First Pets

My nephew was moving out of his parent's house.  He had many fish that he did not want to take with him.   So we ended up with two very large goldfish.  They are named Buster and Babs.  Grace and Glen love them.  They like to watch them swimming and they love to feed them.

I am so glad that my nephew thought to add this kind of joy into our lives.

Glen is 7

 Wow!  Glen is 7 years old already.  How did that happen?  Time goes by too fast.

 This year Matt and I decided to have Glen and Grace's party at Pump It Up a local place that is full of blow up, bouncy house type items.

 The kids had so much fun running, jumping, laughing, yelling, and in general having fun.

 Glen got his wish and had a pirate themed birthday cake.  I wanted Grace and Glen to agree on one design but Glen would not budge and Grace willingly gave in.  So pirates it was :)

 So much food, so many candles.  Waiting to be able to sing and blow out the candles.

 There they go!

Lots of friends came to celebrate the two birthday kids.

 They all seemed to have a good time.

 They were even willing to share the birthday chair as they opened presents.

It was a great time had by all.
Happy Birthday Glen!!!!

1. How old are you? 7

2. Who is your best friend?  Adam

3. What is your favorite thing to do?  Read books in English

4. What is your favorite color?  Red 

5. What is your favorite food? Cheese

6. What do you like to do with your family?  Play games  

7. What is your favorite toy? Legos

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Police Man

9. What makes you happy? Hard covered books

10.  What makes you sad?  Losing my Legos

11.  What is your favorite show to watch? Batman 

12.  What is your favorite book? Star Wars

13.  What do you love to learn about? Math

14.  What is the best part of your birthday? Getting presents

15.  Where do you like to go?  Mamaw and Papaw's house

16.  Who was your teacher?  Mrs. Romero, Mrs. Skelton

17.  What is your favorite treat? Granola Bars

18.  What do you think about right before you fall asleep? Playing with my toys  

19.  If you could meet anyone famous, who would it be?  George Washington

20.  What was your favorite birthday present?  Legos

Grace is 9

 How is it that our little girl is now 9 years old?  It seems as if we had just brought her home from the hospital.

 This year we decided to celebrate her and Glen's birthday at Pump It Up which is a blow up, bouncy house type place.

 As you can see there was much jumping, bounching, laughing, and merry making in general.  The kids had so much fun!

 Glen got his wish and had a pirate themed birthday cake.  I wanted Grace and Glen to agree on one design but Glen would not budge and Grace willingly gave in.  So pirates it was :)

 So much food, so many candles.  Waiting to be able to sing and blow out the candles.

 There they go!

 Lots of friends came over to celebrate the two birthday kids.

 And they all seemed to have a great time.

 They even were willing to share the birthday chair as they opened presents.

 Grace also got her birthday manicure from Amy and Carol.

 Blue nails for Grace, clear for Carol, and pink for Amy.  It was a fun time had for all.

Thank you Amy and Carol for such a fun activity!

Happy Birthday Grace!

1. How old are you? 9

2. Who is your best friend?  Sable

3. What is your favorite thing to do?  Play with friends

4. What is your favorite color? Purple and Black

5. What is your favorite food? Meatloaf

6. What do you like to do with your family?  Play games

7. What is your favorite toy? Hatchimals

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? Gymnastic person

9. What makes you happy? being with friends

10.  What makes you sad?  Not being with friends

11.  What is your favorite show to watch?  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

12.  What is your favorite book? Harry Potter

13.  What do you love to learn about? Math

14.  What is the best part of your birthday? Friends

15.  Where do you like to go?  Mamaw and Papaw's house

16.  Who was your teacher?  Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Hill

17.  What is your favorite treat? Candy

18.  What do you think about right before you fall asleep?  Reading

19.  If you could meet anyone famous, who would it be?  Louis Armstrong

20.  What was your favorite birthday present?  Legos

Friends

Grace and Andrew

Chicago

 Since we drove to Waterloo, IA for Christmas we decided to make a quick stop on the way home.  We were driving close to Chicago and none of us had ever been there before so we decided to go for a quick visit.

 On the way there we got rear ended on the interstate, so that was not the best welcoming we could have had to the city but it got better.  We found our hotel which was in walking distance to all that we wanted to do.

 We found a little grocery store where we got breakfast and snacks for the day.  Then we walked through the parks to go to the field museum.  We saw so many things there but the most amazing was the dinosaurs.  We spent 5 hours at the museum just walking around and looking at things.

 The kids loved looking at the dinosaur skeletons.

 We got to see an IMAX 3D movie about mummies.

 Here we are waiting in line to see.....

 SUE!  Sue is the largest and most complete dinosaur ever found.

 She was such a big deal you had to get tickets even get into the room to see her.

 After the Field Museum we headed out to Lou Malnati's for some Chicago style deep dish pizza.  We were cold, wet, and hungry.  It was warm, dry, and the pizza was wonderful!

I did not get to see Cloud Gate.  But what we did do made for a great trip.  I hope to go back another time.

Christmas 2018

For Christmas this year Matt and I decided that we would drive out to Waterloo to se his parents.  It was quite the drive.  We drove through wind, rain, sleet, and snow...and that was just one day in PA.

But we did get there and had a wonderful visit.  We got their in time to help decorate the church.  Glen was not too interested in decorating the church, but he did like the idea of decorating the pew.

 His legos made very nice decorations.

He made a really great house.

 Grace however, was very interested in decorating.  She helped with decorating the Christmas tree.  The berries she is holding were some of the deocrations for the tree.

 While visiting we got to do many things with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Steve and one of the traditions is making press cookies.

 Glen decorated a few of the cookies but Grace and Grandma Sue did the most work for these cookies.

Don't those cookies look great?

 Glen really loved playing Othello.  He also loved just making patterns on the board.  It is amazing to see his mind at work.

 Christmas picture in front of the beautiful church.

 Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sue with Grace and Glen.  Grace helped decorate the tree on the left hand side.

 Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sue.

 This is Glen's favorite place in the world.  Loving on one kitty while the other one is patiently waiting for some love too.  Glen made sure that those cats felt loved and wanted.

 Grace, Glen and Grandma Sue also made chocolate mice.  They took a cherry dipped it in chocolate, stuck a kiss on the end for the nose and two almond slices for the ears.  They were so cute (and yummy).  Grandma Sue always comes up with the greatest activities to do while we are there.

For Christmas I asked for a game called Quirkle.  The best way I can expalin it is kind of like Scrabble with colors and shapes.  We played this game many times over the Christmas vacation, but it is a great memory that the first time many of us played was with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Steve.

 It was a fun time to celebrate, eat, talk, and just enjoy each other's company.  Thank you for having us over Grandpa and Grandma!

 Not sure when these pictures are from or where they fit into the whole scheme of things.  But here are two nice pictures of Grandpa Steve and Glen.