Ice cream castles in the air

I had the most wonderful time over the weekend. I say it was wonderful because I spent it with my family, some of whom I hadn’t seen for awhile.

My sisters and other family members travelled from as far as California and Florida to attend my twin brother’s 50th birthday party which was held in NJ at the home of my brother Pete and his wife, Pat. It was to be a surprise for Pete’s twin, Steve, and you may remember me posting a little about him earlier this year when he was diagnosed with a serious illness. (He is doing ok and is almost at the end of his chemo treatments.)

It’s late as I write this, and I’ve been working on photos since I’ve gotten home, trying to get an album done for them. These are some of my favorites that I’ll quickly share with you.

My niece, Samantha, created this unique cake that’s designed to look like poker chips. Sam is very sorry (not) that she kicked all the guys butts in poker Saturday night.

My brother Steve, completely overwhelmed at having realized everyone was here to see him. This is my niece, Melanie who came from far far away to be here with all of us. She is tons of fun.

Melanie’s mom, my beautiful sister Judy with her husband, Rick. We love Rick.

My brother, Pete. (Steve’s twin). I do hope you’re taking notes on all these names.

Whenever someone says, "let’s take some family photos", I secretly cringe inside. I do this because it’s like herding cats to get them all together. But it’s fun, too. I like taking shots in between the staged ones and thought this one was fun. That’s my son, Matt in there, and my sister’s hand. She was trying to help me herd them, I think.

My niece, Naomi. She’s Steve’s daughter.

I stayed at my brothers house, while other family members stayed at local B&B’s for the night. I thought it was fun sleeping on air mattresses so close together you could hardly get from one end of the room to the other.

And the next morning, Pat the wonder wife, cooked us all a real Philadelphia breakfast, complete with eggs, sausage, bacon, scrapple and bagels with cream cheese. It was fantastic.

I hope she recovers quickly from the onslaught of our family at her home.

And I had one of these for dessert. I just want to say that they were magically delicious.

I love my family.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .