HOT ROD YIA YIA (Re-Edited for Better Pictures!)

I recently had a business trip to Chicago to check into the Dominick's stores for Tyson Foods. I brought Yia Yia and Aunt Katherine to the store with me, and we introduced Yia Yia to the motorized chair!

She LOVED it! We do not have many pictures of her smiling, but here she is about to do doughnuts around the store.

I will not be at her 90th birthday party, so you can understand how special this visit was with her. Aunt Katherine was a great interpreter, and we had a wonderful lunch. I do not have many pictures of myself with Yia Yia, and this is one that I will always cherish as it made me feel special. Introducing this freedom to Yia Yia is a small thing to give her after all she has done for us. She is now very excited to go shopping on her own. Hopefully, if any of you go shopping with her, the store will have extra chairs since it is difficult to keep up with her - those things go 0-5 in about 1.2 seconds.

Aunt Katherine looked beautiful and happy, and Yia Yia now fully endorses Tyson products (Shameless Plug).
Have a wonderful party in June, and Dorie, Hollyn, Alexis and Me will be thinking of all of you!!!

Tom

Trumpet 3.0 - The Upgrade

Weddings, Proms, Namesdays, Party Plans. Let's post about something really relevant and interesting:

Trumpet took Winner's Dog Friday in Alabama, bringing his career total up to 3 points. This photo was taken a few weeks ago after we won his first two points. I tried to fauxto shop out my double chin to no avail. At least they weren't judging me.

Here's a little tip for you, next time you find yourself in a dog show and win your class and are getting your picture taken with your hound: DON'T LOOK AT THE CAMERA! This advice was given to me by a veteran breeder/handler (Trumpet's Biological Mother) who explained that looking at the camera is the sign of a rank amateur. Of course, I am a rank amateur, I just didn't look at the camera. Dog handling has more etiquette rules than a Japanese Tea Ceremony. For complete information on what the points requirements are, etc, click here. Or, here's a less painful option: ram your head into your computer monitor repeatedly until your are drifting in and out of consciousness.

But ain't he purdy?

Wedding Bells

A short break from Prom night……

Congratulations George & Carrine Stavroulakis!

My Cousin George Stavroulakis and his beautiful French Wife, Carrine, are pictured here at their wedding April 21, in Rethymnon, Crete. George’s proud father, my uncle Tito, is standing nearby.

May you live a long, healthy life together with love and happiness. We welcome you to come to America soon and meet all of your family over here.

Papou Tito will be arriving here May 17^th and is planning another road trip with friend Chuck. They will drive from Kansas City to Florida; then they’ll take a trip up to New York; they plan to drive to Chicago for the big party – and finally back to K.C. and prepare to return to Crete.

Uncle George

WOW

Hey cousins...love the prom photos!!! By the way, I was 6 in 1981..hehehe

The Prom Time Machine Continues......

Ok, here we go~
I take you back to the years 1981 & 1982. As Tula & Helene both remember because they we're both there! Yes, this is Mark & I, My date was soooo HOT I married him & we'll have 23 yr's this Oct 7th! ( And they said, " It wouldn't last, he's not greek & she's only 20!")

Prom 1981

Eat your hearts out everyone. I went to Prom with a big celebrity too. Do you recognize him? It's Tony Orlando. He tied a yellow ribbon around my heart.

The Prom Time Machine

C'mon everyone, be as brave as Cheryl and post your past Prom or Homecoming pics so all our kids can get a kick out of them! How do you like my date?! Does anyone recognize him? He's on TV now, well actually commercials, he's a car dealer. I know Cynthia gets a big kick out of this picture. I will post Andy's Prom pic as soon as I find it in the attic.

Brogatos at The Bean

Lena, Sabrina, Nancy and Mike all read this blog, so I thought I'd post them here too! If you'd like to see more pix of our visit with the Brogatos at Millenium Park, take a peak.

Earth Day & Geocaching with the Shubers

Zachary reporting for duty.

Hello All! Yesterday we went to a local preserve that feeds the water supply to our area. The whole thing is practically dried up.

"Where's the water?"

