Mike's B'day Celebration

Just posting some pics from Mike's family style birthday celebration last night.

Birthday Honoree:

Hors’dourves & Sangria!

Chatting before dinner:

We fired up the grill and grilled BBQ ribs, shrimp,
grilled veggies, corn, beer boiled brats and the rest of the homemade
tater salad from the 4th!

After dinner chat:

GP & Papou & YiaYia & Mita:

Time for Oreo Ice Cream Cake!

Mike opens some gifts:

Saying goodbye - John with the Valet Umbrella!

and Mike suprises John with a hidden party popper.

All in all a very nice evening!

Independence Day 2008

Happy 4th of July! It was a nice celebration here with the boys, their girls (er, women) and Ingrid and me. Grilled chicken & hot dogs, homemade tater salad, a nice garden salad and chips and dip! After dinner John and Jenny headed down to Oldtown Manassas to watch the fireworks display there and the rest of us waited for dark to settle in...wasn't long before the night was filled with the sound of whistling mortars and bottle rockets...so we went out and had a little fireworks show of our own in the backyard until it started raining hard enough to send us back inside to dry off and watch a movie. It was a nice 4th of July.

Happy Birthday Michael! (July 5th)

Nineteen years ago, the excitement of the fireworks (and the fact that Ingrid was nine months pregnant) started the process of Michael's entry into the world. After a fabulous 4th of July meal and watching a neighborhood fireworks display Ingrid said she was feeling a little odd. Pauli and Mom said we oughta head to the hospital because it was Michael's time to be born. So we packed up and headed to the hospital, and try as we might to get the doctor to deliver him on the 4th of July he said "eh...relax and wait" We didn't have to wait long...Michael was delivered at approximately 12:50 a.m. on the 5th of July. Nineteen years has brought him a long way from this:

to this:

to this:

and we are proud of who he has become:

It's been a pleasure to have him home on break from school and we'll miss him when he heads back to Orlando. (I'm guessing Jessica will too!)

Happy Birthday Michael!
We love you!

26 Years "The Iron Anniversary"

26 years ago today, family and friends gathered in a very small and extremely hot chapel (do I remember the vows? vaguely. But I sure do remember how hot it was!) , in Fort Belvoir to witness a young couple (us, duh) join together in marriage. There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout those years and somehow we've managed to hold the bond...which, in a nutshell meant, I gotta come up with an anniversary gift! So I go to the old standby and google "26th anniversary" to find the perfect gift and I get:
"The 26th Wedding Anniversary does not have any traditional materials or Symbols associated with it. This Wedding Anniversary does not have any Flowers associated with it. This Anniversary does not have any Gemstones associated with it."
"Who knew?" So now it's decision time. We decided on Iron...(yes, traditionally the 6th anniversary is when you give iron but I think on our 6th I might have given Ingrid an ironing board) So today it was Iron, and we (who are so up on the new stuff) went and saw Ironman. Good movie, well done. Too bad Robert Downey Jr. wasted much of his life wasted. Hopefully he learned from it. But in any event he did a good job in the lead role.

We also went and had a nice dinner at the Outback - charbroiled ribeye with all the trimmings (and no bloomin' onion! aren'tcha proud?)

And yesterday we had a wonderful dinner at the Mediterranean Breeze in Herndon, a really nice Greek/Mediterranean Restaurant, with my brother in law, Chris, who was in town for a top secret software meeting (I think it had to do with new games for the Wii), our son Mike, who is on a three week break from school and my fantastic Mom and Dad! It's been fun and it's not even the weekend yet!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY INGRID! (I love you)

Shoulda Got Smart

So my son, John calls me the other day and asked if mom and I wanted to go see the new Get Smart movie with Steve Carell in the role of Agent 86.

Being a fan of Steve Carell of course I said sure we would. We all met up at the house and while waiting to head out to the theater we made small talk and chatted about the movie. Turns out John and Jenny had already seen the movie once and really liked it. Thinking I already knew the answer to my question I asked Jenny if she had ever seen the original TV show. Ya know, maybe on TV Land - the one where agent 86 was played by Don Adams. She looked at me and said "No, but my grandmother was telling me about it..."

Nope...wasn't expecting that answer...

Can't wait 'til the I Dream of Jeannie movie comes out...Barbara who???

By the way, I enjoyed the movie!