Merrill July 05 019

Merrill July 05 019
Originally uploaded by zela.

This is Sharon, the MIL and FIL's next door neighbour at the river...she's been married to Joe for 50 years and they were one of the first people to welcome MIL to the river when she had just married FIL...by rustling up a group of friends, grabbing their pots and pans and clanging them together as they walked over the meet the new bride and groom...being a sweet Georgia peach and not used to the wild ways of Wisconsin..I think the MIL freaked out a bit, but became freinds and now counts Sharon as one of her nearest and dearest.
Sharon and Joe didn't want to have a fancy dinner so Dawn (the daughter) and Judi and Jerry (she's the pretty redhead in the pictures) and others cooked up a surprise.
At 3pm on Saturday we all met at the top of the drive, turned on the siren on someones golf cart and walked down the hill banging all the muffin tins and saucepans we could find.
The extended family had managed to make excuses to be there already, we loaded the 3 pontoon boats with booze and food and carefully (with generally comedic results) tied all 3 boats together and sailed on down the river enmasse. Sharon and Joe had a great time (she was pretty shickered by 9pm) and we eventually moored for a bbq to finish things off.
Just the perfect way to celebrate 50 and a fun way to introduce my sister to life on the river.
Try not to look to hard at how much the cake is leaning...she insisted on 4 layer banana cake with whipped cream and choc icing on top.
Click on the photo if you want to see more of the party.