Birthday weekend

Last weekend was our BIG birthday weekend and it was a  special time with family as well.

My brother came in from Iowa and got to share in all the fun.  He comes 2-3 times a year to spend time with us and our Daddy.   We always enjoy his visits!

Our daughter, me and our DIL

Our daughter and her sons came in as well.  It was her 20th year class reunion and it just happened to fall on the weekend before Clancy's 9th birthday.  In fact, it was the weekend before his, our son's and Hanna Beth's birthday.  They all celebrate their special days the first week of  October.

I'm telling you there's not a cuter little boy nor is there a busier little boy.  He goes 100% all day long and it took all of us to keep up with him.  He takes "top honors" for the busiest of any of our Grans.  If he weren't so stinkin' cute it might matter but it's hard to get aggravated with him due to his cuteness. ~chuckle~

Saturday afternoon we gathered to celebrate our birthday honoree's.  My Dad joined in on the fun and no doubt, was glad to get back to his quiet little abode afterwards. ~grin~

This little guy was celebrating his 9th birthday and was more than EXCITED to find a Nintendo Switch in his birthday package.  How on earth these kids can manipulate those controls is beyond me.  I couldn't a bit more figure it out than fly to the moon.  He was a happy boy for sure!

Our Princess will celebrate her 8th birthday this next Saturday.  She was quite proud of her new Vera Bradley backpack, new clothes, books and a Garmin type fitbit.  She can now count her steps while carrying her cute new backpack.  How much better can it get for a precious little 8 year old girl.

And, this big guy celebrated #41 this past Tuesday.  Yep, I can't believe I'm Mom to a child 41 years old.  He was pretty excited about an envelope filled with some of his favorite gift cards! He's now Dad to two precious little girls and it blesses my heart to sit back and watch him be a Daddy.

I had one cake made with all of their names on it.  It's from our favorite bakery here and she's been making our family birthday cakes ever since Brandon's 1st birthday.  It wasn't the prettiest cake this year but we had to leave room for all their names and that left little room for "cuteness."

It was a fun and busy time and hopefully one for the memory books.

Monday Musings

I'm going to play a little catch up on what's been going on around here the past couple of weeks.  It's been a busy and fun time and we have some more fun and busyness in the days ahead.

I hosted our Pokeno group week before last and, as you can see, I went with a "lemon theme."  I have used lemon decor as my spring and summer decor and thought it would also make really cute table decor.  I found the gorgeous placemats at Tuesday Morning.  They are a heavy paper (by Michael Designs) and I got the napkins to match and then I made lemon labels for our water bottles at Avery.com  I served a salad dinner with a lemon dessert, it made for the perfect summer meal topped off with a fun game of Pokeno.
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I have been pondering a new look for our dining room table and I think I found the perfect table arrangement.  I saw this container at Pier 1 and most of the floral pieces came from there as well.  I took all of it up to one of our local floral designers and she put it all together for me and added the orchids and I could not be more pleased!  It makes such a statement!!
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In front of these windows has sat a wooden  toy chest since we moved in this house.  I've never really even thought about anything else going there.  That is until............until I saw this gorgeous mahogany table last weekend.  I was in a lovely antique  shop that was host to a oriental rug show when it caught my eye.  I immediately thought how pretty it would be in this place and it ended up coming home with me.  Of course, every decorative table has to have something decorative on top of it.
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Later that same day I found this cute little bird planter(the planter doesn't show up well in this photo) and had my floral gal do the succulent arrangement in it and I'm so pleased.  I also found this vintage set of candlesticks and I'm still in the process of deciding if they will stay.  The jury is still out, stay tuned.........
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Last Tuesday my sister in law and niece came to visit from DesMoines.  They had not been in a while and we so enjoyed their visit.  They spent some treasured time visiting with Daddy and then we took him out to eat at one of his favorite Mexican restaurants.  We had some special family time and then they left to go and spend some time with Suzy's family in Texas.  

My niece introduced me to Snap Chat while she was here and we had a fun time playing around with that.  I put the app on my IPhone but not sure I can remember how to use it and not sure that I care to remember.  It was fun to do with her but I have enough vying for my time without trying to figure out one.more.app!  We shall see!  It actually might be fun to play with when the Grans are here. 😉

We'll be enjoying some more special family time when our daughter and our two grandsons arrive later this week.

