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| Not the entire Grover fam, but a significant number of us. We asked little Gabe (off to the left) if he wanted to sit up for the picture, but he politely refused. |
The bonus of being in Houston for Mothers' Day is that the Grover family celebrates holidays in
style. After church, everyone gathered at Dave's parents' new house (a house even more spacious for even grander dance-off competitions and grandchildren sleepovers) and ate Poppa Grover's famous chicken cordon bleu, a recipe cleverly modified for mass consumption. Jon made salty caramel ice cream, and my other brothers-in-law made various gourmet salads and other foodstuffs for the party. Moms and "all other adult women" were required to get in the food line first, and no one was allowed to sit next to their children (who always manage to somehow keep moms from eating their own food, one way or another).
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| The post-church party preparations. |
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| Mary being an awesome aunt and winning Hollie over with reading a million books. They are both using their hands to quack like ducks in this picture. |
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| Hollie thought her cousin Harris was hysterical. She took turns favoring/avoiding everyone else, but she always had a smile, a high-five, or a kiss for Harris. |
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| She also pretty consistently favored her Aunt Liz (who really looks more like Hollie's mom than I do, both being blonde bombshells and all). |
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| My nephew Matthew and I both had recent birthdays, so we split a cake to celebrate his 17th and my 31st. Note, also, the insane amount of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake and the various boxes of frozen puffs, chocolate eclairs, cupcakes, and I don't even know what all other desserts were laid out. It was deliciously insane. |
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| Feasting. |
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| Feasting in style. |
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| Blondie-blonde Hollie and her dark-haired mama. |
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| Daddy, Hollie, and Grandma Grover. |
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| This photo deceptively suggests that Hollie knew what she was doing playing baseball with Leena. She did not. |
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| Dave's parents' new house came with a sweet swing set, complete with rock-climbing wall. Hollie couldn't figure out that you have to walk behind the swing set to climb to the top of the slide, so Leena tried to offer her a rope with which to pull her up. Holls didn't figure out how to play that game either. |
It was a bit of an impressive feat to get everyone in the same spot at the same time for a group picture, so here's a scattering selection of preparation pictures while we were waiting for Momma Grover to find Poppa Grover somewhere in the house. It took a while for me to get used to huge family gatherings after marrying David (being from a relatively smaller family with few cousins, etc), but the chaotic love and wild energy has become something I love and look forward to. It was a real pleasure to celebrate Mothers' Day with such beautiful people and fabulous moms.
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| Fighting over who will lie in the front of the picture. |
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| The picture that started this post was the one with Dave; this is the one with me. Maybe I'll get a tripod for Christmas. |
Thing #4: Celebrate Mother's Day with a Huge Grover Party = ACCOMPLISHED.
4 comments:
Okay, I love the kid that wouldn't sit up. It makes the picture epic. There's something so frustrating/amazing that you can't convince a child to do something. That they don't have that embarassment filter yet.
What a party! Sam keeps pointing and yelling "that's JON!!" Anyhow, what an awesome way to celebrate your birthday and mother's day. And while I am writing, we went to the Baltimore Museum of Industry the other day and Andrew said "the smell of this place always makes me nostalgic for the '50s, even though I know I never lived through them..." It had a bunch of old exhibits like those in your Silent Wings post.
James: I know! Something about Gabe refusing to sit up made the picture worth taking, AND it made everyone's smiles more legitimate and less canned because we were all completely amused with his polite "No." as he lay there like a slug.
Rachel: I'm glad you guys know what we mean about being nostalgic for someone else's nostalgia. It's truly bizarre. Also, the Baltimore Museum of Industry? What sort of stuff did they have there? Coal picks? Hay balers? It sounds awesome.
There was a machinist's shop, blacksmith shop, printshop, cloth makers shop, old store, displays on sheet metal and paint, a cannery, a bunch of old signs from Baltimore related manufacturers (like McCormick and Black and Decker), different cars etc.
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