Weekending- (Turning) Fifty is Nifty!

 ...especially when you're still 49, LOL!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

I can't vouchsafe that actually being fifty is nifty but I can that turning is fifty is nifty when made to feel cherished and loved. Such is what occurred over the weekend.

My sister made the long drive from Canada and got into town Thursday evening.  I hadn't seen her since December. We hung out together Friday morning and then when Alyssa came home from school, we went out to lunch together. Alyssa's school week was odd with regard to the hours she was in school due to standardized testing; it worked out for her to be home by lunchtime so we went out together. We ate at Agave & Rye in Liberty Center.

Yes, we (unashamedly) took photos of our unique tacos!!

Liberty Center is a lifestyle center complete with restaurants, shops and a movie theater. We found a place for some photos and since we had a photographer (Alyssa) we posed for some goofy pictures.

Poor Lissy Lu- she may have thought twice about going to lunch with us if she had known about the post lunch photo shenanigans. She was a good sport, though ;). 

In the afternoon, we did things around the house and in the kitchen to get ready for more family coming into town to celebrate my birthday. My brother John arrived later on Friday. We got pizza for dinner and hung out together.

Saturday, we were going to go on a short hike in the morning but my brother hadn't slept well during the night so we scrapped that plan so he could rest. My sister and I ran errands and then got ready for more family to come to the house. My aunt and two cousins from Michigan came as did my other brother and his wife and one of his daughters. We officially had a party! 

My sister set her alarm for 4:30 AM on Saturday so that she could get decorations up before I woke up (she knows I'm an early riser...). Isn't she the best?? 

She made photo placards and a photo album in addition to the banner. 

My sweet sister!

Besties since the 70's!!

Speaking of sweet, a few days ago, I started getting texts from FedEx saying that I was going to get a delivery on Saturday. I could not think of a thing that I had ordered recently (which kind of had me worried... like, why am I forgetting things like what I ordered??). FedEx delivered the package on Saturday and as it turns out, I had not placed any orders recently. The item delivered was a cookie delivery and it was from the owners of a local business that Donnie and I support. It was a thank you/ Happy Birthday/ please keep doing business with us cookie order. SWEET! We had lots of sweets already planned for the party but these were a welcome (and eaten) addition.

My aunt who came into town is going to be selling her house soon and needs to get rid of things so she brought items and placed them out for us to take. 

Queen of... getting up there in age!!

Me and my sibs

Sibs and cousins

If my hair looks different from the pictures on Friday (when we were outside) to the pictures on Saturday, it's because it was different. My sister cut and colored my hair Friday evening. I dislike just about everything about getting my hair done at the salon- from the small talk with the stylist that social decorum dictates that I make, to the time (seeing the piles of foil that I know are destined to be applied one by one fills me with low grade anxiety), to the expense (I know the stylists put a lot of time into training and to actually doing my hair so I understand why it's expensive. There are just so many more things I'd rather spend that money on!) so when my sister and I get together and she volunteers to do my hair.... I take her up on it with bells on ;).

The kids couldn't make it to the party ;(. Alyssa just started a job and her boss scheduled her to work a shift during the party. She didn't want to ask for it off due to being so new on the job. I told her not to worry about it. She saw all of our guests and that was the main thing. Jacob and Abby were both super busy over the weekend. They came home last weekend for Easter but this weekend was not a good one for them to come home. We will celebrate with the kids later. I was thankful for those who could make it to our house this weekend and did so to help me celebrate!