Dave's 75th Birthday Party 2016

Dave celebrated his 75th birthday! We've been talking about this one for a long time. Congratulations Dave!

Blowing out his candles with granddaughters Ellen, Lillian and Linny

Yay!

Partygoers enjoying the pond

Being serenaded by the Hyannis Sound acapella group

Yaya gets DOWN

Caroline and Katie having a great time

Ending on a romantic song for Dave and Dolores

Christmas in Cape Cod 2013

This year we celebrated Christmas on the Cape with Kevin's family. We had decorative snow flurries on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The 5 Clous opened a few gifts at Grandma Kathy's in the morning before having a wonderful brunch at Dave and Dolores's house.

Early morning at Grandma Kathy's

Thanking Grandma for his new art set

Opening presents for Itty Bitty

A little pre-brunch dancing with Dolores's granddaughter Lillian

It's really awesome how Dave and Dolores totally take us into their already huge family. We love you guys. There's usually 12 of them, but this year we missed Caroline because she's galavanting around Ireland. So altogether there were 17 of us at brunch!

You wish you were eating this brunch right now.

Linny, Dave, and Dolores

The littlest kids table: Ellen, Beatice, Lillian, and James

We went to Great-grandma Ruth's for the main gift event and dinner. Everyone was there this year: Great-grandma Ruth, Grandma Kathy, Nesie + Steve, Mary, Dickie, Katie, Chris, Kevin + me, Andrew, and James. So 12 of us altogether. It was loud and crazy. Not as loud and crazy as Christmas Eve Chinese dinner at Nesie's, but close.

This is the before picture: Gifts for 12.5 people

   

Dickie handing out presents to Steve and Kathy

Mary, Great-grandma Ruth, and Nesie opening stuff

The cousins opening presents.

This is James's third Christmas and I thought this year might be the first year James kind of gets it. He has a vague sense of Santa as a holiday celebrity, and he likes getting gifts, but he wasn't terribly interested in opening all of his presents. He was happy to open one present and just play with that indefinitely. Kevin and I had to sit on the floor and open for him. He loves everything he got, and a week later he's played with everything many times over, but he doesn't seem to get that all these new toys are a direct consequence of Christmas. In fact, he's mentioned a few times that he prefers Halloween even though he didn't even get candy at Halloween. So basically he likes costumes and spiders better than Christmas (a child after his mother's heart I suppose).

Chaos- James focused on the first toy he opened.

The 3.5 Clous of Long Island! Super excited to be 4 Clous next Christmas.

Ellen's 6th Birthday 2013

Oh my gosh, how did Ellen get to be 6 already? I met her in the summer of 2008, when she was just 11 months old or so. By the time James was born, Ellen was around all the time trying to help with him. She has been one of his first and biggest fans. And now they play together! It's crazy.

James playing the drum for Ellen

Ellen's cousin Lillian was there too, and she's already 4. I see her less often because she's a visitor to the Cape like James is and they're often passing ships in the night, but this time they had a lot of time to play. It's really nice to see two super smart young girls like Ellen and Lillian interact. They seem like sisters. Of course, their awesomeness is due largely to their parents and grandparents. Lillian's mother Monica is teaching her French (with greater success than James and I have achieved at Spanish) and when the girls struggled to decide who's turn it was with the drum, Ellen's very wise mother told them to work it out on their own. And moments later they were passing the drum back and forth like they had invented the concept of sharing themselves. And singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight!"

Lillian claps to the beat of Ellen's drum

Lillian's turn

We had some delicious appetizers, and I enjoyed Monica's white sangria maybe a little too much. I would have liked to sit and chat more, but Kevin and chased James for a portion of the party getting him to eat little bits of appetizer as his dinner. Also, I was taking all these pictures. Obviously.

Hanging out with the grown ups

James petting Ellen's family dog, Sarah. Behind James is Ellen's sister Linny.

Ellen's grandfather Dave and his sister

Ellen's dad Mark and his mother

Ellen and Lillian's grandmother Dolores asking them to please stop singing 

"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for the millionth time

Spying on the presents while the adults are distracted

Ellen and James spent some quality time on Saturday morning too before we left town. She taught him how to make some funny faces, and he generally copied everything she did. They also did a little swimming together. I always call Ellen his "best friend" because he's seen Ellen more and spent more time with her than with any other kid. After all, Ellen met James when he was just a month old, and this is the 15th time we've been up to the Cape since then!

Ellen making a funny face

James copying the funny face

Look how cute Ellen was on her 3rd birthday. And this was when I met her:

Ellen at a year old with Grandma Dolores "Yaya"