In the afternoon we went to a basketball game at the Bryce Jordan Center again. Two Sunday afternoons in a row! And we'd never gone to one before. This time it was Anthony and Lori's treat. It was a girls' basketball game - Penn State's Lady Lions against the University of Michigan's girls' team. What is up with it always being a Michigan team when we go to watch?? LOL!!
This game was close and very, very exciting. We thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
Unfortunately for us, we just didn't have enough time to get the last three points that would have won the game.
Austin is starting to play basketball, so he understood a good bit of what was going on. As you can see here, we were way up in peanut heaven! At first Lori wasn't sure she was okay up there, but after a while we got used to it.
It was a special breast cancer awareness game, their tenth annual one. During half time they asked all breast cancer survivors to come down to the floor. It was tremendously emotional as they just kept coming and coming.
We got to hear a few of them share their stories.
After the game we went to the bowling alley for Austin's birthday party.
Pizza for everyone and bowling for the kids. The parents enjoyed socializing.
Lori and her friend Sherry - mother of Austin's twin friends.
After the first hour the lights went low and everything glowed - even Austin's storm trooper outfit!
Then it was cake time - an ice cream cake that was getting a bit too soft. Lori lit the candles, but the overhead fan was causing them to flicker, so she picked it up and stepped away from the table.
The children gathered around as we sang happy birthday to Austin. You can see me there trying to get a picture of Austin's face. And THEN!! Just the slightest tilt of Lori's hand and that cake fell and went SPLAT to the floor - as you can see on the lower half of this collage that Anthony made. Austin immediately burst into tears. It just felt HORRIBLE, especially for Lori.
So while she was gone the kids were getting a bit antsy and crazy, and Anthony did a very wise thing. All the children's names were still up on the boards above the lanes in which they had bowled, so he started the games over again. That kept them occupied, and then much sooner than expected, Lori was back with a cake. Turns out, as she went outside it occurred to her that Dairy Queen was right behind the bowling alley, and she just walked there and got one!
So we were back in business - this time with an ice cream cake that was too hard! But Lori's brother Gary is big and strong and did the cutting.
We. Want. Cake!
The birthday boy was happy. If fact, he was very happy. He LOVES bowling and is quite good, and after some of the kids left, Austin got to take their turns in addition to his own. He was in bowling heaven!
We gave him a Star Wars alarm clock radio. It will waken him with the Star Wars theme song!
That night when I was getting ready for bed I got a text message from Lori asking if I had gotten a picture of her dropping the cake. I said no, I just had one of the kids singing. She said, "Darn!" Then I knew it was okay to laugh. And laugh I did! I just couldn't stop laughing. On Monday when I went to their place, they were both there and Anthony had just looked at his pictures and put that collage together. And we laughed some more. I don't know how many times throughout the day I thought about it again and laughed some more. So I guess all's well that ends in laughter!!
Backing up now to Sunday morning. Our choir at Fillmore did the song I mentioned last time - Amazing Grace to the tune The House of the Rising Sun. We had SO MUCH FUN. I do have to say that I never knew the original song. The first I ever heard the tune was when Dick and I were dating and he was doing it at church camp with the lyrics of Amazing Grace. I've heard in the last week or two that for some people, it is hard to unthink the lyrics of the original song, which are not particularly wholesome, apparently. I'm really sorry if that is the case for you. We so enjoyed doing it. I'm going to share a video here that someone took that morning. The visual is a pretty blurry, because I got it second-handed, so just enjoy the sound!
5 comments:
It must be blurry because Facebook lowers the resolution when it's uploaded there. I'll see if I can get the original from Sue Cain.
I love the birthday party pictures. The cake mishap was awful for Lori at the time, but it will live on for years with laughter!
I could see and hear the video and enjoyed it. I've heard that a lot of the hymns we so enjoy started as bar songs, and the melody was taken and new words added. So, I guess this is a continuation of that!
The bowling party and cake mishap make for great memories, and family stories in years to come! Fun!! I enjoyed hearing the choir sing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun. I took piano lessons for a very little while. Playing trumpet, I could read treble clef easily, but not bass clef, so I memorized songs to play on the piano by picking out the left hand notes and learning them by heart...long story short, House of the Rising Sun and the theme from Romeo and Juliet (A Time For Us) were the only two songs I could play well on the piano!! And I do know the words to that song and did think of them as I listened....but still enjoyed the performance!! Bravo!! :)
Well, I cried all through this post. Are there really THAT many breast cancer survivors in State College? When I think of all the women who have had breast cancer all over our country, it overwhelms me. How could anything like this happen?
Then, when poor Lori spilled the cake, I cried again. Bless her heart and Austin's too. Poor little guy. He was filled with anticipation of taking a big bite of his cake and SPLAT! I would have cried too when I was his age. I am glad that it all worked out though even though it was hard. It is great to have a strong man around.
Then I cried at such sad music, not really. Hahahahaha. Just kidding but since I was crying anyway, it fit right in. I think I have heard that song before. Someone sang the tune of O Danny Boy to a Christian song at our church a few weeks ago. I can't remember the Christian words but it was pretty.
Like you, my mom liked bar music. Well, I don't think that came out right......well, I am just full of it tonight. I can see you now laughing your head off. Mom was a preacher, you know.
Yes, Cheryl, I AM cracking up! I think I would have loved your mom!
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