James and Peg’s Birthdays

James and Peg celebrated their Birthdays together for the 6th year in a row at Applebee’s (I think the first two were at Caesars but not sure). Richard joined us this year and picked up the tab. James got a bunch of cool toys, cash, and several Wii Point Cards (These allow him to shop for Wii games without actually using cash or credit cards). Peg gifts included mix and match separates to make 3 plus different outfits (Obviously I am still banned from buying Peg’s Birthday gifts).

Peg bought a couple balloons which you can see in the pictures, they ran about $12 each but were worth it. James got a Curious George balloon because when he leaves for school it is the only show on at that time. He has to record the shows to finish watching them since he has to leave in the middle.

James went home afterward and played with his new items, then we took him out shopping at Walmart and a Halloween store he wanted to visit. He did real well not spending anything which was ok because he could not find anything he really liked and decided to wait till he did.
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Edited: September 19th, 2011

Mothers Day 2011

This year Mothers Day was a little different than usual. First, we did not travel to our usual Chinese restaurant in Flat Rock, but went to our normal Chinese restaurant in Taylor with Aunt Peg. Aunt Peg joined us on our trip to Michigan Memorial Cemetery where we placed flowers on all the graves. On the way home Aunt Peg wanted to get some things from the store so we dropped her off and took James to the park for a few minutes while Aunt Peg shopped. We picked Aunt Peg up and took her home and had a great day. The weather was perfect (however the two weeks before was all rain and the two weeks after would be all rain).

Grandma is still recovering from her broken leg and arm so she did not make the trek with us, however the next day we surprised her with a McDonalds breakfast.

A different Mothers day but just as fun as the ones in the past.
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Edited: May 29th, 2011

Tribute to Virginia

Aunt Ginny as most of the family knew her, was the daughter of Ben and Millie, sister of Charles, Raymond, Dorothy, and Donald. Some of my fondest memories of Aunt Ginny was her taking to Tiger stadium for my first night game as a boy and every Christmas eve she would have pizza for us at Grandma and Grampa Kleibers.

We do not have many pictures of Virginia so if you can contribute something that would be great.
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Edited: July 9th, 2008

Tribute to Louise Dunberger (Color)

These are color pictures of Louise Dunberger. Louise was married to Harry and spent most of her adult life living in Trenton. Each Saturday my mom would go out to Trenton, eat dinner, do some event, and play cards. Louise was very active and loved to travel with Loretta to all sorts of interesting places. There was never a dull moment in the Trenton house with Aunt Louise there.

I think what I remember most about Aunt Louise and Trenton was how she used her back yard, there was an apricot tree in the center of it that I loved to climb and you could eat the apricots right off of it, the gazebo for card playing on summer evenings, picking berries in the back, all great memories.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Tribute to Louise Dunberger (BW)

These are black and white photos of Louise so most of these would be her early life. Louise Dunberger was a daughter to Joe and Rose Graf, she was Mother to Mark, Grandmother to Ron, Renee, and Natalie, and sister to Loretta and Joe. She was James Grand Aunt. Loretta always described Louise as a bit of a tomboy as they were growing up. Louise would always participate in the athletic things that Loretta had no interest in.

We were very happy that Louise had a chance to meet James before she passed away. She was in a nursing home but she was very active and aware. She got to hold James and feed him his bottle and she wished that her sister (James Grandma) had gotten to meet James. She outlived both her husband and son but was always optimistic about what the future would hold. I think every family member had at least one birthday celebratiion at her home in Trenton and Criss and Kenny had their wedding reception at her home as well. A very outgoing person.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Halloween 2006

This was a fun Halloween and most of the strange characters that you see are people who live on our street, what a cool street we live on. James had no idea that Sponge Bob and the Burger King guy were actually the same neighbors he sees in the summer mowing their lawns. James trick or treated the entire block of Tulane, then did a drop off and went back for more on Vassar.

We brought out the Nash and put a skeleton in him for some added atmosphere as far as the decorations goes. Lots of fun was had by all and this was for sure a Halloween to remember.
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Edited: October 31st, 2006

James 3rd Birthday 2006

James 3rd birthday began with a trip to Applebee’s for the Applebee Birthday Treatment, then we surprised him by having his gifts in his parents room where he never dreamed of looking for them (however after this was over he decided to sleep in our room to make sure we weren’t up to anything).

Once again we would like to thank everyone who helped make this such a wonderful day for James. He had so many balloons, presents and gifts to open plus cake and ice cream. James was in his glory this day.
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Edited: September 18th, 2006

Tribute to Peg

Peg is the eldest child of Charles and Loretta, Sister to Criss and Chuck, and Aunt to James. Peg was trained as a computer key punch operator. Before most of us ever heard of windows, she was working with computers, converting data into something the computers could process. I remember when I got out of the service Peg managed to get me a job with the company she worked for, and it was hard work doing all that keypunching, but it got me through school.

Peg currently lives in Oakwood and is James closest relative so she see’s alot of the little guy. She is listed with the school as the first contact should an emergency arise with James and we are unable to be reached. We try to get together each weekend if possible and James always looks forward to the visits and hurries to the car, then plays hard to get with her when she asks for a kiss.
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Edited: December 31st, 2005

Tribute to Criss

Criss is the daughter of Loretta and Charles, Sister to Peg and Chuck, Wife to Kenny and Aunt to James. In her youth, Criss has had more jobs than anyone I know and I hope some day I can get her to list them all, everything from Macgregors Sports to Bell Telephone. She currently works as a nurse where she can torment her brother with big phony needles. I remember her using a guillotine that we used for magic tricks and bringing it into the doctors office. She then put a big sign on it saying “we now do vasectomies”.

Criss currently lives with Kenny at Lake George where they have their own pontoon and enjoy evening strolls across the lake. It was always her dream to live on a lake and she made it happen and hasn’t looked back since.
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Edited: December 31st, 2005

James Meets Aunt Cil

James got a chance to visit more of his relatives on this warm Sunday in November. Here he is meeting Aunt Cil and Patty Lou! James was really good for the visit, taking in all the attention that he was getting. Its still a little warm so Patty Lou showed us around the yard and gave Mary some plants for our yard.

I remember the pool at Patty Lou’s while growing up, many parties were held here and the pool was the center piece for each one.
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Edited: November 17th, 2003