50th Anniversary!

In January our Oma & Opa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! They were married on January 18th 1958, here are two of their gorgeous wedding photos:

On the weekend of the 19th & 20th we had many get-togethers and then a great big party on Sunday! The Anniversary party was held in July because we had lots of visitors from Holland, and it’s much nicer to visit in July than in January. No snow and lots of sunshine.

Saturday night our aunt & uncle held a BBQ at their house, we got to visit with the family from Holland, played Bocce, teased cows in the back yard and practiced our skit for the next day.

Above: Micaela at the BBQ

Below: Chloe, Lara, & Lindsey (cousins!)

Sunday we were at the hall early to set everything up, everything looked great! We made picture boards of each family, and had a slideshow playing. There was an open house during the day, followed by dinner and entertainment in the evening.

During the open house we took pictures of each couple as they came through the arch that was in the door way.

THE BEAUTIFUL COUPLE OF THE DAY!

Mom & Dad (married for 27 years now!)

Kate & Scott

Erica (alone because Mr. X will not allow pictures on the blog… picture would look a lot less awkward if he did – hint, hint)

Lau & Kate (We tried to pose like we were getting prom picture taken)

Erica at our table for dinner (Table E!). You could also call it table M…

Next came dinner and the entertainment. The cousins (all 14 of us) all put on a play about the lives of Oma & Opa, apart and together. It turned out fantastically! We had 2 cousins sit in as Oma & Opa (with their arms behind their backs). 2 more cousins were behind a white sheet and stuck their arms through and were Oma & Opa’s arms! We got lots of laughs (thanks to our aunt the playwright who wrote the script, and wonderful acting skills by the cousins, my job was to hold up a sheet.. I did great.. haha). Erica was our wonderful narrator, and Mic & Lauren were assistants, handing props to Oma and Opa’s “arms.”

Later I sang a song, and was accompanied by Kent (Mic’s boyfriend). I *might* put the video up here (Mic taped it), but I need to give approval first (quality control). There were also a few other acts in the entertainment, singing by Oma’s family and some speeches from Dutch relatives and a wonderful speech by Oma & Opa! By the time the night was over we were exhausted, took down the hall and said our goodbyes.

I think Oma liked it!

Here are the last 2 paragraphs of our skit, they close up this blog post perfectly!

So, if you’re ever looking for Oma and Opa in the summer time, they’re probably on their golf course, making something like bird houses or bridges or flower boxes or centre pieces, or sewing curtains or gardening, and on some days they actually stop working for a bit and they just golf. And they golf well. Opa even got a hole in one one day. You probably heard him celebrating.

What do we love about Oma and Opa? We love that they’re always happy, always in love with each other, always listening to us, always helping us celebrate what’s happening in our lives. They taught us how to swear in Dutch. They are still so active and young that we sometimes forget they’re getting old. We’re so proud that they have been together for fifty years, and they have set a good example for us of how to make love last that long. We all love you both very much!

Happy 50th Anniversary Oma & Opa!

Oma & Opa with their daughters. Their son (our uncle) Michael passed away when he was a teenager, we miss him terribly and think of him very often.

P.S. Oma reads this blog so make sure to congratulate her in the comments!