50th Anniversary Celebration {Part 1}

| Allison

Hello, dears!

This past weekend, Mom’s side of the family came up to our farm to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma’s 50th anniversary! It was AMAAAZING, ahhh! We made so many good memories, had so many fun adventures, and ate so much good food. XD I also took hundreds and hundreds of pictures, obviously. 😀 I got so many pictures that it was hard to pick a small enough amount for this post, but I hope you enjoy this selection of photographs and fun times with family. 🙂

The first night they were here, we had a special anniversary dinner. We laid out our Blue Danube china, fancy silverware, and goblets on gold chargers (a.k.a round placemats). We had a theme of navy, white, green and gold for their golden anniversary. 🙂 (Also blech, the lighting is terrible – sorry!)

! anniversary post (41) dinner

Ahhh, doesn’t it looks so pretty and special? (As you can tell, we don’t do this sort of thing very often. XD) To make it even more special, seven of the older girls (including me) served the food and kept everyone’s glasses filled. It was QUITE chaotic to feed 24 people at once – now I feel more sympathetic to waiters and waitresses. XD

! anniversary post (42) dinner

Mom bought some bouquets which I re-arranged and added greenery to. I think they turned out lovely!

! anniversary post (43) dinner

Mom also found the idea of making place cards by writing on a magnolia leaf. I quite enjoyed lettering those leaves with a metallic Sharpie. 🙂

! anniversary post (44) dinner

We did a bunch of things after supper, like watching a slideshow of old pictures and playing a trivia game about Grandpa and Grandma’s life together. But I’ll just show you one picture, because IT IS HILARIOUS. My uncle and cousin put on a hysterical skit for us of Grandpa going out on his first date. My uncle knelt down and made his arms look like legs, and my cousin got behind him so it looked like her arms were his. It was SO FUNNY to watch, and things got really messy when he tried to shave. :’D

! anniversary post (40) dinner

Two of our Canadian cousins, Abigail and Clara, slept in Megan’s and my bedroom, and the next morning we all got up early(ish) and headed out to the woods to find pango beans! 😀 See, the first day, we explored the woods with them and found these VERY odd green fruits. They were kind of the shape of a small, green potato, had skin like a pear, and looked and smelled like a mango inside, with kidney-bean-like seeds. Since we didn’t know what they were, we dubbed them “pango beans,” a combination of pear, mango, and kidney bean. 😛

! anniversary post (18) pawpaws

We brought a few home and looked them up, and lo and behold, we had discovered pawpaw trees! And the fruit was edible! YAYYYY! We were SUPER excited to try it.

! anniversary post (21) pawpaws

But… it had a very strong, unique flavor and none of us were sure if we liked it or not. We didn’t have enough for everyone to taste, so that’s why we went back the second day. And we got… guess how many? EIGHTY ONE PANGO BEANS.

! anniversary post (22) pawpaws

This is how we served them at breakfast. Aren’t they pretty? They received mixed reviews – some thought they were delicious, and some (mostly kids) thought they were disgusting. XD XD

! anniversary post (19) pawpaws

Later we made smoothies out of the remaining pawpaws by adding peaches and ice cream. They were really good, except for a bitter aftertaste that probably came from adding unripe pawpaws. :[] Oops!

! anniversary post (17) pawpaws

So yeah, that was just one of the adventures we had that weekend! We also had a ton of fun the second day, particularly with lawn games. My uncle set up croquet and Amish Bowling as tournaments and divided people into teams. AHHH IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Especially since we did it together – practically all of us were either watching or playing at once.

! anniversary post (26) croquet

Croquet was probably my favorite, possibly because I was better at it. XD I made it to the top level, but was sadly defeated in the winning game. *sigh* 😛

! anniversary post (30) croquet

HA HA, MEGAN. XD I’m not sure what happened here – maybe she hit Clara’s ball and got two extra turns, or maybe Clara missed her and didn’t. XD Who knows?

! anniversary post (27) croquet

I got so many pictures of people’s expressions – mostly people laughing, because boy did we laugh. XD XD It’s fun to photograph that, isn’t it?

