We've been very careful during these covid times, especially since I got sick in May. We missed a lot of landmark birthdays and have not spent the time together that we normally spend during the summer months.
This past Saturday we decided to celebrate all 11 birthdays (we missed a #47), all together, in as safe a way as possible. It seemed especially important as four of those birthdays were big ones (40, 40, 50 and 16). The families that stayed overnight camped in the back yard and all celebrations were held outside. We have all been careful in our own little bubbles and felt safe spending the day in each others' company. What fun we had! It becomes even more important to us when we know that the kids and many of the adults will be returning to school in two weeks. We feel nervous about what this will look like for our family as the kids and the teachers in our family will expand their bubbles significantly. We do not anticipate another family gathering in the near future.
It was a beautiful sunny day and out came the bocci, ping pong, darts, spike ball, basketball hoop and baseball & tees, and of course the trampoline and new playground set Grampa just built. There was a lot of playing, a lot of laying around, a lot of eating and a lot of laughing. The kids range from 2 - 16 and they all get along so well, bigs helping littles everywhere we looked.
From noon until the last ember died from the fire our yard was filled with all of the people and fun it was meant for. When we bought this small home and large yard, this was exactly how we envisioned it all happening. Our hearts could not have been more full. The fire (and Bailey's) was the perfect ending to a long and happy day. We could hear the giggles in the tents as the kids fought sleep. Stories were told and stories were made. This is what family is all about. We will talk for years to come about the summer of 2020 when we celebrated all of the February - August birthdays in Gramma's and Grampa's back yard.
