Esther’s 60th Birthday Celebration Week

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Day 1 – Sunday, September 7, 2025
Family arrives around 5:30 – simple meal of Lentil soup, salad and of course bread and cheese. It was a long travel day for everyone so not many photos

Gerard, Aunt Sonja(who has the birthday as Esther) and Emiel

Day 2 – Monday, September 8, 2025
Cookout at Esther’s House – Grilled chicken, potato fries, veggies and a salad. The weather was almost perfect for the whole week – cool in the mornings and evenings and upper 70’s in the afternoons.

Monday Lunch – Black bean enchilada casserole with chips
L-R: Sonja, Gerard, Esther, Emiel, Jan, Marielle, Menno and Maurice

Day 3 – Tuesday, September 9, 2025 (her actual birthday)
Dinner at Expat

Famous pancakes by Menno
Great big pancakes by Menno
Family field trip to Esther’s lab and greenhouse. Everyone was very impressed
Expat: Toni, Bruce, Esther, Jan, Sonja, Gerard, Marielle, Emiel, Maurice and Celia

We were seated upstairs, by ourselves, at the Expat which was good because Dutch people have a tendency to talk a bit loud. On our way in we say some friends and colleagues of Esther’s who were having a meeting in one of the downstairs rooms. A few minutes later the waiter came upstairs with 4 bottles of prosecco complements of the group downstairs – the family was blown away by generosity. After the Expat we went back to Esther’s for some birthday carrot cake – it was good. Menno loved it and had a piece everyday till it was gone.

Birthday girls – Esther & Sonja
Birthday carrot cake – Menno loved it!

Day 4 – Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Kayaking, Creature Comforts and food truck

Day 5 – Thursday, September 11, 2025
Bike, swim and barbeque at Bruce’s house – because the weather was a little chilly and my heart decided to go into A fib on Wednesday, we did not swim or bike. Attendees: Gerard, Menno, Maurice, Emiel. Sonja, Jan, Mariella, Toni, Celia, Austin, Shawn, Rhoda, Mark, Qian and Denise. After all of the lab members and out-of-towners left and it started getting darker I started the fire pit on the screened porch and the Toni, Celia and the family sat around the fire and talked – it was a lot of fun. The family left around 9ish – Toni, Celia and Esther spent the night.

Mark & Rhoda
Mark & Mariella
Jan & Emiel
Denise Tieman(FL), Qian Feng, Austin and Sean

Day 6 – Friday, September 12, 2025
Pizza party for family and out-of-town guests at Esther’s house. Esther and Toni drove into work together and had to be there for a 9AM lab meeting. I was about to cancel pizza night because of the Afib – I just didn’t have much energy. Celia stepped in and together we pulled it off. We first made a list of the ingredients we needed and went shopping at both Publix and Trader Joes for everything. After shopping we met the family and the Cedar Shoals building so they could see the train set. After the trains Celia and I went back to my house where she made us lunch and while I was resting afterwards she chopped up all of the veggies for the pizzas.

My pizza ‘DREAM TEAM’ Maurice, me. Celia and Toni (taking the photo)
Pizza time
Charcutier boards by Celia

There were a lot of folks who had just gotten into town who came to this event. We did the best we could to get enough seating and made 14 very yummy pizzas that had all kinds of different toppings one which was tuna fish, Toni’s favorite. Some people came in late because of transportation issues. Attendees: Toni, Celia, Gerard, Menno, Maurice, Sonja, Emiel, Marielle, Jan, Me, Esther, Denise Tieman, Austin, Qian, Lei, Nedda, Menoj, Namrata, Maohar(Texas), Yanbing (with husband, father and 2 kids), QI Mu (with husband and child). Sofia Visa and Mircea – total 26 plus 3 children.