We're back in Houston now after a great long weekend in NY. Saturday all of the family came up to celebrate Grandma's 90th in great style!! It was a truly elegant affair at La Panetiere with amazing food. I don't think that grandma could have been any happier, and definitely got a bit misty when the cake was presented with "we love you, Evelyn" written on top. It was so great to see all of the cousins who made the trip and also see how much the "little cousins" have grown. Alex was telling about her girls' night in Knoxville, where they take turns hosting & cooking every month, unlike how our group in Houston chooses to eat out all of the time! 6-year old Sophia is quite the artist, and in the year since our wedding, Ethan seems to have turned from 3-year old toddler into 4-year old boy. He seemed excited to learn that he would soon have his first boy cousin to play trucks with.

On Sunday we attended another fabulous party to honor Adam & Ariana before their wedding later this year. It was a magnificent brunch at the Red Oak Mansion in the Westchester Renaissance Hotel. What a difference a year makes - in September 2002 Jim and I were finishing up the final details for our upcoming wedding which Adam & Ariana attended as guests, boyfriend & girlfriend. Now we are coming up on our one year anniversay, expecting a baby a few months after that, and they have since gotten engaged and have their wedding to look forward to in November. Whoa. Among the 150 or so guests were dozens of old family friends Deena and I knew from temple growing up. It was so much fun to re-connect with "the best of Bet Torah" (as one person put it!) and catch up on the past decade or so. One got a bit choked up to see "Bonnie grown up & married & pregnant!" Jim made fast friends with Ariana's family who had traveled from Pittsburgh (the Steelers tie was the giveaway!) and he passed along score updates from the periodic text messages he was getting from Karl! Fortunately, the Steelers were still winning when the party ended.

I think the single funniest part of the weekend was on Sunday morning when we went to pick up grandma for brunch. It was a repeat plan from Saturday when we picked her up for her own party - meeting in front the main entrance to her place to ensure that everyone would see her all dressed up. On Sunday morning's pick up, grandma had just gotten into the car when a friend of hers came out to say hi and asked "are you just getting back home now?"