Memories.... first birthdays

August 7,2016

Memories.....Ellie's first birthday

Yesterday we celebrated our granddaughter's 1st birthday and what a wonderful
day it was.  I looked at her at one point and thought of all the birthday parties I
gave for our sons and how emotional I was when we celebrated our first grandson's
first birthday.  Our son and wife lived in a small condo and all grandparent were
there with auntie and uncles.  Mom made his cake which was a train.  she asked
Michael what kind of cake and she baked it, what a wonderful memory.  That's about
the time when I realized that time had moved on and we had to take a step back.

I remember when it was my turn to give a birthday party for our first son.  I wanted
to do everything by hand.  All the invitations were hand made for several reasons, one
being money was short but that didn't bother me because I was a homemaker and
its what I wanted to do.  Stamps at that time were four cents which I still needed to watch
money wise.  The party was held of course at grandma Sis's house.  I wanted it to be
at our house but common sense told me that September meant heat and they had a
pool and grandma Sis loved to have people at her house.  Lots of people came which
you always knew they would because at that time family came to all family events.
I also knew there would be a time when we would have birthday parties at our home.

As time has gone by we did enjoy having parties at our homes and boy there was no
shortage of them.  Parties ranged from birthdays, graduations, BBQ's, going away,
or just because we wanted company.  I have to say that all of them are memories
I keep in my memory and heart because all who came to our home were and still
are precious to us.

The one birthday gathering we had this year was for my mother.  You see since I
left home to marry this wonderful man, mom had finished raising my brother and
two sisters and I went on to raise my family of sons.  After the passing of my
step-dad mom who was an old fashion type woman who felt you needed to have a
man in your life to do things for you and talk to.  She eventually lost her second
husband who was a Viet Nam vet.  During their marriage she kind of lost track of
new things that had been invented of you can believe that.
Well she moved into our home and her birthday came around and I thought we
would invite our third son and  his wife for dinner and after surprise mom with a
ice cream cake.  Well that was more of a surprise to us because she didn't know
what an ice cream cake was.  We all laughed and thought how could she not know
what an ice cream cake was.  This is when I realized just how secluded she had
been in her marriage to her second husband.  They only watched stations on TV
that had no commercials, went to the casino's and traveled.  Who would have
known all the things she didn't know were invented.
Well such as life, you learn something new everyday.
Aloha