarah for being our photographer and sharing the pictures!  🙂

This 5-sided box was my gift for mom for her big birthday that year.  Not that she’d want me telling her age so you can guess, but I’ll give you a hint… she is older than she looks.  😉  We all gathered (4 kids + 4 spouses + 10 grandkids + and 2 great-grands) and spent Saturday afternoon giving her something of us.

My 2 sisters played a duet on harp (Nancy) & violin (Margaret),  Margaret rewrote the words to a song (“Who’s Afraid of The Big, Bad Wolf”) using family memories (I wonder where those words are?) (we tried to sing along but had a hard time midst the laughing tears and the crying tears), and my brother (Bruce) paid for all the food his wife fed us that weekend.  🙂  I gave Mom something I made, as usual. 😉

The 5-sided box fits into the pentagon-shaped base.

The insert is held together with the ribbon at the top and a button knob on the side and allows the 5-sided part to open.

I used timtex (a heavy-weight interfacing) for the middle layer.  It holds its shape but I could sew on it.  The outside of the base is decorated with stitched down ribbon and the outside of the 5 sides is decorated with various fabric pieces.

The inside reveals 5 pockets and each pocket holds an ATC.  (ATC: Artist’s Trading Card – A card the size of a baseball card, normally used for trading.  These are for keeping! 😉 )  I labeled each pocket with the 5 areas of Mom’s life: Child, Bride, Wife, Mom, Grandmother.  Then the coordinating card had a picture and some embellishment.

I have NO idea why this card is so hilariously funny…. but it was! 🙂

Here are some other views from my camera…

You can see the stitching better here.  The pieces are quilted and then edged with various threads/fibers couched to the sides.

Another view of the cards. The bottom of the base has glass bead feet that K made for me.

I had such fun making the cards.  I used a family picture of when she was the youngest (#3 of 4), her wedding picture, a picture Dad took of her that shows off her beautiful auburn hair, a picture of the 4 of us kids (I was about 3 or 4 y/o, I think) in matching outfits mom had made for us girls, and the 10 grandkids in their first pyramid in 1999.

I wish I had a picture of each card!!  On the back I added the important information to go with each picture.  A made up birth announcement, their wedding invitation, I think the ‘wife’ card has something Dad wrote for me, our names & dates, the list of grandkids.

That night after dinner at The Barn, the grandkids made another pyramid!

They are sort of in birth order.  Those poor first-born boys!! K was #5 and the first granddaughter.  🙂

It was a wonderful weekend!! 🙂

And just in case someone wants to point this out to Justin….

JP is now taller than you! He is a good 5′ 8 1/2″ now.  😉

I really want to make another box.  I had an idea for one about 2 years ago but can’t remember now! ha!  Any suggestions of 5 related things?  🙂

Read Full Post »