Happy 7-0, Mom

A few years ago we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday (and Don's 50th) so as mom's milestone birthday came around, I started planning by contacting everyone to find a date that would work. Her birthday is June 12 (a Monday this year), so June 11 sounded good. 

Mom's birthday is in the summer -- which means we also have the backyard for celebrating. We turned it into a backyard BBQ and invited all the siblings and their children and their significant others, new cousins, and extended family.

Quite a crowd! I used the delay feature on my camera so we could all be in the picture. I started by lining up those 70 and older as of the end of the summer in chairs. Put the kids in the front row, and told everyone else to figure it out. I was actually impressed this worked out.

Silly Faces

We had lots of fun catching up with everyone. 

Mom identified who she wanted to appear as groups in the pictures. It was my task to orchestrate it all happening. In the end, the group I forgot was my mom and dad, but fortunately I caught them eating dinner and snapped a picture.

A few group shots:

The Koetting Side

The Thomas Side

The Ohio Side

The Clark Side

My Parents with their Children

The Extended Koetting Side

My Parents with their Children and Grandchildren

With the Grandchildren

Even Sandy Dragon made an appearance. How many balloons does it take to make a 13 oz. dragon airborne? We'll never know as we gave up at 9.