celebrating 50 years

Setting: Manitou Grill in White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Characters: Bud, Betty, Rodger, Shirley, Mary Ann, Bruce, Julie, Dionne, Brad, Karen, Anders, Emma, Katie,Osten, Ibby, Mike, Joe, Henry, Dehlia, Brent, Molly, Siri, Ivan, Ike, Nate, Kimberly, Natalie and Micah

Our family drove to the event center and starting setting up our decorations at about 3pm yesterday--it tooks us a lot less time than we normally take so we went downstairs into the restaurant and had some beverages and waited for the rest to arrive.

Ibby's family arrived first. There was a small park across the street where we had seen wedding parties taking photos so Henry, Katie, Osten and I went to scope it out.

then we saw the celebrants van pull up so we went to greet them

and back up to the reception area to greet the rest of the guests. Katie spent time taking some photos of people.

      

above: Natalie, Nate, Bud, Betty, Mary Ann, Bruce, Rodger, Ivan, Micah, Ibby and Mike

Then Brad did a little speech and a toast and then Brent did a prayer and we ate really delicious food. Salad, buns, grilled vegetables, roasted potatoes, pot roast, chicken with mushrooms and a truly yummy cake from local business Three Schweet Sisters. People ordered drinks of their choice and I had a cup of coffee with my cake.

The kids enjoyed a fair amount of space outside the celebration room and played while adults conversed in the party area. There was a photo mat for people to sign, some photos on display, a movie with family photos throughout the years scrolling on a computer screen, lovely centerpieces from Bruce and Julie, some lovely accent bouquets from Ibby and Mike, some huge golden balloons with a 5 and a 0 for photo ops.

I took some family photos:

The hostess offered to take a large family photo of the whole crew

then we went back into the party room and Bud thanked us all for attending and then we went on our way where Katie snapped one last photo