Henny and Oliver hosted a gathering of the cousins at their house on Saturday, around lunchtime.  It was a perfect time to break the ice so all the cousins got to catch up, introduce and reintroduce themselves, try to figure out where we all fit in this enormous family tree, and allow the younger kids to overcome their shyness around each other.






Above is a draft of the family tree on Bo-Gong's side of the family.  My family actually descends from Bo-Gong's brother's side.  Bo-Gong's brother would be my father's dad....I believe that's right....In the end, it doesn't really matter.  What matters is that my father grew up with Henny's dad and Elaine's mother.  In my father's eyes, those two are his closest siblings, and he is far closer to Bo-Gong than he was to his own father.


As the gathering wrapped up, Murphy finally got to come out and show off some of his tricks.  With so many little ones at the party, some were frightened of the big, rambunctious Murphy, so he was isolated until most of the party left.


That night, we dressed up to go to Great-Uncle's 100th Birthday celebration dinner.



All of us staying at the Sebel walked together to the restaurant.  We loved how pedestrian-friendly that area was!



The best thing about seeing Bo-Gong and Bo-Po was the shock that they haven't changed much at all since I last saw them almost 20 years ago!!  They were both in seemingly great health.  I loved that Bo-Gong, after agonizing over which hat to wear to his birthday celebration, shows up in a baseball cap!

Unfortunately, Abby and Kayleigh had not completely overcome jet lag and both were asleep before dinner started, so we ended up having to leave the party shortly after we took a quick picture with Bo-Gong and Bo-Po and probably only half-way through the party.  We felt awful that we had to cut our participation short to the main event of the trip! 

The girls were visibly nervous about getting on to a full-size horse, but they comforted each other and as soon as all the kids started mounting the horses they were able to relax and every kid had a wonderful time.  Of the 20 guests, only Emory did not want to get on a horse. For the number of guests, they had 8 equestrian school horses available and 4 trainers guiding the rides.  For 1.5 hours, each child got at least 2 or 3 rides.  If the child was comfortable, the led the horses into trots and gallops, which delighted them. 


After the rides, the kids got to help with unsaddling the horses, brushing, cleaning the horseshoes, and feeding the horses.



Cupcakes were an obvious choice to serve that many kids. The birthday girls each had a colossal cupcake, topped with fondant ponies.


The party was a great success and both birthday girls had huge grins on their faces by the end.  This was certainly memorable for us parents and hopefully it will be memorable for the girls as well.


Additional photos have been uploaded to a Fotki album.

Today, Abby is 5 years old!  We visited Grandma and Grandpa in Colorado Springs and the girls had a blast hanging out.  Abby chose Red Robin for her birthday lunch where the staff sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she received a free sunday, which she shared with Kayleigh.

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's, she opened presents and we had cake.  She some great books, legos, My Little Pony train, and a special orange BABW kitty. 




Abby has really been into horses and unicorns lately, so additional presents from family included this beautiful stuffed unicorn and My Little Ponies.


From Paul and me, Abby also got a Leap Frog LeapPad and a few games.  She is so good at the games already and it's nice to have something that's more appropriate for her age and educational compared to apps on our iPads.  Kayleigh enjoys watching Abby play almost as much as Abby likes playing!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, smart, creative, little girl.  We are so proud of you, Abby!  We look forward to a Fantastic Five year!