I’ve been horribly bad with the birthday updates this year… something I will rectify immediately with the next birthdays (Dan and Nick’s).  However, today’s post is to celebrate Grandma Ginger, who had a birthday on September 2nd!!  Happy Birthday!

After the birthday celebration for Ted, I headed to Carol’s house to spend some time with her, James and the boys.  It was a very low-key couple of days, but just what I like.  It’s so much fun to see the boys, and it always seems like no time has passed at all since the last time I’ve seen them (when in reality, I’m pretty sure it’s been almost a year).

We tried to get some group shots of the boys, which proves difficult, as they are getting older and love running around!

On Tuesday, Ted turned 80 and a bunch of us headed to the Hitchcock House to celebrate.  Friend of the family Bruce hosted the party at his lovely farmhouse, and the family banded together to make lots of great food.  The party began in the afternoon and went well into the evening, full of mingling and laughter.

This post is also going to acknowledge the passing of the birthday – Happy Birthday, Ted! – as well as the updating of the photo gallery.  A little taste of the pictures is below, but you can see the rest by clicking here.

Last weekend, Lindsay and I and a number of friends headed to Pennsylvania to go camping.  We spent the weekend hiking, rafting and sleeping in tents.  All went very well, though it did rain the second night – pouring nearly all night, which kept most of us up but was still fun.  We ended the weekend with a birthday dinner celebration back at home for Lindsay’s birthday.

So this post also serves as Lindsay’s Happy Birthday post!

It also serves as a way to say that the photo gallery has been updated with pictures from the trip.  You will get a little taste of them below, but if you would like to see the whole album, click here (and, as usual, the entire photo gallery may be accessed by the links on the left and right sidebars).

From a recent visit to Carol and James’ house – here are the boys on the slide.  More about this visit later in the week!

This is just a little sampling of some events from the past week on the Russell side of the family.  This week I will be updating with all the news and pictures since last Saturday, beginning with the camping trip for Lindsay’s birthday (and a birthday post for Lindsay, and for Ted – who had a birthday this week as well – would also be nice!).  Now that the summer is winding down and work starts up again, things will probably get back to routine around here.  There’s been a lot of running around the last few weeks, days spent with friends and family in summer’s prime, making lots of memories to share!  However, it has left little opportunity for sharing – until now!

To tide you over, until I can get recaps of our recent happenings, here are the photos from the shoot with Katherine.  I made the dress for her and we decided to use Bruce’s property (our family friend) as the backdrop – I think it was a wise decision.

All of these thumbnails are clickable so that you can see the larger images.  Coming this week: 1.) Camping Trip, 2.) Ted’s Birthday Party and 3.) My Visit to Carol’s House.

Introducing Gracie Pancetta, Kara’s new bulldog puppy.  She joined the family ranks this past Saturday and I went to meet her on Sunday.  Gracie is so named because of her neighborhood connections (they live right near Gracie Mansion), and because in our family, we like to give pets names that have to do with pork products (we’re weird that way).

As mentioned a few days ago, Jack celebrated his 9th birthday this year.  A few days before the actual event, Willa and Paul threw a party for him in their backyard.  Many of Jack’s school and baseball friends came to help him celebrate.  As usual, there was a lot of splashing (the kiddie pool was set up), swinging (with minimal fights over the one swing), and cupcakes (red velvet with chocolate frosting!).

The blue writing you will see on Jack is the results of a temporary tattoo pen that Willa bought – all the kids (and Lindsay and I) took turns drawing something on the birthday boy (mine was the mom heart).

Last month, me, Lindsay, mom, Pam, Katherine, Ami and friends Donna, Paula and Elaine got together for our semi-annual Ladies’ Tea.  The theme this time around was Alice in Wonderland, so we all attended the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, in costume.  Katherine portrayed Alice, Pam the Mad Hatter, I the White Queen, Lindsay the Queen of Hearts, Mom the March Hare, Ami the White Rabbit, Paula the Cheshire Cat, Donna the Caterpillar, and Elaine the Dormouse.   Pam and Katherine did an excellent job of creating a Alice atmosphere, complete with ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Drink Me’ signs, a string of flamingo lights, and little placecards with quotes from appropriate characters.

As is the custom, we all prepared a gift basket to share in our gift basket lottery.  The theme was to comprise a basket full of items from your favorite fantasy story (or, at the very least, the fantasy story you could think of the most items for!).  I did the Twilight saga (which Pam received), Katherine did Roald Dahl’s Matilda (which I received), Mom did Where the Wild Things Are (Donna received), Pam did Mary Poppins (Elaine got it), Elaine did Wicked (Ami received it), Paula did The Princess Bride (Katherine got it), Ami did Practical Magic (which went home with Lindsay), Donna did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which Mom received), and Lindsay did the Once and Future King (Paula got it).  (I’m fairly certain that’s the correct order!)

Enjoy some pictures from the day.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  (More in an upcoming post!)