Happy 66th Birthday Mom

Okay, so typically on my mom’s birthday, for many years now, we (a bunch of us) meet up in Los Banos for the “February Birthday’s” that consist of Sunny, last turned 104, Joe, I believe a year or 2 older than my mom, and my mom, who just turned 66. They were all born on February 5th. We eat at Ryan’s Place, which has been a family meeting spot since I was a little kid and would get traded off here to spend the summer with my grandma. She’d take me clothes shopping at JC Penny’s before sending me back home. A memory I will always cherish.

With my grandma having her stroke a few months ago (I’ll post about that soon), things were going to be different this year. Sunny has passed away and Joe had other things going on and couldn’t make the celebration, so me, Jake, the kids, and my parents made the trip down to Visalia for my mom’s birthday so we could all be together to celebrate. While we were there we met up with some friends of ours and she told us about a children’s museum that she takes her kids to. We met up and the kids loved it! I’ve been going to Visalia my whole life and never knew it existed. It’s $4/kid over 3 and every child has to be with an adult who also pays $4. Not bad pricing. You can let the kids roam where they wish. Shyla gave us a short puppet show, loved to play dress up, and even went shopping with a small shopping basket. (Pic shows Shyla and Noah dressed up). Jacob loved to flip the switch to make the train move, and play with balls, and follow his sister around. On Saturday the 5th, Fugazzi’s delivered some awesome Italian food for lunch at Grandma’s for mom’s birthday. Grandma was cleared to come home for a few hours so she could be part of the celebration. The best part of the day, aside from it being mom’s birthday, was the look on my grandmas face when she was told she was getting “real food” for lunch. I guess she’s still having to eat “mush” at the convelescent hospital where she’s at. I don’t know all the details, but I know she’s able to eat “real” food, but for some reason the staff workers won’t let her eat it. She looks up and says, “Oh boy, real food!” She looked like she was in heaven! Beaming and all. It’s just another small thing we all take for granted… “real” food. Well Grandma showed them. She ate everything on her plate. I think she ate until she was in a food coma.

I’m glad, even though circumstances were different than usual, that we were all able to celebrate my mom’s birthday with her! I know she appreciated the effort that we all went through to be together. I love my crazy family!