You're Invited to a PARTY!!!

Family, friends, and assorted others (you know who you are)...

As most of you are well aware, our very own Gretchen Kay has just reached the milestone birthday of Sweet Sixteen (and never been kissed... at least she better not have been!!). We celebrated this auspicious event on Wednesday, with gelatto (served by very adorable Italian guys, that's a whole other story) and a day of window shopping in our little 'burg, followed by some quality time at an amazing indie bookstore. Gret's dear friend Rachel was on hand for the event, and a good time was had by all.

Alas, we missed having many of you with us. So...

We're having a Party. That's a party, with a capital "P", mind you. Because, well, Sweet Sixteen just deserves something big, and fun, and filled with family and friends (and you others, as well!).

We'd like for you to join us for a not-so-secret celebration of the past sixteen years of Gret's life. Here are all the deets:

Date - Saturday, July 26, 2008
Time - 4 of the clock in the afternoon, until I decide I've seen enough of your smiling faces and make you leave (unless you are spending the night, but that is a VERY short list, so don't even ask!)
Where - here, at our currently un-air-conditioned sprawling home in Woodford, Virginia (e-mail me for the address - in case you want to googlemap us)
What to bring - just your beautiful selves, unless of course you have some fabulous signature dish - I'll gladly accept any donations of fabulous dishes

You might be thinking that you (or those other people you may currently dwell with) are too advanced in your years, or too wee tiny, to have any fun at this event. Let me assure you that this is not the case. There will be a paint ball war in the afternoon, as well as squirt guns for the wee ones. We will have a small pool set up for little people as well. We'll be cooking food outside of the house in the early evening, for your dining enjoyment (this is where your special dish will be appreciated, if you have a special dish, but it's not by any means a requirement of attendance!). We will also have a bonfire, complete with marshmallows and s'mores, when the sun starts heading home for the day.

While planning this event, and the corresponding guest list, Gretchen was adamant about including all of the people that she knows, from all different periods of her life. For some reason, YOU are included in that list. You may, like Becky and her daughter Jess, have been there at the very beginning, while she was still bruising my ribs in utero. You may have, like Kelly, baked a cake for her second birthday. You may have, like Bill and his kids, encountered her while we lived in The Bug House in Virginia Beach. You may have met her, like Steve and Mary Jo, within days of her arrival in King George. You may be, like Rachel and Kelsey and Rissa and Kalie and Angela and Amanda and Mallory and Courtney, very good friends of her now. You may fall, like Ron and JoAnn and Heather and Andy and Tim and Alison, into the Family category. Or YOU may be somewhere in between. Regardless, you have been a part of her life, and she'd love to see you on this special day.


Please RSVP to me by the 23rd of July, so that I can be sure to have enough food to feed you all. You can e-mail me back, or you can send me a text message. If you don't know my number, I'm really surprised you're reading this!

We hope to see you all there. Yes, all of you. Even you, sitting over there in the corner shaking your head in disbelief at the fact that she's actually SIXTEEN. (ohmigosh! I can't believe how old that makes ME!!)

hugs,
dee

PS- the only part of this that is a !SURPRISE! is that I'd like for all of you to e-mail me any pics that you have of our almost adult young lady. I'd like to do a video montage of her, covering the years from her birth to now (yeah, I know, that's her whole life. That's kinda the point.) If you have pics of you WITH her, that's even better, but any pics of her will be wonderful. Please e-mail those to me as soon as you can.