Last year, in anticipation of hurricane season they drained Lake Okeechobee to prevent a levy burst like in New Orleans. When there were no hurricanes, and the weather was beautiful, sunny warm and breezy, it lessened the water supply even more. We went there on a geocaching event called CITO (Cache in Trash Out).

And you thought Reese and Connor were handsome.

With Zachary in the lead, we filled 4 large garbage bags and found 4 geocaches. He told the Park employee who was running the program, “I will lead when there is only one path, you can lead when there are two.” And off he marched to collect trash and find treasures.

Our fearless leader.

ZenSational

I just wanted to share with all of you the job Kimberly did on our entryway to our home here in Florida. It's a little Zen garden to match our oriental decor inside. Then she went home and broke her back doing the landscaping for her handicapped neighbor.

Thanks, Kim

Save the Date!

Celebrating

Yiayia Eleni's 90th Birthday

& 60 Years in America

Saturday, June 2nd

1 pm - 5 pm

Chantilly Banquets
5412 S. LaGrange Road
Countryside, IL 60525

We're set on the place, now we have to work on a program to honor Mother/Yiayia/Great-Yiayia properly. If any of the grandkids/great-grandkids have ideas, please bring them forward. This is a celebration of Yiayia and of our wonderful extended family. Maybe the great-grandkids can perform some of thir talents - whether it be singing, piano, whatever.

Love to all,

Uncle George

Da Prata Bruddas

Remember when we were in Chicago last weekend and EVERYONE asked about the boys and wanted to see pictures? And I kept saying the boys school pictures had just been ordered but I didn't have them yet? Here they are, just got them today.

This is Conn.

You guessed it, then this must be Reese.

You can tell them apart, can't ya?

Comments about how handsome they are, how they look JUST like me, and donations for haircuts are welcomed.

Barb and I spent Easter with the Shubers on the east coast of Florida. Here is a pic of the Shubers on the Good Ship Lollipop navigating Lake Shuber.

Prom Pix - Eleni & Thas

No, that's not Eleni, it's Hannah, Thanasi's gorgeous date.

Our bunnies - all grown up.

Eleni is the perfect hybrid of both her parents - what a beauty!

Eleni with her Bo.

Not a bad way to spend your birthday, Thas!

I remember my highschool dances.......

I went to homecoming with this super-cute guy......

Hi Hollyn & Alexis, it's me, Maria

Hi cousins. I just wanted to send you a picture of myself with my favorite stuffed animal mouse. I dressed him like a pirate and his name is "Filet Mignon".

Hi guys, it's me Eleni. This is my very first post ever. Love you all!

Hey Thanasi,

Wishing you a very Happy Broothday! Loved having you guys over last weekend. Take care. Love, The Pappas'

Papou's visit to California

Here are two pearls in a half shell, Hollyn and Alexis. Thank you Papou for visiting us way out here in California. We had a wonderful time!!

We love you,

Dorie, Tom, Hollyn and Alexis

Hey Cuz'n's

Update: Meant to post this one too. This is the one that Conn commented about Jodi looking like me.

After our visit with everyone, I became homesick for my cousins, aunts, uncles, yiayia and Portillo's Italian Beef. I regret that my boys don't know you and you don't know them. We need to fix that. So as my first act in office after being elected President of our yet-to-be-planned and -scheduled reunion [nominated by Tula, seconded by John Chousi] I figured we need a blog.

A lot of you have been added to the author list and should have an invite in your inbox. If you don't have an invite email me and I'll add you to the list: I need email addresses for Jodi and Eric, Thanasi, and Michael Mancuso.

It's easy to post and this can be a great forum for keeping in touch, posting kids school pictures, and giving a shout out to eachother. For example:

Hey, Angela Pappas:

Bravo on your essay!

I'm so proud of you.

xoxox Auntie Cher

See how easy that was?

You can also post pictures, like this:

Tula, I don't think your hair looks THAT bad. I need Photox. (photoshop/botox)

Tesseres Elenes.

How did we make such good looking kids!?!

Please blog and keep us wayward Karounos-Kids (me, Kim, Tom, Eleni, Thanasi and our respective Xenos families) stay in the Big Fat Greek Chicago Loop. Endaxi?

Me filakia. Cheryl