The Terrible Catsafterme

I didn’t get to celebrate Ashleigh’s 18th birthday with her on March 21, 2008 because she was busy wrapping up her Myrtle Beach trip with Grandpa Murphy, Mom, Denise, Adam, and Derek. They had taken her out to eat at Damon’s to celebrate the occasion – but she didn’t get a cake. I knew it would be difficult to fit in a birthday party for Ashleigh because she got back from her trip the day before Easter, which fell on Sunday, March 23. The following weekend, I would be leaving for Texas on March 29. And making it even worse was the fact that she was scheduled to work on Friday the 28th. So we decided to just go forward and have a little cake celebration on Thursday, March 27th.

I little dreamt that this would be one of the most astonishing cast of relatives ever assembled under one roof. I sent out a brief email on the Tuesday before inviting all of my aunts and uncles and some of the cousins that would be inclined to come in addition to Ashleigh’s grandparents. I thought that holding it on a Thursday might mean that maybe my Mom could come over and you can always count on Bev and Ed. I figured Ashleigh’s Big Daddy (Christi’s Dad) would come over but her Nana lives in Cincinnati. My Dad of course had to work.

 Ashleigh in Myrtle Beach on her actual March 21 birthday

 Jackie and Mom strategically place fifteen and eighteen candles on the cake

 The cake – courtesy of the Kroger bakery

 Creed and Grace – would you trust them?

The lighting of the fire hazard (which in total contained less candles than mine would!)

As it turns out, Jill called me and told me at the beginning of the week that Briana would be coming down on Thursday, much to my surprise – so I doubled my efforts by including her name in that Tuesday email since she had just celebrated her 15th birthday on March 22. So as the guests began to roll in, it struck me that Ashleigh had a group of people all in one room that she had seldom if ever collected together: her parents, all of her siblings, all of her grandparents, and her only surviving great-grandparent. And to add icing on the cake Vicki came along with Dad, Bev & Ed came over with Grandpa Murphy, Jackie was here with her homemade whipped cream (to literally add more icing on the cake) and Grace, and my cousin Chris came bearing gifts and CDs. Oh yes, and Derek even got off work to come (as my Dad also had).

 Dad and Vicki peruse an old photo album to be used on this site. Vicki was happy to finally receive her Christmas gift from Bill and Dottie which has been on top of my refrigerator since Christmas Eve

 A bird’s-eye-view of the crowd

 Little B messes around

 Notice all of the smoke swirling amidst the hot air

Creed stops by while Ashleigh and Briana open their gifts. I had already given Ashleigh her iPod Transpod. Briana got a Best Buy gift card from me.

I really appreciated everyone’s efforts to come out to wish Ashleigh and Briana a very happy birthday and enjoy some cake, ice cream, snacks, punch, and sody-pop. Naturally, the configuration of people we had gathered for the occasion did not escape me – and I captured photos of some important groupings to Ashleigh.

 Christi’s parents and kids: Bob, Briana, Christi, Creed, Joy, Ashleigh

 Four generations: Grandpa Murphy, Mom, Yaht, and the party host

 All of Ashleigh’s grandparents (arranged oddly I must add)

 Only Denise was missing from our family

 Ashleigh, me, Bree, and Cree

 Jackie and me…cuz we’re sooo cute!

The after-party damage. The Snafu timer on top of the pantry door trim remained for well over a year.

2008 will continue…

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Family Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.