If you are my friend on Facebook then you likely saw that I did get a good report from my Retina Specialist this past Friday.  He was pleased with the healing process but I am still restricted until I see him again on Aug. 4th.  I really thought he might lift the restrictions if things were going well but  he did not.  But, that is just fine, I can be inconvenienced for my eye sight any time. I am extremely thankful for the good report and I will continue to play by the rules.  And, he did say that I would be seeing him every 3-6 months from here on out.  So, I guess that means for the rest of my life.  Good grief, I'm hoping that's a very LONG time but I really do not enjoy going to Doctor appointments.  Guess I'd better get to enjoying it. 

Have a great new week!

Monday's Musings

Whee! what a fun, fun Mother's Day weekend it was around here.  If we had had any more fun, I'm not sure Poppa and I would have survived. ~grin~  It all began on Thursday evening when my nephew and his girlfriend arrived. Aren't they just the cutest!

Warren just finished his junior year of college and will be doing an internship in Chicago this summer.  Amanda graduated from college this past Dec. and is now serving as a tour guide for 2 of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Chicago.  They are both so, so talented and love the theater and even shared a bit of their talent with us this weekend.

Warren is my Dad's youngest grandchild and he and Amanda shared some very special moments with Daddy this weekend. He thoroughly enjoyed being with them.

They had a great time doing things, such as riding the 4-wheeler, that they never have a chance to do.  They got to see what life in rural America is all about. ~grin~ And, might I add, they are both so thoughtful and respectful and renewed our hope in the young adults of today.

They had a blast fishing and took our little boat out, cruised the pond and caught a couple of fish in the process.

Tommy had a great time giving Amanda all the tips of fishing and teaching her to drive the boat. And, yes that is a Disney fishing pole she has in her hand that our Grans use.  But, it is a great pole and she caught her share of fish on it.

On Saturday evening our son and his family joined in on the fun and my Daddy even got in on the action.  I'm not sure we ever realized what fun this pond would be.

It was fun to see the cousins enjoy each other as well.  They've always lived many miles apart so their time together has been very limited.  

This was probably the best Mother's Day I have had since my Mom died 8 years ago.  It is always so sad for me and we had so much going on around here that I didn't have time to be sad.  Bridget sent me that gorgeous bouquet of flowers and Brandon and family gave me one of the new inverted umbrellas and an insulated monogramed water bottle for our upcoming Disney trip.  

These two pictures came to me as both our daughter and DIL were headed out the door to church with their sweet families yesterday.  I am so proud of both of them and the wonderful Mothers they are to our Grans.

It was indeed a most special family weekend!

Monday's Musings

We've had such a fun past few days around here.

Tommy's sister and her husband from Atlanta came for a visit.  Susan had her 50th class reunion Saturday evening and that was part of the reason for their visit.  I think they were probably one of the best looking couples at the event. ~and I'm not biased~ wink!

 On Friday evening we enjoyed some family time with the kids.  The fish were biting and the girls had such fun reeling their catches in.  Tommy and Steve got in the little boat and puttered around and didn't catch a thing but enjoyed watching the girls and hearing their squeals.  It's so neat how the clouds are reflected in the pond.  Susan and I took it all in from the patio.

On Saturday we left early to attend the May Madness Festival on our downtown square.  It has been many many years since our city has hosted an event such as this.  The downtown merchants and other interested folks began planning it over a year ago.

 There was something for everyone, vintage items, home decor, live plants and homemade dolls.

There was an old car show, metal work of all kinds, and 

signs of all descriptions.  I had to laugh when I read both of these.

A local gal had one of the neatest booths there.  She will take clothing from a person's deceased loved one and make them either a memory bear or a pillow.  I think it is such a cleaver idea and her work is perfection.

It has been a fun filled last 4 days and the weather could not have been more picture perfect.  It made for a great family visit and we are thankful for these fun times together.  Of course, it would have been even better if our daughter and her family could have joined in the fun.  But...........

Have yourself a great new week!