The Generosity of MAZ75

Instead of gifts, Mom asked her birthday party guests to bring pet food for her local animal shelter and food bank. We were amazed at everyone's generosity - altogether we collect over 1,000 pounds of dog and cat food plus toys and treats.

I delivered the first set to the Lake County Animal Shelter Monday morning. They were thrilled to have it all. The staff said they sometimes get elementary school age children who forgo their birthday presents and ask their friends for donations for the shelter instead but that it had never happened for a grown-up before, let alone a 75-year-old.

Here it is all unloaded at the shelter, stacked two deep in some places.

Because hungry people have hungry pets, Mom delivered the smaller bags to the food bank later in the week. If you give them larger bags, they break them down into smaller ones to make the food go as far as possible. All these bags (and cans) were 4 pounds or lighter. 

Here it is, filling up her trunk:

A huge thank you to everyone who attended the party and brought a donation. Mom and the animals thank you too!

MAZ75, Mom's Big Birthday Bash

Mom's 75th birthday celebration was a big success. Friends and family came from all over the country (8 states, not including Ohio). One of her friends she's known since kindergarten came from Vancouver, WA and all her biological nieces and nephews made the trip to spend the weekend with her (including from Colorado, California and Maryland).

We had a professional photographer for a few hours - the group shot below is a sneak preview of her work and represents about a third of the guests we saw over the course of the day. When her photos arrive I'll be sure to share some more.

Through research on ancestry.com we reconnected with my long-lost third cousin whose mother, Karen, (Mom's second cousin) turns out to live near my brother and his wife. Karen and Mom are second cousins - they share one set of great grandparents (Mom's grandmother (seen here, here, and here) and her grandfather were brother and sister). The three of us are in this photo with Mom's brother, Ted. 

with Mom and my brothers 

Mom helping sing happy birthday

blowing out the candles

Dad's eldest sister, her oldest son and her grandson

Cornhole tournaments went on until 3am

We rounded out the evening with a big bonfire, s'mores and a singalong. 

Behind the Scenes on Party Day

We were busy Saturday morning getting the final items ready for the party. First, Mom's friend, whose daughter baked the cakes, delivered them. The top was a yellow cake, the bottom "75" chocolate.

When we discovered we didn't have any silverware caddies, we made some out of 6- and 4-pack containers:

We set up the beer and wine tent in a spot that was sure to be shady in the afternoon. As you can see there was some quality control going along with the tapping of the kegs.

Second small tent for water and pop/soda/Cokes. We used the hand truck to haul everything up from the walk-out basement.

Around 11am, we set up the big tent --

-- and then arranged the tables and chairs

It took 2 big ladders and a lot of tape to hang this great sign my sister-in-law and nephews made:

My long-time friend, Maura (I've mentioned her often), helped tremendously with the party, both providing lots of advice and asking great questions during the planning and coming the day of to make sure everything ran smoothly. Her daughter, Christine, greeted all the guests and had them sign the book and make their nametags. 

And her son, Justin, helped with directing traffic and organizing all the parking across Mom's yard and four of her neighbor's lawns. He had some great nametags, but no one was fooled by the one that said "valet" - he'll be 13 in July... too young to drive. :) We are really grateful to Maura and the kids for all their help!!