Thursday, April 1, 2010

Celebration of Life--Toast to 10 Years!!

Last Saturday night, we had a surprise "celebration of life" dinner to celebrate my Aunt's 10 years of being in remission and cancer free!! WAHOO! What a thing to celebrate! She was totally shocked! It is a pretty big deal to keep something a secret with all of the chatty girls in our family!! Ha!

In this picture she has just figured out that they are in on it too! Haha.

Still can't believe it. Another part of the surprise was that we have formed "Team Theresa" in her honor for Race for the Cure! We are so excited about that too! Our whole family is walking...including our babies! Well, they will be "strolling for the cure".

My aunt Theresa is such a wonderful person! I am so thankful that we have gotten to spend these 10 years with her...we are learning what a gift that is right now! We have become so close over the past few years and I am so glad that we have had the opportunity to get close! Thank you Lord for healing my Aunt Theresa!!

I just loved this picture. If you had pink you were supposed to wear it...that is why the men are rocking their pink shirts! I think everyone was equally surprised that my dad was there early. Haha. He is notorious for being late!

Making the rounds and saying hi to our sweet Reid!

It was such a fun get together and we got to see so many people that we love. It is great when you get to see everyone for a celebration!! This is Oksana (my dad's wife) and Lilly. I think Lilly kept them entertained!


Reid got lots of attention...and yes, he got out of the stroller. In fact he ended up falling asleep on a friend's lap and slept through part of the party!

Lilly and Reid did so great! We were at the restaurant for over 4 hours--that is like an eternity for small ones!!

Aunt CiCi, Vitor, and Uncle Greg. I wonder what Vitor (my Aunt's foreign exchange student) thought about all of this. He has a great personality so if he was uncomfortable he sure didn't show it.
Uncle Mike, Aunt Theresa, and Rosie. Rosie owns a shop called Sensibly Shic and they are sponsoring Team Theresa! That is such a blessing!!
Aaron, Michael, and my cousin Jaimey (Theresa's son). These three grew up in the same neighborhood and were practically family so it was really nice to catch up with some old friends!
Dad and Oksana
Grandma Odie and her sisters Aunt Pauline and Aunt Vivian. We are also celebrating Aunt Vivian being in remission too!!!
Lilly ran around the restaurant terrorizing the other guests for awhile. We arrived with shoes on but after the 15th time of putting them back on we just gave up!
Lilly had a great time playing with her cousins...including Miss Eva Kate.
I just LOVED how she was standing in this picture. Sooo girly!

Jaimey, Rachel, Eva Kate, and Marshall. This was the only picture out of the 15 I took where they were all looking in the direction of the camera. Ha! That is okay because they are still pretty picture perfect!
Reid and Allison
Jaimey and Michelle (or Chelle-Chelle as we call her--but she would not be happy if she knew I was announcing that to the world). She organized this whole even and just did a FANTASTIC job!! Everything was perfect, everybody had a great time, and it was such a special evening filled with special memories!
Uncle Mike, Michelle, and Aunt Theresa
Us girl cousins: Allison, (Lilly) Me, and Michelle. I LOVE these girls!!
We had quite a turn out! I think the other restaurant guests wished they would've gone somewhere else!! We ended up having way more people than we thought show up so they just kept adding tables.....and my family is not the quietest family ever. Oh well, it was totally worth it!
The cake and invitations...and yes, for the locals, it was Ricks and it was delicious...as Rick's always is!
Marshall was such a doll sneaking the icing--that boy was ready for his cake. I guess I was right beside him waiting to be the first adult with cake. Haha. Cheers to good health--something that I take for granted way too frequently!! We have really realized how blessed we are lately and are on a prayer mission for those who are not in good health!

3 comments:

Todd and Courtney said...

What an AWESOME party!!! A huge congrats to your aunt for 10 successful years. It's amazing how everyone seems to get cancer, it's just a matter of what kind. On a sidenote....I soooooo want some Ricks :)

Anonymous said...

What a great party and occasion to celebrate! I am so thankful your Aunt is doing well and you get to have the blessing of having her as a part of your life!

I think it is so sweet that even the men were pink. I am not a big fan of men in pink but for this occasion I would be!!

The cake was beautiful!
Have a blessed Easter!

The Coleman Family said...

What a great idea! That is such a wonderful accomplishment. I hope that she can celebrate many more decades of being cancer free! Have a great Easter!