WoodenGirl: Grandpa's Birthday Party

On Saturday family and friends gathered at Dad's house on the lake to celebrate his 80th birthday. Did I just say 80th birthday? Forget any assumptions that you might have about what a person is like at the age of 80. Just toss those assumptions out with the trash. Dad wears 80 years with a zip in his step, and a whistle as he walks kind of energy. He still works every day in his hardware stores, pilots airplanes on Fridays, and earlier in the year went skydiving for the first time. He is as charming and fun and lively as ever. It is inspiring.

At one point during the day I asked Dad to pose for a few photos in his beautiful yard. I'm still trying to learn how to use my camera.

Here is Dad in the glow of 80 candles.

And managing to blow them all out, with a little help from Mitch.

As part of the festivities Sarah arranged a musical tribute. She talked us all into picking out songs and then we rewrote the words so that they were about Dad. She made fabulous songbooks out of our songs so that we could have a big group singalong. It was hilarious. Wet your pants hysterical. It is the kind of party entertainment you get when you have 7 kids, and their partners, and a bunch of grand kids, and lots of friends who like to make fun of you.

This is what Sarah did for the covers of the songbooks. The top right picture is "Francis" at age 15, then below that is "Dad" at about 48, bottom left is "Fuzz" at around 17, and the top left is "Grandpa" taken recently. Sarah made a heap of songbooks, enough that everyone could take one home as a keepsake. I loved that.