Kerry Lynn: Great Grandma's 90th Birthday Celebration

Last Sunday we had a surprise celebration for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday. She was really surprised since her birthday isn't until October. Also her two brothers and their families came out from California to celebrate with us. My aunts and uncles wanted to plan the party in the summer so we'd be able to have nice weather. It was a perfect day at Look Park in Florence, MA and it was the first time all 8 of my cousins and I were in the same place since I believe 1997 (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Elena has 11 great-grandchildren (only 3 of which are girls!), 9 grandchildren, and 5 children. She has a fascinating history that I started to document here

Grandma, her brother, and oldest daughter Judy watching a photo movie I made documenting our family's history. Everyone loved it and thought it was wonderful. My dad gave a short but emotional speech before the video that left everyone in tears.

M&J enjoying the cake. It's their favorite part of any party.

Grandma's brothers

In honor of our Spanish heritage we had a pinata (even if it was lightning mcqueen). The kids were all so excited about taking a hack at it. Some kids took turns then it was Jackson's turn. He hit it once or twice then I gave the bat to Maddie so she could take a turn. Jackson went right over to where some other toys were and grabbed a lacrosse stick! He's very resourceful.

The oldest great-grandchild was the one to bring it down. It was fun to watch them all rush to it to see what was inside.

5 Children: Linda, David, Bernie, Bob, Judy

The west coast crew.

9 grandchildren: Tracy, Rick, Jen, Chirs, Mike, Alissa, Sandy, Jim, Me

11 Great-grandchildren: Jack, Hunter, Jacob, Kathryn, Emma, Tyler, Tom, Benjamin, Ben, Jackson, Madison

We had two attempts at this shot of absolutely everybody. I set the timer then ran to my spot. The first one came out the best.

But I had to share this one because on the second run back to my spot I tripped and my shoe fell off. I'm oh so graceful. You can see my shoe on the ground.

My cousin Jim and his family

Jim's sister Sandy and her family. You'd never know they wanted NOTHING to do with sitting near each other. You might have thought I asked the kids to sit in dog poop! It was so funny!

My cousin Rick and his family

My cousin Jen and her family (Hunter is Maddie's fellow red head of the family)

Aunt Judy and her "kids"

My cousin Mike and his fiance Marilyn. Their wedding is in 5 weeks! I can't get over that this was the first time I met her. She's SOOOOO nice and I'm very excited for them.

Uncle Dave and his family

Uncle Dave was kind enough to take a picture with me in it. These are my two baby cousins

Jackson loved Mike's dog Bear. I think Jackson was a little confused by the name though. Everytime I would call him Bear he would say "dog".

On a side note Jackson is in horribly unmatched clothing because half way through the trip out to Florence Jackson decided he was going to spew like the exorcist. It just kept coming out. We had to pull over on the Mass Pike, strip him down and wash him up the best we could. He had to ride the rest of the way in his diaper and with no car seat cover since that was drenched in vomit. When we got there I had to take him to the bathroom and wash his hair in the sink and rinse out the clothes and car seat cover. The only other clothes I brought for him were warm clothes in case it got cold and a bathing suit.