Surprise!

This post is way overdue.... I should have posted these pictures last month, but somehow it just didn't get done. So I figured I would share them now. On January 19th, John's oldest brother Mike and family, who live in Houston, flew in to spend the weekend in Chicago. The occasion was their father's 60th birthday. John along with his siblings planned to take their dad to see the Blackhawk's game on Friday and then the following day we hosted a surprise birthday party at our house.

It was fun to have Mike, Mary and their 4 children spend the weekend at our place. Anabelle is always thrilled to spend time with her cousins and this time was no different. She definitely wore them out and wanted to play every minute! Being from Houston, they are used to warmer weather and although our Winter has been VERY mild, of course that weekend we had to dip down to the single digits and get hit with the biggest snow storm of the season. While it was an inconvenience for travel, the kids loved the snow! I was sure to get lots of pictures of them having a ball.

Giana 10, Donte 16, Taylor 12, Dominick 7

Snow fight!

Snow angels

Anabelle loved being pulled around in her sled, and with so many cousins there was always someone willing to do it.

The kids decided to build a small hill.

Here is Giana pushing Anabelle down the little hill on a garbage can lid, with lots of laughing. Finally it was so dark, we had to drag them all inside for dinner. They were a lot of fun to watch!

John has 4 siblings; Mike, Joe, Zac and Abby. The boys planned to take their dad to the game on Friday night, and despite the snowstorm everyone made it down town and they had a great night. Although he knew about the game, John's Dad Mike didn't know that his son Mike was going to be in town, so that was a great surprise for him. The boys all had fun and the Blackhawk's even won-yay!

Joe, John, Zac, Mike, Dad

The next day we had 6 of John's Dad's siblings over, along with all of his children, and grandchildren. He was very surprised and we had a fun night, eating and celebrating. It was nice to have everyone together, it doesn't happen often enough.

Looking at old photos.

Cake!

A rare whole family photo.

All of Mike's kids; Mike 36, John 32, Abby 17, Zac 24, Joe 26

Mike, Mary, and kids.

Not the best picture of me, but Anabelle looks so darn cute I had to put it in.

Mike and his wife Pat with 6 of his siblings

Donna, Mary, Kay, Dennis, Mike, Denise, Maureen and Pat

Happy 60th Birthday Mike!!