Saturday Afternoon, May 19

This party was for Elvin (Cerwin’s brother) and his wife, Patti’s seventieth birthdays.

It was given by their children, Ted, Crystal, and Bryan and held at Jakey and Crystal’s house.

Those who arrived early waited inside one of their two garages or under the canopies because it was a cool drizzly day.

They had originally planned to have people park in their yard, but since it had been raining most of the week and continued on the day of the party, most people were asked to park at a nearby shopping mall. They were shuttled to the house by Ted and Bryan.

I noticed this pretty lily between the house and garage as I looked for photo opportunities. (Crystal asked our daughter Deb and me to photograph the evening. Because we had to leave early, I tried to get some of the early happenings. Deb has the later pictures.)

By the time her parents were supposed to arrive, Crystal was on the phone with her brother – keeping track of their every movement. 🙂

Most of us were asked to “hide” in the new garage until the right moment. Crystal’s husband, Jakey, left was going to open the large garage door so we could surprise them when they got out of the car.

Elvin and Pat were expecting people to be there as they understood that Jakey and Crystal were having a “garage warming” for their new garage.

Patti

Elvin

Both were surprised to discover that the party was for them.

After things settled down a bit, everyone was invited to the kitchen for a large and delicious layout of food.

We said our “happy birthdays and goodbyes” just prior to 2:30 pm, because we had another appointment about two hours away.

Elvin and our son Jeff.

Jeff and Chris also needed to be home early to make preparations for a party they were helping to host the following day. We took them to the shopping mall where they had parked. (We had permission to park at a neighbor’s house because of leaving so early.)

That was a fun party and lots more happened after we left – including a lot of bluegrass music.

Thanks Ted, Crystal, and Bryan for inviting us and honoring your parents.