Tio Mario's Surprise Birthday Party

This Memorial Day weekend, the Costa/Martins extended family got together at Nelia and Ken's house in Folsom to celebrate Tio Mario's 70th birthday.  There were three aunts and uncles in attendance, all those currently living in California: Tio Manuel, Tio Mario (the birthday boy), and Tia Judite, plus lots of cousins.  Of course not everyone could make it, especially family in Canada and the Azores, but still there was a good turnout.  You may remember that since my great grandmother had children over several decades, my mother has aunts and uncles that are close to her in age, and is even older than one of her uncles.  Here's Tio Mario with his family:

Nelia and Ken threw a great party, and Tio Mario was quite surprised when he walked in.  Tia Fatima, his wife, was so nervous about the secret and the party that she hadn't slept well in days, and had asked her daughter, "What if it doesn't go well?"  Nelia replied, "What's not to go well?"  And of course she was right-everyone had a wonderful time.  I realized that many of these people I hadn't seen in about six years.  It was so fun catching up, seeing how the kids had grown, meeting the babies of the family, and enjoying some Portuguese humor.  It was a really special day.

We were commenting that the family is very female-heavy (not that that's a bad thing!).  These are the three male cousins we have (in fact, Fernando, left, is the only one whose father is on this side of the family, so I guess that makes him the only one carrying forth the name-crazy!), and what VIPs (Very Important Portagees) they are:

There were nieces and nephews from different seven aunts and uncles in attendance.  Here's Tio Mario, with those that were there (Not to confuse: I'm a great-niece!):

Great thanks again to Nelia and Ken for hosting such a great day of family, and felicidades to Tio Mario!  We always say we should get together more often-please let's actually do.