! anniversary post (31) croquet

Oh, here’s a non-laughing one. My uncle said Logan (my brother) and Dad looked like twins, and they kinda did, especially since they accidentally wore the same shirt. XD

! anniversary post (25) croquet

We all sat on the edge of our seats (but not literally) when someone became a blacksnake, which means that he could get someone out by hitting their ball. A couple times we erupted into cheers or groans when a ball hopped over the one they were trying to hit… it wasn’t the smoothest croquet course. 😛 Quite often the balls rolled into the mulch and sometimes far into a bush or under the magnolia tree. XD

! anniversary post (28) croquet

Have you heard of Amish Bowling? I hadn’t either, but it was pretty fun! You play it with two teams of two, and each person has three sticks instead of balls to throw for each round. Your goal is to knock down the four end blocks first, and then the bigger block in the middle – but if you knock over the middle one before the four others, you’re out, kind of like with the 8 ball in billiards.

! anniversary post (29) Amish bowling

It’s a lot harder than you’d think, because the throwing sticks kind of have a mind of their own. Quite often they bounce or flip or jump to the side unexpectedly.

! anniversary post (28) Amish bowling

Hee hee, I love this picture too. Grandma looks so determined. XD

! anniversary post (27) Amish bowling

We had some QUITE dramatic and suspenseful games of Amish Bowling as well. Once Abigail and Megan were on one team, and one of my aunts and cousins were on the other. A&M were definitely winning: all they had left to do was knock down the middle block. They only had two sticks left that round… and they missed. But they thought, oh well, we have six tries next time – SURELY we can get it. BUT YOU GUESSED IT. THEY MISSED ALL SIX TIMES. And what’s more, the other team CAUGHT UP, AND ENDED UP WINNING. BAHAHAHA we were all laughing SO hard, except for Abigail and Megan, who were screeching and/or flopping themselves onto an innocent bystanding bush in their despair. IT. WAS. HILARIOUS.

! anniversary post (26) Amish bowling

Oh, and besides the tournaments, we had a watermelon eating contest! O.o It was… I don’t know how to describe it. Gross? Hilarious? (Nope, I’ve used that word too much already. XD) Extremely difficult? Maybe all of the above.

! anniversary post (29) watermelon

For one thing, WE COULDN’T USE OUR HANDS, and for another, the watermelons were filled with seeds, which upped the difficulty level quite a bit. The winners of the girls’ round just swallowed the seeds. O.o XD NO WONDER THEY WON. (I wasn’t one of the winners, just so you know. 😉 )

! anniversary post (28) watermelon

The second night we had a huge bonfire to celebrate my aunt’s birthday. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, of course, and had a bunch of other delicious food. (My relatives are AMAZING cooks. XD XD) Also, I love how we always have peanut butter with our s’mores with Mom’s side of the family. Have you tried that before?

! anniversary post (17) bonfire

I finally got out my tripod when it got too dark to take good pictures otherwise. Look, light painting with people! XD

! anniversary post (11) bonfire

Ooh yes, the cousins also light painted with glowsticks! It took many attempts (and some photo editing) to get something this readable, but LOOK. Isn’t it neat?

! anniversary post (14) bonfire

Here’s a bonus “abstract art” painting. XD Have you ever tried light painting?

! anniversary post (16) bonfire

Abigail is also into photography and actually has a newer model of my old camera – a Nikon L840, which I highly recommend for more beginner photographers. We took so many pictures together (more on that in Part 2), including these star photos! I AM SO HAPPY – I finally got a couple of good star photos! I love stars. ❤

! anniversary post (10) bonfire

Lastly, I have a few miscellaneous pictures to show you. 😀 I love this one of Grandpa, hee hee! This was during Amish Bowling, although I don’t know what had happened. There were countless laughable moments. XD

! anniversary post (21) miscellaneous

The boys had a rip-roaring time riding around on the four-wheeler (or quad, as our Canadian cousins call it, AHEM). This was about the best one I got, and required a LOT of editing to delete a photobombing van. :[]

! anniversary post (32) miscellaneous

My youngest sister, Carmen, and her best friend/cousin built a beautiful fairy house in the roots of a tree. They’re so cute and play so nicely together. 🙂

! anniversary post (35) miscellaneous

I really like this picture of Carmen!

