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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Grandma's 90th Birthday party


So last Saturday was my grandmothers 90th birthday party. My mother, neice and I started planning it last January. It took quite a bit of planning due to the fact we had several family members who live so spread out around the U.S.



I had a couple people comment on the picture of my grandmother. Fortunatly my grandmother and her parents before her were very good about marking pictures. All of these older pictures you see have names of everyone in the picture and the date the pictures were taken! Its pretty neat since no one is having to wonder just who is in the picture. My grandmother has tons of pictures also so it was easy to find these pictures. My gift for her for her birthday was a scrapbook with several of these pictures in it for her to display. It has pictures of everyone in her family from her and her sister (who died at 21 of pnemonia) and her 2 younger brothers. In the picture to the left she is the little girl with the big bow in her hair in the front.


Anyway about the party......It went well. I made the scrapbook, my uncle had a painting made from the picture I used as the invitation which was of her and another cousins mother made a quilt using pictures of
my uncle, cousin and her kids now. It turned out pretty well. My cousin lives in San Antonio so I don't see her ofter. Actually the last time I saw her was 2 years ago when my uncle passed away. My other cousin lives in Washington DC as a newspaper writer and I don't see her very often. Actually the 2 of them had never met. This was the first time my
grandmother had seen all 5 of the grandchildren together in one place
and we are all adults and there really are only 5 of us. Its a long story and not something I really know how to explain
why we have never all been in the same place before. See we are an odd family because my grandmother was not a normal lady of her generation. She was married 5 times! Her 3 children are from her first 3 marriages and are each 6 years apart. My grandmother was different and led a very interesting life after growing up with several different kinds of jobs. Not to mention she likes to tell everyone her story about dancing with Johnny Cash and some other adventures with oldies country singers. She was never married to any of them though, unfortunatly....we may be more well off had she! She was a pretty crazy lady though.
Her 3 children all led very different lives. My oldest uncle was an many times awarded pilot in the Navy. He won several medals and awards during his time and eventually became a pilot for a major airline. He passed away 2 years ago from a tumor in his liver that took him within days of being found.
Her second son earned 2 masters degrees in different fields of science. He has multiple sclerosis though now. He was also had one of the first successful open heart surgeries when he was only 5 in 1950!
My mom was her youngest and only girl. She married my dad and they have been married for 34 years and in our family that is a major
accomplishment itself! She has also built herself up from practically having nothing and proved that someone who has a child very young can become something with a lot of determination and perseverance.
Both of her boys had one daughter each and my mom had 3 children 2 girls and 1 boy. My 2 cousins and my brother all share a birthday exactly 3 years apart for each one. How do you do that?! I think its pretty cool! It also makes remembering my cousins birthdays really easy.
From her 5 grandchildren she has 10 grandchildren 3 from my cousin, 4 from me and 3 from my sister ranging in age from 6- 22. To the right is my granmother holding McKenzie when she was 1 week old at Thanksgiving.

My grandma with her 2 surviving children.






Grandma with the 5 of us grandchildren notice the 4 girls....yes my brother has longer hair then all of us girls!



Grandma with 10 great-grandchildren. Funny story when my mom called grandma when my nephew (the oldest) was born and told her she was a great-grandma she thought she was just giving her a compliment! I've always thought that was funny.




Grandma is not afraid to take part in the silly face picture with the great grandkids even though not all of the kids are cooperating. The 22 and 19 year olds think they are to old to make silly faces.



Grandma at her 90th birthday party. She is extremely healthy for a 90 year old lady. She still drives....yes she passed the test! Also she just bought herself a brand new car. She has great vision still and only needs glasses for reading. She only takes a low dose of blood pressure medicine and her doctors are surprised that her bones are as healthy as they are. She has not broken anything since she was young. She asked me what we would do if she lived to be 100 (I'm pretty sure she will) and I told her that was just enough time for us to figure out how to have a 100th birthday celebration. Also notice she still has her redish brown hair? Yeah she does not dye it this lady has very little grey at 90 years old! I hope to take after her that way! Anyway I will be completely shocked if grandma doesn't make it to 100 years old and doesn't end up someday getting on the news for the oldest person. She is to damn healthy and spunky to let anything ever get her down. Also a funny note.....my kids call her Granny Grumps. My dad joked about that once at is stuck!

