the tri-birthday throwdown

so, last weekend was not only easter weekend, but saturday was my grandma's, my mother-in-law's and my niece's birthday! since all of my in-laws (7 of 'em) were coming down for easter, i decided it would be fun to have a grammer/klinger celebration of the ladies--a tri-birthday throw down, as i like to call it.

all of our company arrived by late friday night, so saturday was our first real day to spend together. so that i didn't have to stay home all day cooking, i asked the grammer family to each bring a dish to the party. this gave me the freedom to at least try to entertain the klingers. i had a great idea that me and the ladies and kids could go to maymont for the easter festivities while the boys went and visited bryan at work for a tour of the power station.

so, got up early saturday and made waffles and sausage for everyone (now that i'm grown up and married i figured this is the good hostess thing to do), and peeked out the window to this:

the only snow we got that stuck ALL YEAR. in APRIL. the day i am trying to ENTERTAIN PEOPLE OUTSIDE. lovely.

oh well, it was pretty and memorable! we decided to go to maymont anyway. and when we got there, we were greeted with a sign informing us that the festivities were cancelled for the day. nice. like richmonders can't handle the cold?! okay, we can't. but still!

luckily the flowers had already bloomed...

and the animals were still around to entertain. joey seemed to like them and katrina and lisa even got in on the animal feeding action!


the baby lambs were super cute, especially this one who was doing some stunts up on the posts:

we walked around for about 45 minutes but it was freaking COLD and so we didn't dilly-dally much. we went and had lunch at liberty valance in richmond, where neener (my stepmom) used to work, and i must say it was not the liberty valance i remembered. oh well.

got home around 4 and it was time to get ready for the party! unfortunately i suck at remembering to take pictures, so i missed a lot of the action, but here are a few shots from the festivities:

we had lots of yummy food. my fabulous husband partook (along with everyone else).

each of the birthday girls, with their individual birthday cakes. after all, if you're gonna share your birthday, you shouldn't have to share your cake!


birthday cakes were courtesy of lois, my uncle bruce's gal. love them! (love to my aunt elaine and uncle jack, too, who brought tasty treats but who i did not snap a picture of!)


lucky for me everyone gets along really well in these two families. for example, my dad and my dad-in-law:

my mother-in-law and my stepmother:
and then my grandma and my mother-in-law, who kept demanding more and more wine throughout the evening... (yes, i made them drink it in solo cups.)

of course, whenever the grammer family celebrates, there must be jokes between shane and grandma. here, grandma with her birthday card from my cousin shane:

yes, that says "OLD BAG" on it. grandma and shane can't help but pick at each other, and shane is oh-so-proud of himself for this one:


as the party wore down, bryan decided it was time to get down to the business of some poker playing. he even went out and bought felt to cover the dining room table!


now, i wasn't totally with it, but i believe it was lisa that won. congrats!

i must admit to you that my glass was never empty at this party, and as the night wore on, it became apparent that jan (my mother-in-law) and i were the drunkest girls at the party. and because i am a good daughter-in-law, i will not post the evidence.

okay, screw that, it's good stuff!! :)

after everyone left, we were getting ready to head up to bed, but had to stop by the "bar" on the way. we celebrated jan's birthday and a fun party with a toast to the camera:

a swig or two from the bottle:

a couple of groans and not-so-pretty drunk faces (on me anyway):


and then it was time to bed. bryan carried me, gary pushed jan up the stairs. and that was about all i remember of that night. :-D

i wish i could say easter was as great a day as saturday, but unfortunately all of the food i bought to create a masterpiece easter dinner is still in my fridge, as i was massively hungover. all of my guests said it didn't matter, that they'd had a great time saturday evening, so i will just take their word for it! i know i had a great time, that's for sure!