Queen of Hearts...

This is the cake we had today to honor my Grandmother's birthday. She would have been 83 today. Why the Queen of Hearts? well... It is a family joke...partly... and the other part is that Gram loved playing games with her family...canasta...scrabble...yahtzee... and Gramie had a pretty big Heart... It was nice to honor her that way today. When we had planned on meeting at my house I had planned on making a cake and decorating it to be the queen of hearts and also do some other game themes throughout the food...but since we decided to come to NY... I called Sis and she was able to get a cake ordered... Thanks Chickie. Mom and Dad did not know about the cake...and it made mom get a little teary...not my intention...but nothing wrong with that. Getting emotional about Gramie means that she is missed...and people who are missed are worth missing...it speaks to Gramie's character and how much she is loved. My youngest nephew kind of blew the surprise by mentioning that there was cake... he was confused and asked me about it... asked me why we got a birthday cake. I told him because it would have been Nana's birthday. (The boys called her Nana.) He was confused and said to me,in his innocent little voice, "But how can she eat it? She is invisible 'cause she's dead...she can't eat it." But we can... and did... and it was YUMMY.

This is a self portrait of me and my mom... I asked her permission before posting it because she, on some level, believes that those who can read information about people online and/or see their faces... they can somehow be tracked down and bad things can happen... so for all you people who want to stalk my mom.... her name is Queen Victoria...her address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and she lives in Washington D.C... just try to get through her security!

I took a lot of pictures today and got some great shots. I would post a picture of Lola and her husband, but permission has not been granted...Lola may not want her true identity revealed...and... with all those crazy stalkers... she may want to keep her boy toy all to herself. I also got some great pics of the boys today at their soccer games and at their house as we were all in game mode... very nice...

My knee is stiff today... think it is a combination of being out in the cold for the soccer games and the ride here..but overall I am ok....more than ok... I am around some of my favorite people this weekend....and life is good...

Love ya Gramie... Happy Birthday... I miss you.