GotchaBaby

August 13, 2013October 14, 2013

Celebrating Catherine with a “C”

My family did something this weekend we’ve never done before.

We celebrated my Grandma’s 100th birthday. My dad’s entire extended family came from all over the country to celebrate his mom, my grandma.

When you tell people that your grandma is turning 100, they tend to delicately ask how her health is. Fortunately, she’s as spry as an 80 year old. She walked into the party on her own steam, and spent the entire evening visiting with people who came to see her.

We got to meet long-lost cousins, who last remembered me as a toddler. The kids played with cousins they knew, and cousins (first cousins twice removed?) they just met. It didn’t matter- they were all there to party. Everyone did take a little time out to get pictures with the birthday girl.

The photo on the top right of this collage is my Dad (tall guy in the back) and all of his cousins. My grandma was one of five, and this crew grew up together in the 50s and 60s. There was a great slide show from days gone by, that was really fun to watch.

We even managed to get our portion of the family together!

Technically, she doesn’t turn 100 until October 17th. But at this point, no one’s really counting. She’s earned the right to say she’s 100.

August 7, 2013October 14, 2013

and then she turned EIGHT

For the past week, we’ve been celebrating MaM’s 8th birthday.

EIGHT.

Being eight means you have fun at your birthday party with your friends, and you really only need me to supply the cake and the credit card.

Being eight means you go off on your own with your cousins at the water park, leaving me in the kiddie pool.

Being eight means at the State Fair, you ride ridiculous rides, like the Mega Drop, without blinking an eye.

It means your iPod becomes an appendage, and you use it for things like an alarm clock, not just for playing Candy Crush.

It means you’ve decided you want to grow your hair long so you can donate it to Locks of Love.

It means you’re heading to third grade, which is much further away from the front office of the school.

It means you really want, really need Skechers for school shoes.

it means you sometimes crave chocolate like a grown up lady. And that you’re obsessed with Oreos (she has good taste).

It means you’ll still play with toys, but don’t always admit to it.

Eight. So far, it’s off to a very good start.

August 6, 2013August 6, 2013

Table Talk: The Year of Popcorn

In 1981, my family moved to Indiana. On the day my parents showed us the house that was to become our home, we made popcorn. My dad had been to the local popcorn festival and had purchased a brand new hot air popper. What I remember is that my parents didn’t know that hot air poppers didn’t come with a bowl, so we caught the popcorn in paper lunch bags. Well, we caught some of the popcorn. The rest was scattered around the kitchen.

Little did I know, popping popcorn was the perfect introduction to living in Indiana-Indiana is the nation’s second largest popcorn producer. Suddenly mottos like “There’s more than corn in Indiana”, make sense, right?

The Indiana State Fair is paying tribute to popcorn this year, and has declared it “The Year of Popcorn”. The word’s largest popcorn ball is on display. How big is the world’s largest popcorn ball? Well it’s 5,000 pounds and 9 feet tall, thank you for asking.

The Indiana State Fair run through August 18^th, and there is so much to see and do, I’d plan for at least two days to see it all. In addition to the World’s Largest Popcorn ball, there is the brand new Glass Barn, which is an interactive experience bringing Indiana’s farms to the fair.

The DuPont Food Pavilion features many items produced by Indiana Family of Farmers farms, and there are food activities and presentations happening every day of the fair.

In addition, there’s the Indiana Family of Farmer’s Recipe Trail, which will take you through many of the Fair’s buildings and expo halls. For every person who completes the Recipe Trail, a pound of food will be donated to area food banks.

Happy State Fair Season!

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I wrote this post as an Indiana Family of Farmers Table Talk Contributor. As always, opinions here are 100% my own. I love Indiana popcorn, I won’t lie.

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