32 Years Later

 

Happy Birthday Matthew. Remember when we pulled off Interstate 80 on the way to NYC last August?

Here you are last summer in front of your first home in Clarion PA. The house we brought you to from the hospital, 32 years ago.

Of course I didn’t send a card, just like last year!  So this is my birthday wish for you.  A day filled with love!

You sure give all of us a lot of love.  (Matthew’s the one who says about my photographing people, It’s annoying now, but later you’re glad)

Thinking of you today and everyday.

love. Ma

 

 

 

 

 

Maura Clare is 4 on November 17th

Four is a great age to be.

You’ve seen her pop bubble wrap.  Eat cake.  Pose with Murphy the Airedale.  Run with her siblings across the lawn, carrying an Easter basket or a doll, wearing a red hat. Gardening!

It’s been a fast four years!

And the most recent shot below

29, For Real!

 

 

                                                  Happy Birthday Laura Christine.

 On the left, lounging at the beach in Bibione, Italy as a toddler.

Center- A baby blessing/birth stats I cross stitched in 1983.  The town is spelled incorrectly- missing the first C- Eschenbach!

Photo on the right and below as a bride are from 6 months after the wedding in Columbus OH with husband James.

 

Happy Birthday Mark

Love you,  Ma

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Five- A Great Age To Be- Sir John Patrick “Jack”!

Love to you on your birthday Jack.  You make a great knight!

A mom made these knight tunics, helmets and lance and shields for her son's birthday party guests. WOW.

If You Ask Her How Old She’ll Be on her Birthday, She’ll Say “A Hundred!”

The correct answer is THREE! Happy Birthday Maura Clare.

Flower girls photographed by their Pap- Donald Payer. Maura Clare and her big sister Anna.

September 3, 1951

Happy Birthday Marlene!  It’s a special one. I know you will have a very happy day. It is wonderful being grandmothers together. We have much to be grateful for, don’t we? Do you remember the day we met, before Mark and Erika got married?  I remember it like it was just yesterday.  What an exciting time and it has only multiplied over the past decade.         And you share the birthdate with my mother, who would have been 99 today. Oh my.

So another round of cake- vanilla and vanilla buttercream on the front porch.  I am blogging a birthday cake to you cause I have to drive your birthday card around in my car for at least another week or two.  Why can’t I get the cards in the mail?  Thinking of you as you celebrate.  I am right behind you!!!  1-2-3-4 Cake recipe here                                   12:20 AM 9/3/11  p.s.  just got the call that  Mark Erika and the four grandchildren made it to your house just after midnight after 8 hours on the road!  SURPRISE!!  You called and said I GOT YOU!!   What a great birthday present.  I am so happy you were surprised.  

(I mean it would have been nice if someone at work said Happy Birthday or they had a cake for you but having the family surprise you had to be a happy celebration!!)

 

 

Now YOU are Six, Michael!

Now We Are Six

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now                                                                                                                                                                                 for ever and ever.

                                                       – A.A. Milne  1927

Happy Birthday Michael! I remember being home with Anna in Florida, waiting to hear of your arrival

Age of Aquarius

Went to a surprise 40th birthday party Saturday night.  Half chocolate/half vanilla. Potomac Bakery made the cake.  The icing edge was smiley face yellow. Her husband and sister pulled it off and I hope he takes my friend the birthday girl to the new restaurant Andora she thought she was going to try.  I figured it out- I was a freshman in college when Erin was born! If you want to see what was happening in the world on her birthday, check out the Nov 16, 1970 issue of TIME.

Happy 40th Birthday Erin.
Love the challenge of available light photography.

Matthew is 30 Today

It is almost breakfast time in Zagreb.  I’m getting ready for bed.  Thirty years ago, November 20, 1980, 10:10 AM -born in Clarion PA. Almost Thanksgiving.  My mother flew out to help and then my father drove out from Philadelphia and surprised us.  Here is a colored pencil drawing I started with things from Matthew’s childhood. The legal pad and pencil are drawn, not real.  I placed a few photos on top.  It was Matthew’s idea to commemorate birthday and special occasions on the blog. So Happy 30th Birthday Matthew.  Love you and miss you. Ma

Little Green Doggie, Lego, Playmobil, St Nicholas made with a walnut and upside down apple from German Kindergarten.