We attended the wedding shower at Kate's yesterday. It was mostly a back yard affair...it sprinkled at the beginning, but then the sun came out and the weather the rest of the day and evening was absolutely perfect! I met Kate's son Marc's fiancee Laura for the first time, she is lovely and very easy to talk to. We asked not to be invited to the wedding several months ago....it is being held in Elmira, NY....Laura's hometown. Elmira is a 5 hour drive, and the kids wouldn't be invited because they were trying to keep the guest list down to 200. We told them to invite someone they had to eliminate from their list instead. We will be thinking of them on June 30.

Had a terrific time...I always do when I am with Kate and her siblings. Her father had a very good day yesterday, I only noticed him beginning to forget things in mid-conversation right before we left...I imagine he was tired. At first it almost felt like a high school party...the guys gathering around the horse-shoe pit and the beer kegs in the back yard and the ladies sitting around at all the tables. But everyone did mingle later. Vee Jay, Kate's oldest brother and the first love of my life, even managed to get Mike to play horsehoes....not Mike-like at all!! Mike and Vee Jay played against Marc and a friend. Mike really enjoyed it, except for when Vee Jay remarked it was the 'senior citzens' vs. the youngsters....Mike and Vee Jay, of course, being the senior citizens!!

It was so refreshing to see so many 20-something year olds behaving so well.....even with the beer and wine freely flowing. The only time I heard the f-word was from Vee Jay! They were all appropriately dressed in this old lady's opinon, well-spoken and on their best behavior. We oldies were remarking that we still feel like the 20-somethings, but we are trapped in old bodies!

Kate brought out some old photo albums to give to her older sister.....of course we had to peruse them before she took them home. So neat to see pictures of all of us as little kids together....I couldn't convince Marna that it was any of us there, the old people, in those pictures! My parents were even in a couple of photos....photos I had never seen of them. Kate's father even got a bit misty-eyed talking about my parents....they were great friends.

Kate threw a terrific party with lots of yummy food. She made Spinach-Strawberry salad....a combo that doesn't sound like it goes together...but it was SO delicious. I even copied the recipe. A great easy recipe for big gatherings! Of course there was nothing other than tortilla chips there that Marna would eat....so we stopped in a Burger King on the way home at 9:30 to get her some fries.

Looking forward to seeing my dear friends again in June at Vee Jay's surprise 50th (ACK!!) birthday party in June.