An Extravaganza For Evie As We Celebrate Her 70th Birthday

Husbands and Wives, Sons and Daughters

Tom, Mary, Nick and Marlena

Party City With Granny and Grandchildren

It's 6:20 and I have been up for a half an hour, another rouge sky, little wind, a chilly 61º, at least it felt that way when I walked outside.  It feels strange to be alone for a bit, especially with fourteen people still asleep upstairs, soon to wake. want coffee and breakfast, ready for the day.  It is a sad day, however, as Tom and family leave for home, after a wonderful week at the lake.  We will all miss them.

Yesterday as the title suggests was Evie's day, as the kids planned all the meals, the gifts, the day so all she needed to do was enjoy her grandchildren.  The day started with Beth making a blue berry coffee cake for everyone, moist and filled with lots of blueberries.  Rami rode off early, on his bike, to circle the lake.  The girls hung out early, the kids started prepping for lunch and dinner.  Around 11:00, everyone was up so we decided to give Evie her gift from the the three families.  We went outside, and I pulled my car up to the house, knowing that Evie would think we had bought her a new Honda mower.  She opened the door, and to her surprise, found a shopping bag with three wrapped presents. Perhaps you have to know Evie to get the joke, as she loves to cut the lawn.  We went inside, and she open what turned out to be a Sonos Sound system, two speakers and a bridge.  If you are unfamiliar with it, it's an amazing sound system, controlled by either our computers or iPads, which allows you to play your record library, Sirius Radio, Pandora, and any station we want, all managed while sitting on a couch.  The sound from the two small speakers is also amazing.  What a great gift and Evie will enjoy it as she listens to music and the radio all day long.

Nick Cutting The Wake

Pretty in Pink

Marlena Bright Eyes

Nick Painting Rocks

"Ken and Barbie"

Tom, the boys and I then went off to rent a wake board for the day, while Rami set up the Sonos system, taking about a half an hour to get all the passwords and music stations set up.  Chautauqua Marina had one wake board left, fortunately.  On the way back, we stopped at the Lighthouse for seven pounds of thinly sliced Delmonico steaks, which we marinade with home made teriyaki sauce, then grill quickly over a fire, a favorite from our days living in Honolulu, Hawaii, back in the 1960's, what seems just yesterday but is really ages ago.  When we got home, Jill was making twice baked potatoes, Beth was getting sloppy joes ready for lunch, and Drew had taken the girls out tubing, then swimming, along with Evie, who was enjoying her day (we think) out of the kitchen.

Tubing Girls

Captain Drew and Halle

After lunch, we spent the afternoon, either on the dock, or in the water, wake boarding or tubing, depending on the time.  The girls love tubing, the boys wake boarding, so that was a main focus while the adult children watched or were in the kitchen prepping for dinner.  At 4:30, Tyler returned from Lakewood with a huge plate of sushi from Fuji Sushi Steak House in Lakewood.  That gathered the family once again, outside on the picnic table, and we devoured the sushi along with hankies pankies, Evie's appetizers that were frozen.  Around 5:30, the dreaded picture time arrived, where we get the annual family picture, and family pictures.  This time it went surprisingly well, as their were few complaints, few sour looks, which was great.  The kids must be growing up.  We also took some out on the dock because the light was so perfect, as was the late afternoon.  We were will still stuffed from sushi, so Tom, Mary and I took Nick out wake boarding one last time.  Beth got out the rocks, and most of the grandchildren spent some time painting rocks, another one of our traditions here at the lake, guided my Beth's artistic touch.  We all just relaxed or worked on dinner until about 8:00.  Then Tommy and Drew grilled the teriyaki steaks, the twice baked were cooked, along with some rice, and a caprese salad, and we then ate outside, as the sky darkened, but never rained.  Dinner was so good, everything and believe it or not, not an ounce of the steaks was left, of anything to be honest.  We were hungry obviously.

Prepping Garlic Spinach

Styling 

The Old Smoothies

Around 9:30 we had cake and ice cream and all of us sat in the living room as Evie opened the rest of her presents.  The highlight was a drawing/sketch/painting from Beth, a painted rock made to look like an ice cream cone from Halle, a Scrabble E cushion made by Marisa, some hemp coasters and trivets by Beth, other gifts from the group, a vase, the Sonos of course, and finally, a bottle of Fireball, a cinnamon flavored whiskey, which we immediately opened as served over ice.  It tasted just like Evie's favorite candy, fire balls.  By 11:00, we were all tired from the day though the little girls showed little sign of tiredness...scary since they sleep in our room.  But they settled down by 11:30, and all were in bed but the boys, who stayed up watching a movie, I assume until 1:30.

Happy Birthday Granny

Yum

It's now 7:00 and I a still the only one up.  Tom and Mary and family have to leave by 9:30 to catch their flight from Cleveland so I assume the gang will start waking soon.  I am dying to try Evie's Sonos radio.  It's so cool, as we can have one station playing on one speaker in the kitchen, another station playing on the other speaker in the living room, again, managed by iPads. I just played around with it and have Car Talk on quietly on the speaker sitting next to me, now done by my computer.  I think I will enjoy 'Evie's Gift' as much as her.