John's Surprise B-day Party
Yes, it was a surprise months in the making. There were actually two surprises, but one has yet to come to fruition. My mom, dad and the girls and I reserved a flight on a hot air balloon for John's 40th the morning of a surprise party at a great local restaurant with awesome outdoor seating overlooking a lake. Me, with my pregnant brain, completely forgot to tell John that he needed to take the whole day off for his birthday festivities so John had to wheel and deal with employees to re-arrange his schedule, all for naught since weather did not cooperate for the balloon ride. We've tried several times since, but anyone in NE knows we've been pretty gypped here weather wise for the last month or so. Anyway, I managed to convince John that this balloon surprise was really all I had in my back pocket for him with the exception of arranging a sleep over for the girls and reservations for dinner. When we got there, so many of Johns friends were able to attend and I think he was genuinely surprised by the get together. Friends from college, new friends, family all made it a great great night. I had a shirt made up, we had a cake with "Lordy Lordy John is 40!" on it and I even made up favors for the guests, little tins with mints that had a picture of John on them (around 9 years old maybe?) and "40 and handsome as ever!" written on them. John had such a blast and I'm just hoping we can get his flight in before this baby boy arrives! We are trying again this Sunday, so we'll see.
Father's DayNext was Father's day which was so nice, as always. I helped the girls make t-shirts that said "Loretta/Caroline is Daddy's Girl" on them and they wore them for both his birthday and Father's day. Mom and Dad T invited us to lunch at a golf course which was lovely and has become a tradition. Ed and the kids and Ana, Hooman and Aryana we also there. We seem to be the only ones there each year with the exception of a couple of golfers who idle up to the bar so we pretty much have the place to ourselves. I neglected to bring my camera that day so I don't have pictures of everyone at lunch, but here is one of the girls in their t-shirts:
Happy Birthday Caroline!!!
I can't believe our little girl is two years old! She is such a riot, really funny and I can tell she takes after her uncle Paul and Chris because the girl already has a quick wit and loves to make people laugh. I made my first true tiered cake complete with dowels to support the extra weight and a cake board under the top layer so I could separate and server more easily. I'm really happy with how it turned out but I had made a cool 3D fondant butterfly to stick on the top but with all of the rain and humidity it never dried out enough. Speaking of rain, we had hoped to have a backyard party complete with kiddie pool and sprinkler but the weather did not cooperate, yet again, and it ended up being a cooler, misty, driveway party. But all the kids had a great time riding trikes or pushing bikes, doing chalk and getting tattoos. By lunch we were able to move to the back yard where we did "kanada" pinata fun and cake. Some kids took turns hitting the wiffle ball and our little left batter Loretta can really kill it! Caroline loved standing in line and taking turns along with her friends and when it came time for cake and singing she sang the entire birthday song to herself right along with us. After the kids went home and a little rest we opened her gifts and she barely got past her first doll gift from Grandma. The girl LOVES her baby dolls and for the first few days wouldn't bathe without her baby doll coming into the bathroom to be near and every time she ate her baby doll was in her carrier right next to her. She's such a lovey dovey and not just with her dolls. She is my Snuggle Bunny and every morning she wants to lay with me and wrap her little arms around my neck and just gives the best head hugs which last forever. I love every second of it!
Ok before i sign off - a couple of Lorettaisms:
Loretta telling her friends that her Daddy works at a restaurant called "John" Harvard's because everyone there likes him sooooo much.
An ambulance goes by with The Rod of Asclepius - Ancient Greek symbol for healing with the snake and staff (yes I had to google that - hooray for wikipedia) and Loretta says (really sympathetically) "oooohhh Maaannnn, I guess somebody's got snakes in their house".
Next steps for the Tarnuzzer Clan
Well, we are ever so lucky that we'll be spending a few days with Ed, Sharon and the kids down on the Cape again this year. The girls absolutely love playing with their cousins and being at the beach. That's at the end of July. The very next week we get to spend a few long overdue days with the Blakes!!!! Yeah!!!! They'll be visiting at the beginning of August for a couple of weeks and we'll get to spend a few days with them at their farm house. I look at pictures of Dev and Alex and I just can't believe how grown up those boys are! And don't even get me started on Izzy. I saw her at 3 months old and now she's 16 months old and wearing the same size clothes as our Caroline! I'm so anxious and excited to spend some quality time with Meg. After that I think we'll pretty much hunker down and await this baby boy's arrival! By then it will only be 3 more weeks at the most!
That's all for now! Hope you and yours are healthy and happy!