20 people had something to say:

alissa said...

That is EXACTLY how I hope to be at 90!!!!!

Great story. I really enjoyed reading it.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful posting and terrific photo's of all the families.

Your gran is absolutely marvelous and I bet she can teach the younger generations a few things too.

All credit to her.

frannie said...

34 years is an accomplishment for anyone!

great job on the party and the photos!

happy 90th to Granny Grumps!

Melanie said...

Granny Grumps looks great! If I live to be 90 I sure hope I can have the energy she has. And, I hope I don't have to dye my hair either.

Great pictures!!

Beckie said...

Granny Grumps sounds like one spunky ole gal! Wow, she doesn't have to dye her hair - now that is amazing!!!

Beccy said...

Rock on granny grumps!

It's great reading about your diverse family and seeing all the pictures too.

Kila said...

Wow, she's amazing!

How wonderful that you all got together!

Irene said...

Your grandma seriously rocks! :)

ChrisB said...

You have an amazing grandmother and still driving (I had an uncle who only gave up driving well into his 90's he lived until 103). It was lovely reading about your family and seeing the photos.

Pamela said...

I am dutifully impressed -- with the pictures, the story, and your H.a.w.t grandma.

My hair is more gray than hers!!!

Anonymous said...

I loved all those great pictures, and reading about the party!! Your grandma sounds like a wonderful lady, and the party sounds like it was really special, too!! =)

Scribbit said...

Hope I'm as healthy at 90. She looks pretty darn good.

Steffi said...

Great post and beautiful pictures!90 years is a very good age!Unfortunately is and was in our family nobody in this age...Have a nice birthday party there and many greetings!

Belizegial said...

Good morning Terri

Thanks for your last visit to my blog on my birthday :)

I've always enjoyed coming to your blog and learning more about your family.

Your grandmother is amazing! All that beautiful hair, still driving and her eyesight still going strong. She puts me to shame *lol*

Please convey my best wishes to her on her 90th birthday.

Enid

Anonymous said...

Hi Terri,

What a nice/beautiful post about your grandmother and her family. I loved the photos as well. Your grandmother sounds like she has much grit and gumption! And she passed her driving test and has good eye sight! I can only hope to be in that great shape when I turn 90. If I'm not in that great shape, I will probably wish I had passed on. A funny note. Our church goes to nursing homes a couple times a month to have a little service for the residents during our Sunday School hour and we were in the group that had to go last Sunday. Well, the residents are in all sizes, shapes and form...you know...and this one tiny, tiny lady was strapped to her chair and she was just like a little 2 year old who would not hold still or be quiet and they had to finally put her in her wheel chair and wheeled her over by the nurses station. When our service was over and we were getting ready to leave I noticed that one of the aids were helping her with something and then I heard her say really loud..."OOOOOOHHHHHH, I wish I would just croak!" lol I thought that was soooooo funny, it made all of us giggle who were close enough to hear her. On a more serious note, I think that a lot of people really are miserable in the nursing homes and I just dread coming to that stage in my life, but it may be a reality for some of us one day. I just hope to be more like your grandmother. :)

Anonymous said...

Brown hair at 90? Hmmm..... me thinks she may be tricking you.

What a great lady. I bet she has wonderful stories to share!!!

la bellina mammina said...

What a nice tribute to your grandma!Love the photos.

Molly said...

Wonderful pictures, the scrapbook that you made must be very special.

Jenni said...

Well, this is much better than pictures of your fridge, I'm sure:o) I love looking at old photos. That's so wonderful that they are all marked. Danny's grandma has boxes of old photos, but no one knows exactly who all the people are because they aren't marked. And they're some great photos! Needless to say, his grandmother has been much more careful about marking her own photos.

Wendy said...

I already have grey hair!! So not fair!! Happy Birthdfay to her!! What a fun party!!