Ultimate Birthday

October is the month for birthdays around here.  At least it is the month for all the cool people's birthdays.  I had a multiple of five birthday myself and had a big party, it was pretty awesome.  Just because all of the 50 people at the party were actually there to see Grandpa is beside the point.

All of the following photographs were taken by the talented and patient Steve Watson.

 

 This is Ryan's Grandpa.  We celebrated his 80th birthday on October 8th.  He has a large posterity.  He is a great man, everybody loves Grandpa Bateman, me included.  He has a great smile and is so kind and loving.  I am grateful for the fantastic daughter he raised and for the marvelous son she raised.  He is a keeper and I see a lot of Grandpa B in him.

 

5 out of 6 of their children were there and 15 of his 22 grandchildren and 21 (plus two on the way) of his almost 29 great grandchildren were there as well to party with him.

It was a little bit crazy at times.

 But don't worry, there was lots of cake so the kids didn't have to run out of energy.

We loved playing with the out of towners. This is one of our favorite travelers, Aunt Kirsti (Ryan's auntie, she is just a smidge older than us) and her three kids.  She stayed with us a bit and the kids had great fun playing together.  We missed Uncle Brad, he had to stay home in freezing cold Edmonton to work.

 Jeffey is getting too big.  He was supposed to be my little baby.  Last week he went jetting off to Rocky Point with Chris, Heather and Oliver to play at the beach and build Legos.  I actually missed him a lot.  I think I'll post pics of his trip in a bit.

Buggy is growing up too fast as well.  I am sensing a pattern.  She is growing more and more lovely.  Their Primary Program was yesterday and it was her last one.  She is a sweet girl and had a great time taking care of the babies that came to the parties.

 

Pickles is on the soccer team at school (so what if I haven't blogged since school started?).  She is really enjoying being on the team.  She is one of the youngest girls, we are a K-8 school so it is a bit intimidating at times to see her out there with the bigger girls.  But she can run fast (thanks to Ryan).

Wello is too darling.  I've been enjoying helping out in her classroom about once a week, most of the time Alana doesn't know I'm there because I'm making copies or cutting things out in the work room, but it is nice to be on campus and be spotted by the kids occasionally.  I think they like seeing me there.

I love this picture.  Petey has been doing well at school, he is liking being a big kid.  He is still kind of the boss of me, but lately he has taken to apologizing after he shouts at me, "I'm sorry I yelled at you, Mom".  I think he is learning.

  

This one makes me very happy.  These two are trouble, trust me.  But I love them both a whole bunch.

Thank you for letting us celebrate your special day with you Grandpa!