Rick's Family BBQ

another family gathering, another great day! Rick, Bryan, Hiba, Layla, Nancy (Rick's daughter visiting from Truro, Nova Scotia) and her husband Ian and I were invited to Rick's niece's. Rick's sister was there along with his niece Tammy and hubby Brent, along with their four children. His nephew, wife and three kids came too. It was so great to see everyone, some I've not met before. Tammy's husband Brent is such a nice guy and they both have the coolest temperment of any other person I've ever met.

It rained, go figure, on the day we planned the bbq and the pool party! We swam in the rain anyway and had a great time.

Thanks Tammy and Brent, you guys are awesome!

Our Family Reunion

Or the MalFam Reunion as Kasey called it. We were up north last weekend with my family. We were only missing 5 people, 22 attended so that's darn good considering, I guess. My sister arrived from Sidney, BC on Thursday morning, Rick, myself and my sister headed up north to Magnetawan on Saturday morning early, we were up at 5 am. We met my two sons in Mississauga to form our caravan. Shane brought walkie talkies for our vehicles, we had a good time on those during our 4 hour drive, it made the time go by fast and it was tons of fun.

When we arrived at the cottage, we got settled and put up the Caldwell Cottage (the tent trailer). We sat around in a group and played Movie Trivia, I was clearly winning or so I said I was but Hiba was the real winner, she knows so many movie things! Everyone was swimming, playing games or sitting around chatting...it was great.

Some of the highlights over the weekend were a grand spectacular firework show in honour of Rick's 50th birthday and my sister, Budgie's 49th birthday. My sister and I made Lemon cupcakes and we had those on Sunday night around the campfire...we thought those would be better than a cake, easier to bring up and less trouble serving them. We played a Family Trivia game around the campfire on Sunday night too. Prior to going to the cottage I asked everyone to send me a little known fact about themselves. with each fact I mentioned at the campfire, everyone tried to guess who it might be. It was fun and we learned alot of things about each other...just when you thought you knew your own family.

The highlight of Sunday was the Pie Eating Contest! No one knew I was going to do that :-) I set up 6 cream pies around the picnic table, conned my participants and called them to the table where their pie and fork were waiting. Once they all got in position, I said "on your mark, get set.....wait" and I walked around the table and picked up all the forks...those were there just to entice the participants, hands behind your back...and then I said "on your mark, get set.....wait" and I proceeded to cover each pie with about 4" of whip cream...they were hysterical and it was a blast. "On your mark, get set...go!" Mark and Kiearra tied for first place, talk about hoovers! and their faces were a mess! No one was sick :-)

Monday we headed out around 9.30 a.m. while most of the kids left earlier. A long drive home but well worth it. Looking forward to the Mallen party next year.

Bryan created a photo album where we have all uploaded pictures, if you want to see them, send me a note and I'll send you the keys to get in.

Thanks Jimi for all the prep work you did an for hosting such a special weekend. And I was pissed when I remembered I forgot to sign the wall....