Well, it was an exciting week for us, if not for Gracie! She turned 3 on Wednesday and had two birthday celebrations! When she woke up on Wednesday, we sang before we got ready for school, and she kept saying it wasn’t her birthday it was Eilis’ birthday. We had Dram and Pop-pop and Nannie come over for a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner with a little birthday cake, and she blew out the candles, all the while insisting it wasn’t her birthday.
On Sunday, I wanted a traditional family dinner. This is probably the last year we’ll be able to have this kind of party, because as she gets older and makes friends, she’ll want friend birthdays. I’m not too well versed on big traditional meals, so I enlisted the help of my stepmom, who enlisted the help of her sister, and we had a little extra help from Buca di Beppo.
The meal was like a Sunday dinner at your Italian Grandmom’s house. We had a big tossed salad, dressed with a homestyle Italian dressing; fried calamari and mozzarella cheese; baked ziti; Italian bread; and all kinds of delicious meats – meatballs, sausage, pork ribs. Everything was delicious, and we all sat around our big new dining room table – which was really comfortable enough for everyone. I had planned to set up an extra table in the Florida room if we needed the space, but we had just the right amount of people for the dining room.
Aunt Joan arrived a little late with a couple of other Sisters, and we heated stuff up and served lunch again when they got here. It’s always so nice when Aunt Joan gets to come to functions, because she is so far away. We were lucky that she had a meeting in the area the day of the party 🙂