Party for Sophia!

We invited Sophia's friends for a tie-dye party and told them to wear old clothes!  Here is Sophia with her self-portrait pinata. 

The day was hot but not bad on the patio.  I had red and blue dye along with white shirts so the girls could make red-white-and-blue shirts for the patriotic holidays this summer.  They were just getting started here.  There was a LOT of dye here and there before it was over. :-)

Bill is getting ready to hoist the pinata.

Getting the spoils . . . .

See you next year when Sophia hits the double digits!

We had a birthday this week!

Sophia is nine!

We had David and Alicia over for cake and Alicia brought Sophia a squidlet she crocheted.

 Sophia in her candle-lit glory.

Four of the ladies.  We sure do love having family in town.  In total we have three family households in our city now.

Bill and I are very happy to have had Sophia for nine years.  We sure do love her.

A little service for a friend

My elderly friend is moving to a bigger apartment.  She has medical problems and needs help moving, so my friend and I have gone over to her house a couple of times to help pack things up.

It is immeasurably easier to pack up someone else's stuff when there are no emotions attached vs. packing up your own.

I hate moving.  I'm so glad I don't have to unpack those boxes.

It's that patriotic time of the year!

Today I went to Hobby Lobby to do a little shopping for an upcoming party.  I couldn't help stopping by the seasonal aisle.

RED, WHITE, and BLUE!

5th grade promotion

Coming in to the cafeteria

Caroline's turn.

Elizabeth's turn.

Look who's looking at me!

So proud!

 

With their wonderful teacher whom they had in both 4th and 5th grades.

What a wonderful grade school experience these two sweet girls have had!

Mystery picture from Kevin 3

What will it be this time??
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Oh my.  Umm . . . he's a soldier in the war for independence from Portugal?  And that man to his left made the sword?

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Lasagne from the freezer, vegetables

Tuesday:  Cheesy Chicken Skillet, rolls

Wednesday:  Beans in the slow cooker + corn bread

Thursday:  Seven-layer dip + chips

Friday:  Pizza

Award ceremony at school

I got a "heads up" note that Sophia would be receiving a reading award at school this past week and here she is!

 

Sorry the aspect is off.  I can't get it to a more normal size.  The man in blue in the second picture would certainly thank me, I'm sure.

Camping trip

Alicia and I took the girls camping to our favorite camping spot.  It's about 75 miles from home, but takes more than 2 hours to get there because we wind our way past cattle ranches, vineyards, and through little towns before we start into the mountains and the roads get progressively more, shall we say, "patched"?

All went well with the trip and the weather was nice.  We had lots of food, including s'mores over the campfire.  My friend Val met us Saturday morning for a hike around the lake.  Unfortunately this picture is dark, but here we are along the trail with her sweet dog.

The lake level was down pretty low, so some of the arms of the lake were empty.  We'd been hiking a couple of hours when it got confusing trying to figure out where the trail led and we ended up sort of lost.  Luckily we got advice from someone that eventually put us back out on the paved road near the campground.  I sent Alicia and the girls to the trailer to eat lunch while Val and I walked the half mile or so back to the marina to get our cars.  Said good bye to Val and we packed up the trailer and headed home.  Girl Power!

Christmas is finally over

For Christmas we gave the boy next door an "activity" instead of a wrapped present.

 He's an only child and well-doted upon by his parents and extended family.  We really like him a lot.

 We didn't see a particular need for a tangible gift, so we gave him a gift certificate for an outing instead.

 We went to a miniature golf place near our neighborhood.  It was probably built in the 1960s and it's meticulously maintained.

 After playing golf we went on the bumper boats.  We all got very wet because each boat had a squirting function that worked VERY well.

We stopped off for ice cream sundaes on the way home.  Merry Christmas!