An Ikea Birthday...

This past Sunday we went up to the Twin Cities to celebrate Diane's birthday. We met at Ikea and then went to Molly & Chris' place to celebrate. Grant made the chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes. Anne took a few photos and passed them on to us (below).

Sammy the executive...
...at home at Ikea...

A man was making balloons for the kids at Ikea...
...Sammy of course asked for a white horse...
...unfortunately the balloon popped...
...all that was left was the head...
...so we left the horse's head on a bed display at Ikea...

Maker of chocolate cake of all chocolate cakes...
...Grant puts finishing touches on the cake...

The birthday girl and her cake...

I'll have a uke Christmas without you...

We celebrated Christmas with Paul's family in the Twin Cities the day after Brian & Vanessa's New Years Day wedding. Sammy had a fun time with the family.

The theme for this year's Christmas turned out to be ukuleles. After Michele bought Paul a ukulele, we thought about it and figured it would be a fun gift for other family members. We found a maker of affordable ukuleles which has them painted in various colors (Mahalo). The strings which come with them are pretty bad, so you need to replace them with better strings.

Some of the painted ukuleles available...

Chris has a friend in Woody...

We video-conferenced-in Anne's grandson Tommy...
Grant, Chris, and Brian provided necessary technical support...

Opening their ukuleles...
Chris (orange ukulele) and Molly (light powder blue ukulele)...

Vanessa with her pink ukulele...

Brian with his yellow ukulele...

Wearing an orange shirt...
...Chris entertains us with his orange ukulele...

Sammy helps with clean up...

Sammy...

Chris shows Sammy how to set up and topple dominoes...

A New Years Wedding...

We started off 2009 with a New Years day wedding of Paul's nephew Brian and Vanessa.

The night before the wedding (New Years Eve), we stayed overnight at the hotel where the wedding was. Paul managed to get Diane a teeny-bit-tipsy on Yukon Jack (a family tradition of sorts).

We are very happy to welcome Vanessa into the family. She is a very nice young lady and she certainly makes Brian happy.

Here are some of the photos we took at the wedding...

Grant helps Brian get ready...

Vanessa and Ashlynn sharing a moment together before the wedding...

Diane, Grant, and the Minneapolis skyline...

Paul's nephew Chris and Molly...

Sammy bits a big bagel...

Brian and Vanessa during the ceremony...

Mr. and Mrs. Brian S...

Surprise Party for Michele...

Last Saturday we gave Michele a surprise birthday party (Paul's sister Diane did most of the planning). We had family and close friends over. We can't say how old Michele is (to protect the innocent)...but we can say it was a milestone birthday. Happy Birthday Michele!

Roses pale in comparison to Michele...

The table & cake...
we had to edit out the numeral candles...

Playing "Cranium Wow", Chris sculpted with clay what looked like a "male appendage"...

Diane tears up with pride over Chris's sculpture...
...then we realized it was an umbilical cord...
...notice Michele's birthday girl head wear...

Molly, Johanna, and the 2oz bottle of Heinz 57 Ketchup...
...Johann promised to take the bottle through airport security....
...to Uruguay...
...and take a photo of her, her mother, and the ketchup...

We had "n" balloons...one for each year of Michele's life...
...so we can't say how many, but one can speculate...

Chris ties up Sammy to the balloons...
...moments before he lifts off the floor...

Sammy loves balloons a lot...
...and a lot of balloons he loves even more...

After some helium escaped from the balloons...
....Sammy touched down...

Ashlynn gives Sammy a hug...

Sammy instructs Ashlynn on how to be a rock star...

Playing Apples to Apples...

Vanessa, Brian, Jaime, Molly, and Chris...

Chris...
...the man of 1,000 faces...

Brian gives the camera his serious look...

Chris and Veto...

The case of the missing number...

This past Friday we were hit with a bit of a mystery. You see, Molly (with Sammy's help) made Michele a cookie "cake" for Michele's [redacted] birthday. But something was amiss...it was the case of the missing number (or how to stay young)...

Sammy sees what happened but does not rat out anyone...

Inspecting Molly's work, Chris notices
a number is missing from the cookie "cake"...

Caught...we found out Michele had removed the number from her cake cookie...

Unable to determine Michele's exact age...
...we still lit the cake...

Sammy helps his mommy blow out candles...

But even Sammy's help was not enough to help Michele blow out the candles...
...fearing the smoke alarm would go off, Ashlynn helps out...

Making a cookie "cake" for Mommy...

This past Friday started several days of celebration of momentous event of Michele's [redacted] birthday. Molly made cookies ahead of time and asked Sammy to help her decorate them.

Sammy watches & learns from Molly...

This one looks good for a a taste test...

Sammy loves being where the action is...

Sammy explains his technique to everyone...

Our little cookie monster...

Happy [redacted] birthday Michele!

The February Birthdays Party...

When we were up at Grants we had a big meal and birthday cake. Meatballs and (home-made) spaghetti of course. Desert featured a cake decorated by Sammy himself (with help from Grant & Diane).

The multi-person birthday cake...
...each candle represents 7.76 years...

Anne, Mike, Jayd, Paul, Vanessa, Brian...
...and what's left of dinner...

Chris serving dinner...

Some of the February birthday people blow out candles...

Sammy gets his birthday tickling from Grant, Diane, and Anne...

Vanessa and Brian (he really is smiling)...

Chris and Molly...

Chris and Molly...