Friday (5/1) recap

Friday morning I had to get up early to set up the hall for Saturday's reunion. Margaret came along to help and Marysia offered to stay back at my house to watch Madeline. Margaret and I stayed at the hall for about 2 and 1/2 hours before heading home. Later in the afternoon we girls headed out to get some shoes for Saturday's reunion.

After a successful shoe store trip (Madeline was having a blast trying on all the displayed shoes!) we headed out to visit my Aunt Sue and Uncle Ron's house. They live about an hour south of me. It was decided that we would meet my brother, Paul, there as he was en route to my house from Pittsburgh picking up my niece, Rachel, from college. Aunt Sue planned a wonderful dinner and we had a very enjoyable evening.

When we were growing up, my aunt and uncle lived just around the corner from us. We were lucky enough to see them often. Aunt Sue entertained often. She and Uncle Ron were always very hospitable and her parties were always great fun. Now, the only thing that has changed is the geographical distance between us. As usual, Aunt Sue put out quite the spread. When we arrived we had excellent hors d'ourves and lots of laughs. It was so nice to spend the time with my sisters and Paul visiting our aunt and uncle. Aunt Sue also invited her very close friend, Teresa. For dinner, Aunt Sue made a delicious pork roast, mashed potatoes & gravy (with Polish mushrooms!), cauliflower, green beans and asparagus. For dessert we had sinful tiramisu. It was such a nice evening (and a lot of fun!). I was so disappointed that I forgot my camera! I would've loved to get some photos, especially some of Madeline interacting with my Uncle Ron!

Aunt Sue and Uncle Ron have a beautiful Golden Retriever, Heidi. This dog is a very gentle dog but Heidi sort of freaked Madeline out. It's not that Madeline was scared, it's just that she was a bit leery of Heidi because next to Madeline, the dog was just about as big as her. My Uncle Ron was trying to show Madeline how gentle Heidi is. He fed Heidi cheese and gave some to Madeleine to give to the dog. Still, Madeline was a little leery. Uncle Ron explained to her that Heidi was gentle. Again, he demonstrated this by placing a chunk of cheese in his mouth (partially dangling out) and Heidi gently took the cheese from his mouth. Uncle Ron gave Madeline another chunk of cheese, thinking that she would hand it to the dog. Oh no....Madeline decided that she liked the idea of feeding the dog the same way Uncle Ron did. Before you knew it, the cheese was in her mouth and the dog gently grabbed it. I about died but Madeline thought it was the funniest thing......of course she did it two more times! I wasn't fast enough to grab my cell phone to take a picture or video. I did, however, get a video of another trick they taught Heidi. Sorry for the poor quality of the video as it was taken with my cell phone.