Birthday Party for a 104 Year Old

This is our Mom (Carol and my) at 104 years old!
Believe it or not she lives in her own house alone (the Lord is with her) so she has kept her independence. She pays her own bills, cooks, does her own laundry (and sometimes mine), keeps house (she has a cleaning lady come once every 3 weeks or so) and generally attends to her own affairs. She is very political and watches the news all day.
She doesn’t like old pictures and doesn’t like to talk about old times.
She has a Kindle and likes to read novels on it.

She knows the weather, too.
She has a prayer box. She takes prayer requests and anything she puts in her prayer box gets answered pretty quickly. She says it is not magic. She says the Lord knows when I put somebody’s name in the prayer box that He is to take care of that person.

Mommy

Mom loves each member of her family and keeps in touch with everyone. She is always happy to greet you when you go to visit. She keeps herself always looking pretty.

Her house is stylish, too. She doesn’t like the old things. She likes new things.

She has 13 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and 7 great great-grandchildren. She has all their pictures on the refrigerator. :)

She loves to cook and her specialties are Grape-nut pudding, Toll House Cookies (she learned from the woman who originated the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie in the 1920’s). She loves to learn new recipes, too, especially sweets.

She had a hip replacement was she was 101 – the doctor said he would take a chance with her because she was in such good shape. We (Carol, me, my brother) were worried but she flew through that operation like it was nothing. She did lose the use of one eye, though she stopped sewing for a year and then decided she might as well sew and then made some gorgeous pillows. She doesn’t like to be bored and she gets bored easily. Is that funny or what? She likes to keep moving (maybe that’s where I get it from).

This is Mom’s kitchen.



And part of her living room.



Mom’s bedroom:



She’s always been a decorator.

Now for the party. We hired a condo recreation hall by the sea and it came with a pool. The kids had so much fun swimming. God was with us because it didn’t rain! Whew. It was a rather small place, after all. We kinda sweated that out all week.

Here is Sheila (far left), Carol, me, and Mom. There was a beautiful solarium also with round glass tables. Gorgeous place, it was.

Me Carol ma Sheila2

Here was the theme: I made jam – blueberry (did a post on that), strawberry rhubarb, and blueberry cinnamon (wow. what flavor). I might do a blog post on that one, too.
And we had the jam with corn muffins, croissants, and crackers.

Tea and jam

My daughter, Laura, made these little tissue paper flowers from colored tissue paper. She put 6 layers together, cut a circle, and then put a paper fastener in the center. She scrunched up the circles to look like a flower and glued them onto the card that said, “Tea and Jam with Gram”. She’s so clever -  and crafty, too. :)

tissue paper flower

We – uh, Carol – made cinnamon butter and it was lusciously wonderful.

cinnamon butter

Recipe for cinnamon butter:

Blend together:
1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
It’s yummy, people. Yummy. Reminds me of the Texas Roadhouse cinnamon butter.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the tables all decorated.

by the sea

The center decorations are little glass votive pots filled with little verbena plants and sweet alyssum flowers. Everyone got to take one home.

tiny plant gifts


verbena 2

My niece, Judi, who is a fantastic cook, made little tiny quiches... bacon, broccoli, and asparagus .. 3 different kinds!!! 

quiche

We had stuffed shells, hamburgers and hot dogs, the regular types of salads, cake and chocolate covered strawberries. (oh, by the way, strawberries are ripe here in Connecticut).
These look terrible but they tasted good.  Ha! That’s what counts.

chocolate covered strawberries

Here are some of the grandkids we could round up.

grandchildren 2

See the nice big 104? Incredible.

She’s an incredible woman and we are so blessed to have her.

God bless, everyone!

zzzzzzC9561C493251B0E7B572C8A863B55985


Hi there and WELCOME!  So happy that you came by to visit. I'm Linda.
My sister, Carol, and I have a super creative family (my nephew even makes cabin furniture) and I try to log it all
right here on Crafts a la Mode by Two Succulent Sisters.
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21 comments

  1. That's so awesome! Go Gram!!

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  2. What a lovely post,and such an incredible lady. I am in awe awe of her and her lovely family. Beautifully done,and such a nice home she has. Happy Birthday Gram.:)
    I am visiting from Adorned from Above.

