Saturday and Sunday....Family Clambake

Every year my dad's side of the family has a clambake on the Sunday before Labor Day. It's been a tradition for over 50yrs! On Saturday some of us get together and get things ready for the next day. My job the last two years was slicing onions for the sausage peppers and onions. At first I had tears running down my face and had to fight to control my nose from running all over the place. By the time I was done my eyes were fine but I was still sniffing. Saturday night/Sunday morning I kept waking up with my hand in front of my face and smelling of onions! Not fun at 3am. LOL

My dad is one of 13 kids and we had a ton of cousins. Nowadays I hardly can figure out who's little ones are whose anymore because my cousin's kids are having kids, making my cousins grandparents. YIKES!!! Seems like we were all just running around playing kick the can and collecting fireflies together. My dad's family has always been the type that did things together. When I was a kid we used to go on picnics together every Sunday, either at a park or my grandparents house. In the winter is was dinner at Grandma's and watching home movies or The Wonderful World of Disney with popcorn.


The day is filled with lots of catching up, eating, balloon toss, eating, egg toss, eating...you get the picture. We definitely get our's money's worth, seeing as all my kids like steamed clams. Doesn't matter if they didn't though...it's a great day. I realized on Monday, this year was the first year that someone didn't make a comment toward the fact that I was having ANOTHER baby, or asking why I wasn't pg yet.

After my grandmother passed away we started having the clambake at my uncle's house (he's the baby of the family). They have a BEAUTIFUL place!! My aunt is a landscaping engineer and now owns her own perennial business. I wanted to take pictures of her gardens so I could get ideas for my own yard. The battieries died before I could get them taken (thanks Michelle and Val!!!!) I did get a few good pictures taken though.

Carrie and Eileen in the bus on the way to the clambake...


My dad and my sisters husband, Ed cooking...


I even found a picture of me that I didn't mind too much...