Day After Birthday Photos

We decided to not try for the birthday dinner so Dawn brought me a cake and everybody sang. We found a leftover "9" candle and used 6 regular candles. Everyone can tell that means 69, right? And I didn't have to burn the house down lighting them.

We'd just finished up the cake when Tim called from work to tell me my oldest granddaughter (Jim's oldest child) was at the store and could I drop in? I gathered up Rochelle and Rebecca and we went. Elcie was visiting a friend and missed it. Had a great time catching up with Samantha who will be 18 in July and will graduate from high school this year.

I can always keep up with her birthday. She was born one week and two days after Ray and I married and shares a birthday with my brother. She was one of the most beautiful newborns I've ever seen and she's grown into a lovely young woman. She's just as sweet as she is beautiful (I'm a granny so I can say that of course). I don't see enough of her and her two brothers (3 brothers counting little Jonathan). They stay so busy. With summer coming up though, maybe we'll see more of each other. She wants to spend some time with her cousins. I'd like that too.

The girls were thrilled. They've always adored their older cousins. The two boys were at middle school with Elcie but, by the time Rochelle and Rebecca started this year, the youngest, Michael, had moved on to high school. Elcie will be in a different high school so she won't be seeing the boys on campus.

Anyhow, it made for a nice day after birthday surprise.

I'm putting the pictures on last so I don't know how they'll show up. The first one should be the cake with the teddy bear and flowers Dawn's 6 year old daughter, Destiny, bought me with her own allowance. The others are Samantha by herself; Samantha with Rochelle and Rebecca; and Rebecca with our neighbor Dennis (Dawn's brother-in-law), and Ray. I took some other pictures but they didn't turn out. I was having trouble with the flash on a couple and on the other I had the camera too high. Didn't even get the tops of their heads. Meantime, the candles were burning away and melting the frosting so I couldn't keep trying. Oh well.

Well, it took me three tries but the pictures all posted, if not in the order described. I'd better quit while I'm ahead. Update: I just looked at the published version and see those little squares that might mean the pics showed up twice even though I see only one of each. I have no idea what's going on but I'm going to settle for what I have right now.

Thanks for all the comments and have a great weekend everyone.

Update: 8:14 p.m.

I DID IT!! ALL BY MYSELF!!

My picture and email are now on the sidebar. I like the one of Elcie and me in her middle school classroom (about a year ago) so that's what we're going with for now. My hair is much shorter today but not much else has changed.

I may do some rearranging to get my pic and the girls together but this was enough creativity for one night.

Update: Thanks, Angela for doing that for me.

As for the email address, it's not a link but it is correct. When I figure out how to bring up a compose page by clicking on the email address, I'll change it. For the moment, I'm patting myself on the back for not zapping the blog one more time.

Update: Angela can't figure it out either so we'll leave the email address as is. At least it's there.