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  3. What a blessing and what a post!!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful party. Your mom is fabulous!!!! Hugs, Beverly

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  4. What an awesome lady ! And so stylish ... She does not look a day older than 60 :-) You are extremely blessed to still have her in your life !

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  5. What a sweet post, she looks great :) Her home is beautiful as well!

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  6. Your mother is so blessed to be so active and healthy! It sure looked like you had a lovely celebration for her!
    I am so-o-o happy to be able to leave you a comment again....it has been a very long time sine I have seen the drop down comment menu!
    Hugs, JP

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  7. Wow Linda,
    Your mom is amazing. She is so cute. I can't believe she's 104. What a beautiful birthday party all of you gave her.
    Have a great week.
    Debi

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  8. I just don't know what to say! That is THE best story I have heard in a very long time! God bless her and all who love her. My own mom is 82, just had a pacemaker put in and still travels with my dad, decorates, does crafts and she and my dad are still in their own home. We go out every Thursday and I thank God for every one of them.

    Best,
    Sheila
    http://sheilazachariae.blogspot.com

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  9. Wow! This is awesome! Happy Belated Birthday to your mom! The pictures are so beautiful. Very interesting post. Enjoy the rest of your day.

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  10. Happy Birthday to your Mom! She sounds like a very neat lady, and aren't you lucky to have her! It looks like she had a fun birthday.

    Noreen
    Crafty Journal

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  11. Dear Linda: June 11 is my birthday too! No, not a 104 (bless you mother she looks great!!) only 55..I absolutely loved your post and I really liked the theme: tea and Jam with Gram. Just lovely, thanks for sharing.
    Hetty
    www.stonehouseworkshop.com

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  12. What a wonderful way to celebrate your mom's 104 birthday! You and your family are truly blessed!

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  13. I love this lady!! It just lifts my heart to see her celebrate her birthday again this year!!!

    Hugs

    PS Just had to share this on Facebook:))))

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  14. I saw Evelyn's post on Facebook, lol, and came over to say Happy Birthday!!

    I love the living room, that's just gorgeous.

    The party looks like it was fun!

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  15. Well, happy birthday to your mom! My own mom is 95 and still very busy and active too, but 104, wow! It's fun to see how well your mom does still living in her own home! God has surely blessed her with a wonderful family too!
    Liz

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  16. Thanks for linking up at the TGIF link party last week! It looks like you and your family had a great celebration, 104, that's amazing! I hope you'll stop by tonight and link up again!

    http://www.livingbettertogether.com/2013/06/tgif-link-party-no-2.html

    Have a great day!
    Rebecca

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  17. That is amazing! I'm a nurse and I've seen spry, ready for action patients well into their nineties and then I've seen patients in their seventies on their last legs. It looks like your mom likes to keep herself busy and maintaining her independence has probably helped so keep her going as well! You and your sisters are very blessed! Thanks for sharing! :)

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  18. Your mum clearly is an inspiration! Good on her for being fabulous at a fantastic age :)

    Thanks for linking up!

    Sarah @ A Cat-Like Curiosity

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  19. So lovely! What a fantastic smile. She just exudes joy! Thanks for sharing.

    Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog. I'm now following you here and on Hometalk.

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  20. Spot on with this write-up, I really think this website needs much more consideration. I’ll in all probability be once more to read rather more, thanks for that info.
    downtown la venues

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  21. Kedves Carol és Linda,
    A facebookon sajnos visszaélnek az édesanyjuk fényképével:
    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=537635321393108&id=103542838135694

    ReplyDelete

So happy you came to visit today. Everyone is so busy but if you would like to leave a note for me, I would love it!!

Welcome

I am the crafter extraordinaire (on this blog anyway.) I live with my husband, my son, David, in a cozy cape cod style house in Connecticut.

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