! anniversary post (30) miscellaneous

And this one of our cousin, too. 😀

! anniversary post (31) miscellaneous

Phew, I guess that’s about it! Well not really, since I took literally hundreds of pictures and it was agonizing to choose only this many. *dramatic sigh* However, I DO have at least two beautiful photoshoots from that weekend to show you guys in another post, so be on the lookout for that!

Before you go, I’d love to hear… which pictures were your favorite? Do you like lawn games? What adventure or contest sounded the most fun to you? And have you ever tried pawpaws?

Thank you so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Thank you all SO much for entering my giveaway! If you haven’t yet, HURRY! The deadline for entering is the 18th. :[] I can’t wait to see who wins, eep!

P. P. S. I was going to post this on Friday, but Hurricane Michael whirled through and brought down a bunch of trees, knocked the power out, and apparently stopped the internet too. -_- I can’t imagine how bad it must be in Florida. Praying for you guys! ❤

68 thoughts on “50th Anniversary Celebration {Part 1}”

  1. OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS POST! Ahh, I can just SENSE the excitement and fun! And oh, the star picture turned out so well! I love it! I also really like the one of your dad and Logan…especially since Logan looks so much like your dad. It’s really neat, almost like the younger version of your dad is standing next to him. Oh, and the tables looked lovely! AND those pawpaws are so neat – I’ve never seen one. ALSO WE NEED TO HAVE A BONFIRE SOMETIME TOGETHER. With organic hot dogs. XD

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    1. AHHH THANK YOU! I am SO glad to hear that, since that’s what I was hoping! Thank youuuuu – I love it too! Ha ha, doesn’t he? XD Thank you and thank you! AHHH YES WE DO. Ahem, but non-organic hot dogs are fine, thank you very much. *nods* XD XD

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  2. Great photos Allison! That looked like a lot of fun!
    My absolute favorite was when Megan might’ve ‘hit Clara’s ball and got two extra turns, or maybe Clara missed her and didn’t’! I laughed so hard 😆

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  3. Ooh, looks like such a fun time! Ugh, that stinks about the hurricane…and the power…
    The watermelon eating contest does look quite um, interesting. XD

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  4. Aw man, I love family get togethers! That looks and sounds like so much fun! Also your house is lovely. 😀 Aw, poor Abigail and Megan 😛 I’d probably be screeching too.
    I have to suggest the watermelon eating contest to my uncle! He does all the crazy ideas when my family meets up. XD

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  5. Looks like so much fun! 🙂 For my grandparent’s fiftieth, I was in the kitchen re-creating their wedding cake the whole time – but it was still so much fun! We surprised them. 😉

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  6. Wow! It sounds like you had such a great time with family! Those memories will last you a lifetime!
    I love all the pictures! That glow stick picture is so neat! Looks like you all had lots of fun! 🙂
    -Brooklyne

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  8. The lighting isn’t that bad! The dinner pictures are great. 🙂
    I love the leaf place holders! They are so cool and creative and Pinterest-y! 😀
    Wow I didn’t know we actually had pawpaws in America. XD I’ve only heard of pawpaws from The Jungle Book. And now I have Bare Necessities stuck in my head. XD
    Your family party looks so fun! I wish I got to know all of my relatives, but since I live so far away and all of my 1st cousins are like 10 years older than me I was never really close to them.
    Oh I was wondering if that hurricane would affect you guys. :/ I hope nothing was too damaged. I’m glad you’re okay! ❤

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    1. Hee hee, well good – editing helped a lot. 😉
      Aren’t they thought? XD I agree!
      HAHAHA. Yeah, I didn’t know we had them here either!
      It was indeed! Aww, yeah, that would be hard. :/
      Yeah… thankfully no, we don’t really have any damage, although the power is out for us and a bunch of other people around us. That was thoughtful, though, dear! Thanks! ❤

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  13. That looks like such a fun and memorable time!!! I love love love your pictures :DD Ooh we have friends with paw-paw trees! They’re ripe when they get a little yellower, they taste a lot like bananas. Hahaha the watermelon eating contest :’)

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  14. Sounds so exciting! We never do those kinda things here hahaha…. I guess it’s just the Asian culture. I always swallow my watermelon seeds. It’s kinda nice XD Congrats to your grandparents!

