A Toy Story Birthday

Last Saturday was my great-nephew, Ryan’s, second birthday.  His mom, Heather, threw him a “Toy Story” themed party.  The cake was awesome, and Heather made it herself.  Here is a close-up of it (before the candles were added).  How cute are Buzz Lightyear and Woody laying on the pillows??

Apparently, Ryan was totally primed for some gift-unwrapping action that day because when my mom and dad and I got there we were the first guests to arrive and when we put down the gifts we’d brought, Ryan ran right over and began to tear into them!  Ha ha!!  We decided to let him open one (mine) and it turned out really cool because I got to see him open it and even get a few photos before the house filled with people, kids, confusion and dozens of brightly-wrapped gifts.

Great-grandma Hansen helping Ryan get the truck out of the box:

A little help from great-grandpa to figure out where all the pieces go:

Heather had a nachos bar; popular with both adults and kids:

There were cupcakes in addition to the Toy Story cake: Sucker treats as a party favor for the kiddies:AND, a full beverage “bar!” Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and the party, which was planned to be held in the backyard had to be moved indoors.  Still, the kids had fun with face-painting in the bedroom, clay at the child-size picnic table, a fabric tube to crawl through:and lots of riding toys.  It was bumper-car heaven {except for the adults whose toes were at great risk}!

Ryan got lots of gifts: 

and lots of attention from some of his favorite people . . .

Grandma and great-Grandma Hansen:

Auntie Megan and Great-Grandma Hansen:

Great-auntie Debbie, and Great-Grandpa Hansen:

Auntie KiKi:

Auntie Jessica: 

And a whole houseful of other family and friends! 

Everyone had a great time.  Well done, Heather!  {Um, your grandma and I were wondering, though, how are you gonna top that next year??? LOL!}

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Check, Please! Memories of Me Monday

Today’s Memory Jogger: “Where do you like to eat out, and what do you order?”

Growing up in a family with 5 kids and a stay-at-home mom we didn’t eat out much.  In fact, I really can’t remember a single time we all went to a sit-down type restaurant together until I was in my mid-teens and then my mom, shocked at the unexpectedly high San Francisco prices (we were on a trip and passed through the city), whispered to us kids, “Don’t you dare order anything!”Last weekend, when I mentioned to my mom that I remembered going to a neighborhood A & W Root Beer drive-through for root beer floats she said, “You must have been with your dad.”  My dad loves root beer floats! 

During the years we lived in Minnesota we sometimes went to Dairy Queen for dilly bars – a disk of vanilla ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and adorned with a cute little curly-cue on one side.  And, of course, there was McDonald’s, every kid’s dream dinner.  In 1968, when I was 11, a hamburger at McDonald’s cost 18 cents!  Even in the mid-70’s you could still get a hamburger, fries, and a Coke for less than a dollar.  Sounds great until you take into consideration that minimum wage then was $1.60!One of my FAVORITE restaurants in my early teen years was Bob’s Big Boy:My best friend, Judy, and I were obsessed with going to Bob’s Big Boy – on our own.  We were probably 12 or so when we began doing this.  We’d save up our money and when we had enough we’d go there for lunch on a Saturday.  We always had the Big Boy Combo; Big Boy hamburger (huge, with cheese), fries (tons, dripping with catsup and sparkling with salt), and a chocolate shake (which arrived in a stainless steel .  It was heaven!

(I can’t remember for sure but it seems our combos cost us each around $3.99.  I think!  Do you remember, Judy? I’m pretty sure we waited until we each had $4.00 so that we’d have enough to also cover tax and tip.)

As much as we loved the food, I think what we enjoyed even more was how grown up we felt, dining a a restaurant unaccompanied by adults.  We loved being waited on, giving our orders, having the food delivered piping hot and creamy cold, we even loved leaving the tip.  That grown-up feeling lasted for hours afterwards, too.

It was so worth the 16 hours of babysitting at 25 cents an hour!

FOR NEXT WEEK: “What is your favorite form of travel (plane, car, etc.)?  Describe one vivid memory of a car trip you’ve had, and one vivid memory of a plane trip.”

Snow Days – Memories of Me Monday

{February 1966 – Hopkins, MN}

TODAY’S MEMORY JOGGER: “Did it snow where you lived as a child?  What kinds of things did you do in the snow?”

I grew up in southern California so, no, it didn’t snow there.  However, as I’ve mentioned before, my family spent two years in Minnesota where it most definitely DID snow.

In fact, the snow is the very reason that those two years stand out so sharply in my mind.  And the tornadoes.  We didn’t have either one in our California beach city!

. In the photo, from left to right, Steve, Mike, Denise, and me.  I was nine.  That’s our house in the background.  You can just make out two very dirty cars in the garage (from driving in the snow) and I think that might be baby Lisa peeking out of the living room window.

We kids loved playing in the snow.  We loved “snow days” even more, when the schools were closed and, if it snowed hard enough, so were many companies.  Sometimes my dad got to stay home, too!

We did all the usual snowy things; built snowmen, dug snow forts (although that was discouraged due to the danger of cave-ins), rode disks and sleds down the back hill, I seem to remember ice skating on a pond but I may have either dreamed that, or made it up!  My brother, Mike, did a little skiing, mainly down our back hill.  And of course we had snowball fights!  I don’t remember ever doing any shoveling to clear the walks or driveway; Mike might have, but it was probably mainly my dad.

My dad also made us a toboggan out of a long narrow piece of plywood curved up in the front and, much to my mom’s dismay, he’d pile all of us kids on it, climb on himself, and off we’d go down the hill with no way to steer.   It was AWESOME!!!  {Thx, Dad!}

There was a pond across the street from our house that always froze over in the winter.  This is where I think we may have ice skated.  I know for sure we ran across the ice and slid around on it in our boots.  I also remember standing at the edge of it when it was newly frozen over, with my little brother, Steve.  I told him to try walking on the ice and see if it would hold his weight.  “If it’ll hold you, it’ll hold me,” I told him, “because I’m bigger.”

I’ve always had a talent for backwards logic.

FOR NEXT WEEK: “Where do you like to eat out, and what do you order?”