Maurice Family Reunion, 2008

Every five years, since 1978, the Maurice family has held a large family reunion at a Windsor park, in August. It is a reunion of the descendants of Clement Maurice and Malvina Thanasse (my great-grandparents). Considering at least 10 of their children lived to have children of their own, there are a lot of people at this reunion! Here's a picture of the big family tree, with all the descendants on it; underneath is a close-up of our little branch.

Flashback to 1983: I was five years old. I'm the last kid in the front row, with the pink shorts and the red ribbon. I actually won first place in a running race that year!

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It's interesting to reflect on how much my life/family has changed within the last five years, since the last reunion. Rod and I got married; we had Andrea; and we also had Kevin. Sadly, my grandpa passed away suddenly when Andrea was a baby. He was very much involved in the planning and celebrating of the family reunion, so it felt kind of odd with him not being there this year. But I'm sure he was smiling down on all of us!

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Andrea is old enough that she was able to participate in some of the games/activities they had for the kids. However, since she just turned three a few weeks ago, the other kids had a big advantage over her in the competitions. Thank goodness she is still at an age where winning isn't a big deal, it's just getting to participate and have fun that counts! In fact, after her running race was done, she cried because she wanted to run more races!

Keep your toes behind the line!

Go, Andrea, Go!

Andrea also participated in the ball toss.

Then, she did the treasure hunt for coins, in the sand. Everyone was laughing because she was digging like a little gopher, and flinging sand everywhere! We had to help her spot coins, because she was having so much fun digging!

After the treasure hunt, Andrea was ready for a break, and some refreshments.

Kevin was too small to participate in the activities, but he got a lot of attention from our family. He was happily passed from person to person. He also enjoyed watching the trees and leaves swaying in the wind, at the park. Mostly, he just sat and relaxed, enjoying the outdoors.

There was a great play area in the park, so Andrea also spent a lot of time on the swings. After playing on the swings, we had hot dogs, corn, and watermelon to eat. For dessert, the kids got chocolate-coated ice creams. Andrea is SUCH an ice cream lover. Of course, she got it all over herself . . . it was running in streams down her dress! But the look of satisfaction on her face was priceless. Mmm . . .


All that fresh air and excitement wore the kids right out. When we pulled into our driveway, I turned around to check on them, and this is what I saw: sleepy babies!

We had a lovely afternoon at the park with our extended family. I hope they will have another reunion five years from now. Imagine--Andrea will be 8, and Kevin will be 6 years old! :))

[I hope to post more pictures at a later date. The people who ran the reunion took group shots and other photos that I'd like to add. However, they ran into technical difficulties, so the photos aren't available yet.]