Father's Day Afternoon

First of all it was not only Father's Day but it was also Alain's (dad) birthday.

We went to Cris' house for a BBQ on Sunday afternoon. It was my family, Cris' family, Sam and his kids, Angel, Rachel, and my parents. The menu was cheeseburgers, hot dogs, brats, pasta salad, chips, bean dip, fruit salad, deviled eggs, corn on cob and for dessert there was rhubarb crisp and ice cream sundaes. It was too much, but it always is and it is always great.

Angel says, I'm getting me some of this before it is gone!

While we were preparing food Lewis and Alain played Boules and Cris cooked at the grill. The kids ran around crazy while the soccer game was on TV. It was a normal Balmanno get together.


After we ate, we cleaned the table off and Alain, Donna, Sam, Lewis, Angel, Cris and I played Rummy. There were so many of us that we played elimination style. We got through Sam being eliminated and then started a second game. Meanwhile the "big" kids were in the basement watching Transformers. The little kids were upstairs watching The Little Mermaid. Marlo and Rachel were milling, washing dishes and talking. About 5 minutes into he second game Marlo and Rachel get dessert out and served Cris, Donna, Alain, and themselves. Little did they know (???) that 6 kids were lying in wait to get their dessert too. So we stopped the game and we served the kids. All 9 of them. For them to eat we had to abandoned the game and move to the front room.



The kids all sang Happy Birthday to Alain. It was funny to watch Donna direct the "choir".

Then they all took turns rapping a birthday greeting. Followed by Cris' rendition of "Happy Birthday Mr. President". Needless to say it was all very entertaining.

When it was time to go grandpa had all of the kids climb onto his lap for a hug. Then I needed a picture. It is a picture with ALL of the grand kids. As always I took a nice on and a crazy one.

*I find that when the kids know they will get to take a crazy picture they are more willing to sit still and smile for a nice one first. My kids have really embraced this. They know I have the expectation of them having at least 1 nice picture and then they can go crazy and do whatever they want in another one. When you have to get a picture with multiple kids it usually does not work in one try. Try this. It works for me!