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      1. Yes actually you are right, it’s more family based. But “family based” kinda means like bringing honour to your family name, carrying on the family name, putting family first, attending reunions and stuff, etc. But no we don’t really do things like that..

        Hahaha, it’s way easier to just swallow the seeds than spit them out (which is kinda unhygienic yet cool at the same time) My mum used to joke that if we swallowed any seeds, that particular fruit would sprout out of your head XD

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  17. Great post, Allison! I could sense through these photos all the fun you and your family had. That’s so cool that you found paw paws in your woods! We have lots of paw paw trees on our property, though we don’t often find many paw paws (we look every year). I personally don’t like the fruit, but I know some people really like it. It looks like you had a lot of fun with the lawn games. I haven’t played croquet in many years, but it is a fun game. 🙂 Also, the light painting photos a really cool. Nice job! 🙂

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    1. Aww, I’m so glad to hear that, Sassafras! Yeah, it was pretty neat. 🙂 Really? That’s strange. We found a TON of pawpaw trees, but most had nothing on them. Then there were a few spots that had a huge amount. It was weird. I’m not sure if I like it or not, yeah. XD We sure did! I love croquet. 🙂 Thanks, dear – I like them too!

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  20. Yeah, the hurricane didn’t hit where I live in Florida, but it hit the panhandle (north of us) really, really bad. Please be praying for a fast recovery of the area because it’s not looking good.
    Also, because my dad works with the fire department he is on call for rescue and recovery, meaning at anytime he could be called up to go there to help search and rescue and aid stuff. So please be praying for us, he could be up there for days, we never know.
    Larryn!!! 🙂 ❤

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  26. There is nothing like spending time with family! Y’all’s house looks so pretty and stately in that first picture of the game time 😀 The picture of Carmen is so crisp and beautiful, too. Oh, and we’ve done that mini skit before 😀 It’s hilarious, isn’t it??
    I don’t know if you do tags or not, but I tagged you for the Liebster Award. Here is my post about it: https://dropintheoceanm.blogspot.com/2018/10/liebster-award.html
    I always love seeing your pictures and reading about your adventures. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I agree! Why thank you! Ha ha, IT ISSSS. XD They did such a good job, too!
      Aww, thank you so much for tagging me! I don’t really do tags since that’s not the type of content I normally have on my blog, but I’m always honored when people nominate me. ❤ So thanks again!
      I'm so glad you enjoyed, Julia – thank YOU for commenting!

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  27. The party is so beautiful! And the games were hilarious. XD We have wild berries on our property called mayhaws, but they are red and not nearly as big as the pango fruit. What was your personal opinion on the taste? I’ll be on the lookout for a pango- you’ve made me curious to try one!. 😉

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    1. Ahhh, YESSS. XD Really? That’s interesting. Are they tasty? Heh heh, well I’m not sure if I like them or not. They’re sweet, but have kind of a bitter aftertaste which I’m not a fan of. I would try them again, though! I hope you get to try a pawpaw sometime. 🙂

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  28. Hey guys, asking for prayer for my friend who lost her mom. I haven’t seen or talked to her in a long time so I don’t know how she is doing, but please pray for her. I know she’ll appreciate it.

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  29. I’m super late commenting, but this was SUCH a fun post to read, Allison! It seems like you had a super amazing weekend, and you definitely got a lot of absolutely incredible photos. 😀 The star picture is beautiful! I love reading about all of your adventures – peanut butter with s’mores sounds so good. 😮 I can’t WAIT to see part 2!!

    -Clara ❤

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  33. I’m late commenting on this post, but I LOVE IT!
    It’s such a happy post! Congrats to your Grandparents on their 50th anniversary! I’m sure y’all made many memories together!
    I love all the smiling faces(;
    Have a good night!

    ~theJunebugblog

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