Celebrating 90!

My Grandpa Louie turned 90 in September, and the whole family gathered, along with friends, to celebrate.

Here's Grandpa about to tell a story.

I don't remember what the story was, but I'm sure it was a good one.  They're all good ones by the time you get to be 90!

We made it easy on him, of course, with the "90" candles.

Still....don't you wonder what ninety individual candles would look like?  My kids would have been happy to undertake the lighting process.  I just can't quite remember whether the small town where he lives has a fire station.  You would want a fire station nearby if my kids were in charge of lighting 90 candles!

Of course, there was that one wedding....

oh my, that's another story....

My sister Alyse is wondering just how many glasses of banana punch Tim has had!  (We don't make it with anything stronger than sugar...but let me tell you...there's a lot of that in there!  You have to heat the stuff up just to get it to absorb all the sugar!)

We were pretty pumped up...or hyped up...having been in Minnesota for the boys' first varsity football game the night before and then having gotten up predawn in order to get to the 90th birthday party.  But we knew it would be worth it, and it was!

Here's my sweet little neice Adeline, with Grandpa's flower garden in the background.  So sweet....so calm....

Oh...and here's my child....

This is not a blood transfusion at the kitchen table!!!

Although I'm sure by the time we all left he could have used one!

Lily packed the red pail you see in front of Grandpa with an assortment of gifts--one of which was a tattoo, being lovingly administered here by my lovely aunt.

 "Does he like it?  Does he like it?"

 "You do like tattoos don't  you Great-Grandpa?

It was just a little bit important to her.

He knew.

I don't know if he's always known when things were important to little ones, but I have a sneaky feeling he has.

I know this because of Timmy.  It's genetic you see.

Unfortunately, the tattoo was unsuccessful.

But that just made the "silly band" all that much more important!

I wonder how many men in their 9th decade wear silly bands.

One at least.  Now.

At least until we left. 

Lily and Ally:  "Oh yeah...we scored!  That silly band looks GREAT on him!"



A Red Lobster card and jellies from just about everyone just to round things out.  You see before you a patient man....and a much loved one as well.  Happy Birthday Grandpa!