Mom's 95th Birthday

Time to celebrate mom's 95th birthday

Happy Birthday, Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma

The day started clear but COLD and along about noon, the snow started and it came and came.  They were predicting wind along with it which didn't develop, luckily.  All of the family was able to be there except Kurt, Amy & Chase - if the wind had developed, they would have had a very nasty ride home.

You can't have a birthday without a picture table.  There seemed to be a lot of interest in the "older" pictures on Grandma.

 Jennie and Jan arranged entertainment for the afternoon party for the residents of Bethany Meadows and a few friends.  Joyce did a good job of singing Christmas songs as well as hymns.  Everyone seemed to enjoy her talent.

 Our cousin, Norma, volunteered to sing Mom's favorite hymn, "Blessed Assurance" on the spur of the moment.  She does such a wonderful job with this hymn and we love to hear her sing.

 The "worker bees" - these two kept the coffee flowing and the donut holes coming.  We had lots of good comments on our "dessert" from the residents.  They said it's a nice change from cake and since we had put the donuts in little cups, they could take their leftovers home.

DeAnn came home for Grandma's birthday - it was so fun surprising everyone.  Holly was here from college so we had to have a picture of the "oldest".  Mom is the oldest in her family; I am the oldest daughter and DeAnn and Holly are both the oldest. 

 Mom and the kids.

It was a good evening, despite the weather.  Her two brothers and their wives were there to join us for dinner along with some of our close family friends.  Mom received a basketful of cards - I'm sure it will take her a couple of days to get through them all.

Mom, hang in there and we'll do it up really big for the 100th.  Happy Birthday


Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Holly's Pop Concert

Last Friday evening was Holly's first orchestra concert of the year and it was her Pops Concert which is the fun one.  The band and orchestra kids all have costumes - this year's theme was "Lights, Camera, Music".  Holly's violin section were dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz.

Dad and I took a leisurely ride to Sioux Center.  The soybeans are so yellow - this picture does not do it justice at all.  Then there's this pretty blue water tower just sitting there - there's a slight hill before you come to it - NICE.

 Holly's roommate, Tara was the cowardly lion - she was a perfect lion with her thick curls.

 Holly spotted us when she came in - we had just had dinner with her but guess, she was still excited that we were there.  Makes a Gramma feel really special!!!!  She was really excited when her Aunt Amy and cousin Chase showed up at dinner.

 This gal had a smile on her face the entire concert.

 Short video for her mom.
Isn't she the cutest "Dorothy"?  Holly, you are the best!!

Two of my favorite people - I feel so blessed that these two belong to us.  They seem to really enjoy "hanging out" together, even though they don't get to do it very often.

That's it for today - it was a wonderful weekend.  Holly's concert on Friday evening and my 50th class reunion on Saturday evening.  More soon.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Landscaping at Amy and Kurt's

When we were in Washington, Amy and Kurt had a new driveway and front sidewalk put in.  It's beautiful but the contractor did kinda mess up their yard.  This is the area where they took out the old sidewalk.  Because it was under the trees, grass  had not done all that well.  Hopefully the new seed will do much better.

 This is the area that we spent close to three days working on.  There was rock mixed with dirt that was at least 20" deep or so it seemed.  Peter dug out the rock, then we screened it to get the dirt and rocks separated,  washed the rock and filled in other areas in the back yard.

 You can see who did the hard work!!

 The rock in memory of Ken, Kurt's dad.

 Almost finished.  Because this area is complete shade, we had to pick plants that require no sun - most of these came from Peter's "nursery".  Just had to purchase a couple coral bells and one hosta.

 Kurt and Amy finished the job with the mulch.  Am anxious to see the finished product.

Still have the other side of the front deck to do but that might have to wait til next Spring.  I know Amy has a couple of work days coming up the end of September so will wait  to see what she puts on her list.  We'll have a some extra workers because Amy's taking a couple days off and Holly will be with us for a long weekend.

Have a GREAT weekend and enjoy the cool weather - I know I will.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Family Pictures

When we arrived in Washington, they were busy harvesting raspberries.  We were even fortunate enough one day to be able to go out to the fields to watch Holly drive the picker.  The blueberries came into season while we were there - when you drive down the roads, the berries hang in clumps on the branches and almost look like grapes.

 I LOVE to take pictures of Mt. Baker and here's another scene.  No cows this time, just an alfalfa field.

 DeAnn decided one Sunday that we had to have some grampa and gramma pictures with the kids, soooooo................

deciding where to take them

 My "girl" and I with Sam thrown in

 The grandkids

 If you look, there's a sweet little lady in the woods.

See the big wood pile in the background - well that's the one we didn't get burned before the "burn ban" was put on.  We did get another pile that was to the left burned one day and had started on this one.   Fire is something that we are good at!!!

DeAnn and John with her wood carving - it's quite impressive.  Water proofing the carving was the one thing on the list that did get finished but we didn't do it - John did.  This is the first time that EVERYTHING plus a few additional chores John added were all completed plus we had several "no work" days thrown in and usually a nap about 3:00 each afternoon.

That's it for now - not sure what the next blog will entail - still some pictures left in my file from Washington.  Have a good weekend ahead - I'm going to love it because it's supposed to be in the low 70's which is absolutely perfect weather.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Creating Flower Beds II

Since it took several days to finish this project (like about a week), I thought I could take two days to blog about it.

 Getting the grass out of the flower beds:

 Beginning the plantings of Mom's Vision:

 A few more plants (from South Dakota) on Mom's vision:

 Plants on DeAnn's Oasis:

 The composting has begun - 6 yards in all

 The finished flower beds:

Mom's Vision by the cottage:

 The south flower beds:

DeAnn's Oasis

It looks so different  - good job, DeAnn and Dad!!!!!!

Next blog I'll fill you in on some of our "fun" activities.

Love to all,

Gramma and MOM

Creating Flower Beds - I

One of the first items on Dad's "Daddy-Do" list was to put in flower beds under the trees.  The grass doesn't grow very well under the large cedar trees.  We (really just Dad) brought a half van load of flowers (mostly hostas) with us.  In fact I wasn't allowed to bring as many clothes as I probably needed because we had too many plants!!

BEFORE:   the south bed

BEFORE:  DeAnn's Oasis

 Marking the area with a hose to find just the right look:  have to look closely to see the black hose

 Spray painting the outline

 Edging the outline

 Sharping the outline

 Removing the grass

All of this was required before a single plant could be put into the ground.  If you're wondering where I am, I, for the most part at this stage, held down the lawn chair, provided  lots of technical advise and was the water person.

Next post will be:  Stage 2 of putting in flower beds

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM