G-Ma and G-Pa 50th Wedding Anniversary (6/14/08)

Saturday marked the 50th Anniversary for Grandma & Grandpa Balsamo's Wedding. It was really neat too since it actually fell ON their anniversary! It was a wonderful party and so nice to meet family I have never met before! Great job Balsamo kids!

Grandpa with an old work buddy! I think this is Jim
Uncle Tom getting every one's attention for his speech
Joey enjoying his lunch poolside
Grandpa taking pictures of his banner
G-Ma & G-Pa in front of their banner
A kiss for the happy couple!

Happy Anniversary Grandma & Grandpa! I love you two very much! It was such a fun day for a party!

Sarah's 25th Birthday (6/13/08)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

We started the evening off at The Village Squire for dinner and then worked our way to Huntley Bowl-Hi for Bowl-a-palooza. Everyone was up there since Modern Day Romeos was playing so it was a good time. Then we all headed to Offie's to finish the night!

Megan, Nina, Mollie & Sarah
I think we were singing to "Friends in Low Places" here
Mollie & Sarah! Notice Mollie has her arm up, LOL!
Me & Moll at Bowl-a-palooza. Why do I look like I've been drinking - I was DD and didn't have a drop... interesting

Some random stranger thinking it's ok to touch Megan... we quickly got rid of him!
Johnny was trying to be a tough guy so just before I took the picture Joey poked him in the stomach and we got a smile!
Dan is trying to grow his hair out for a mohawk (since him and john always have to have the same hairstyle for some reason) but it's still short so he looked like a fish. This is his fish face, LOL!
Denise attacking Pete!
Dusty, Dan & Sarah rocking out to MDR

Denise playing peek-a-boo in our picture - I hate the way I look in this picture but love the Denise snuck in so I had to post it. Pete and Denise
Denise was totally sober - so she wanted to drink from the gun at Offie's. I love that I even got the water dripping from her face!
See, like I said, totally sober! :-)

Love you Denise!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Clumsy the Clown (6/7/08)

Mollie had the girls (M & J) Birthday party a few weekends ago and had asked me to be a clown for the party. Of course I said yes so she got me the costume, balloons, book to learn, and shoes!

Dawn helping me get my make up done! They live across the street from Mollie's backyard neighbors so I went over there to get ready. I would have been lost without you Dawn - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!
Waiting for the rain to stop!
When I first came through the backyard Chase (Mollie's nephew) came running up to me and put his hands on my face like "You are real" and then came in for a big bear hug!

It was so cute and so sweet!
I can't blow up the balloons and have a hard time tying them when I'm not wearing gloves so we blew up a TON of balloons the night before and had them all prepped to make animals!
I can make butterflies, swords, dogs, fish, rockets, hats, and blimps & I even did a bandanna trick and pulled a bunch of bandannas out of my sleeve, LOL!
It was so fun!
My fishy face!
I still can't determine if the kids or adults had more fun with all this. They were laughing so hard the whole time - it was a blast!

Getting ready to make another balloon animal
The birthday girls
I even got Johnny and Mollie up there with me to help Clumsy with a game of "Clumsy Says"
OMG I still can't believe I did this, LOL!
Sword fighting with the kids to kill some time while Mollie was getting the cake ready for singing Happy Birthday

After I was asked to make a clown balloon animal I decided it was time for Clumsy to say goodbye as I go to my "next party"

Only two of the kids knew it was me and they were older and nice enough to not tell anyone and spoil it!
Pip, Kiley, & Taylin being goofy with clown noses!
Jbug!
It was raining a lot of the day so Brooklyn ended up fallin in the mud and was just filthy! She wanted Sarah to pick her up, LOL!
Curt & Mollie

J-Bug testing out her new bubble machine
Momma Pip & Curt
Mollie & Pip
Dan being Dan
Chris, Joey & Pete after a game of bags... why does it look like Joey wet himself?

Great Party Mollie - it was a lot of fun!!!

Kitchen (mostly) COMPLETE!

My apologies for not posting this sooner but it's been so nice having a kitchen I've had no time to take pictures, LOL!

We finally have stuff in the cabinets too... I am no longer running to the basement when I need something and it's SO NICE!
I LOVE my new sink! The cutting board came with it and it's AWESOME! Even has a strainer basket on it! I love everything about this room!
We still have some finishing touches to do (bathroom door, trim on windows and doors, toe kick installation, cover the plumbing chase) but I could care less - I can cook in one room AND, get this, I can do my dishes at MY OWN HOUSE! How cool is that!?!?!
We are still waiting on the counter top for this cabinet but the bread board Grandma Wingate gave me fits perfect over the drawer cabinet so it's a great top for now!
Here's a shot of the counter top up close!

Thanks to all who helped get this project done!!!!!!!