LeDuc 40th Anniversary Party

Ok, so I'm a little behind in my posting, but I did want to mention that the reason we made the recent trip to Minnesota/Wisconsin was mainly to hold a 40th anniversary party for Becky's parents. She scored some major brownie points with her parents, and if she wasn't in the will before, she sure as hell is now!

Between her and Chuck, they threw an incredible party for all the extended family. The party was held at the local hotel conference center. The food was delicious, and the setting was perfect--considering it was an absolute squall outside.

The party was basically a big ol' Wisconsin family reunion, with almost all of the old aunts and uncles, friends and cousins coming to the party. Instead of posting like a thousand pictures of all the different people, I am working on a movie which will incorporate all the pictures into it. It will be easier to view that way (and easier to skip for those not interested).


From the very beginning of the party, there was very large potential for the boys to be completely bored. They were the only kids there, and the median age of the guests was about 70! After unloading ten dollars of quarters on them in the hotel's arcade, I came up with a better plan for keeping them entertained: I gave each boy a digital camera (mine and Adolfo's) and instructed them to take a picture of every old person they saw in the room. Well, to them, that was everybody!

So Luke and Eddie bounded around the room taking photos of just about everybody; it kept them entertained for the rest of the party, and it let all the old timers get a look at the boys when they weren't moping around saying, "I'm bored." Plus, having a kid spring up on you and take your picture, it seems, gets a more genuine smile than if some 30-something like myself says, "Say cheese!"

There were a couple pretty cute moments at the party. One was when Luke jumped up like a jack-in-the-box in front of Great-Grandpa John, who is well in his 80's, and took his picture. I thought Grandpa John was going to jump clean out of his trousers. Probably the most he moved all year.

The boys also learned how to "clink their water glasses with spoons" to get Ed and Kathleen to kiss... ala the standard thing you do at weddings. Once the boys had command over Grandpa and Grandma in this way, they were merciless. Grandpa and Grandma must have kissed 10 times in 10 minutes. "More than they've probably kissed in the last five years," one of the guests replied. (You know who you are!)

There was also a cute part where Luke took some video, and it's cute to see through the eyes of this little six year old. All the video is at butt-height level, and the attention span in the video is really short. I'll include that in the video I produce.

So, that's a taste of what's to come in the video. It was a grand party! I hope everyone had fun!