60

My precious mother turned 60 on the same day that my Ruthie turned 5. The entire Payne crew got together over the weekend to celebrate Mom's big day.

My little sister and her daughter even flew in from Washington state for the festivities.
My big sister with her 2 girls.

The big boy cousins (sorry for the red eyes - haven't figured out how to fix that on my fancy camera yet....maybe it would help if I checked out the directions!)

I'm sure Papa never thought he'd be attending his little girl's 60th birthday party!! We are so blessed.

The Payne kids put together a special digital scrapbook of Mom's life. Little Brother did a great video with all the photos that Big Sis secretly scanned one weekend when Mom was out of town. Little Sis headed up the album and each of us contributed a page, including all the grandkids. And what did I do, you ask? Well, I hosted the big event! (I know, I got the easy end of the deal, but hey, I'm the middle child. I got lost in the shuffles of responsibilities - not to mention "I have my hands full" according to every stranger I meet.)

Pops and Ruthie watching the video.

Mom totally entertained us with her reaction to her album and video. First tears of joy and overwhelming emotions, then giggles, snickers, laughter, next side-splitting, tear-producing laughter and howling - thanks to Uncle Matthew photoshopping some photos for her album. If you want to see them, go to my sister's blog. She included them and it is worth checking out.

These are really the only photos I took of the day. When I have my siblings around, I rarely take out my camera because they take enough to fill an entire album. All in all, we had a wonderful family reunion centered around the best Mom anyone could ever ask for. Happy 60th Mom!