Happy Birthday, Abby!

Abby turned 5 last Tuesday, August 18th.

(Her daddy’s birthday was Wednesday) 

We celebrated Abby’s birthday Saturday evening with a nice party at her house.  The weather was great, food was great, and we had a nice, relaxing time.  Abby enjoyed playing with her friends

and opening her presents.

Megan enjoyed using her little video camera to record the party.

Uncle Jeremy had fun, too!

Sunday afternoon, John was busy riding bicycles with Pat, so I decided to spend the afternoon with Megan, Abby, and Peyton.  We ate Happy Meals at McDonalds,

went to Walmart, then went to our house to do a project.  Peyton lost his first tooth Sunday morning and Abby lost her second tooth last week and I hadn’t made their tooth fairy pillows yet.   Megan already had hers, so she decorated some fabric and I made her a little pillow for her Webkins. 

Peyton wanted a yellow pillow with a Hummer on it, so he drew it with a fabric marker.

Abby looked through my fabric and chose some leftover flower girl dress fabric for the top, some pink fabric with tutus for the bottom, and some green striped fabric with a white doggie on it for her tooth pocket.

It was colorful!

Then we spent some time in Aunt Jessica’s room that’s being turned into an office.

The kids liked being able to touch the ceiling!

We had a very enjoyable afternoon.  The kids behaved very well and were very appreciative.  Peyton even told me I’m the “best grandma ever”.  Of course, later on his mom told me he said his daddy was the “best daddy ever” – until he wouldn’t give him something he wanted!

Gone Feising

After finally recovering from the weeks of fun and hard work of getting ready for Jessica’s wedding, I went to Toledo last weekend to go to two feises with Michelle and the girls.  The first one, on Saturday, was in Windsor, Ontario.  This was the first time we all had to show our passports to get across the border.  We left the house plenty early, expecting a possibly long wait at customs, and arrived 1 1/2 hours early for the feis.  The girls did well, both getting medals.

After the feis was over, we drove to Lansing, Michigan to spend the night.  This time we had a long wait at customs, but it was all right since we weren’t in a big hurry.  When we got to the hotel, we found they had been overbooked, so they gave us a free room at another hotel 🙂  After we got settled, we went out to eat at a nice restaurant that’s housed in an old train depot.  We planned to go swimming in the hotel’s pool later on, but we were too exhausted.

Sunday morning, Michelle fixed the girls’ hair in our motel room, then we went to the feis venue where Michelle, Caity, and Emily were going to volunteer.  Since I had volunteered two years ago, I checked to see if they needed me again.  I got to work in data entry, typing dance results into the computer.  For a little while, I also checked to be sure results were correct (one wasn’t!), then clicked the button to approve the results officially.  It’s interesting work and nice to read some of the judges’ comments to see what type of things they look for when judging the dancers.  The girls danced nicely, and won more medals at this feis.

This picture came from Michelle – I like it because the girls were together.  The feis in Lansing doesn’t allow cameras, so I didn’t even take mine.

Monday, Michelle and I went to the fabric store to buy velcro and ribbon so I could put loops on the waists of the dance costumes so they can add jeweled clasps to hold their identifying numbers for each feis.  Becca’s dress already had a loop, but the velcro was almost gone and her clasp was barely hanging on.  Emily’s dress didn’t have a loop yet, so she seemed happy to get one.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I was at school for video conference classes to fulfill half of my 20 hour requirement for the year.  The classes were interesting for about the first hour of each one, but they got awfully repetitive, lasting for 2 1/2 hours!  The room was warm, and it was really hard to sit there for so long just listening.  I would have liked to knit, and probably wouldn’t have been so tired if I was knitting, but I didn’t think the supervisor would appreciate me knitting while I was supposed to be listening.  I don’t think she would know that I can actually listen better while my hands are busy!  I have to go back next Thursday afternoon and all day Friday – I hope the topics and speakers are interesting.

I found out I’m going back to work at the high school with a couple teachers I really enjoy working with!  I’m not real anxious to get back to work yet, but at least I think I will enjoy the work this year.

Today, I’m trying to go through the house, looking for things that belong to Jessica, so we can take them to her tomorrow, along with her trundle bed and her car.  We plan to look through wedding and honeymoon pictures and hopefully get some nice ones printed so we can frame them.

Adam got creative, and took some nice, artistic pictures on their honeymoon 🙂

The Wedding

After months of preparations and hard work, Jessica and Adam got married Saturday. 

It was a beautiful, touching, and a very emotional wedding!

Jonathan played his guitar and sang while a slide show played, picturing Jessica and Adam from babies until now.  He played and sang “The Wedding Song” for the mothers and grandmothers, then  “Forever” while the bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearer walked up the aisle.  Jonathan then played “The Bridal March” for the beautiful bride and her emotional father.  During the ceremony, Adam surprised Jessica with a song that he played and sang. 

John read the poem he wrote in Jessica’s honor.

After the receiving line and blowing bubbles at the happy couple, we took some pictures, then went to the grange for the brunch reception.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and we got a lot of nice compliments on the food.  There was a candy bar where people were supposed to fill up their favor boxes.

Later, we had a cook-out for family and the bridal party at our house.  We had planned to have sloppy joes and hot dogs, but we brought home so much ham from the reception, we didn’t need to make the sloppy joes.  We still have a lot of leftovers!  Jessica and Adam opened their presents then left for their honeymoon in North Carolina.

We were surprised and pleased to receive so much help from our kids and our friends.  I don’t know what we would have done without them!  We’re slowly getting back to normal after trying to get rested up after a week of very little sleep 🙂

It’s Almost Time!

We’ve been super busy this week getting ready for Jessica’s wedding on Saturday.  Luckily, we’ve had lots of help and will hopefully get everything accomplished.  Jeremy has done a lot of yard work for us, cutting and trimming trees, while Lois has helped Jessica with getting decorations ready for the church and the grange. John mowed and has been trying to get a couple cars fixed and out of the way.   Today, Jessica is getting a slide show ready, using pictures of Adam and her when they were young.  I’m doing MORE sewing – Amy’s dress needed altering, and I need to alter the dress I bought to wear to the wedding.  That’s right – I bought a dress – not enough time to make one!

A couple weeks ago, we went to a luau at Chris and Bonnie’s house.

John and Adam made some food for the party, using recipes John found on the internet.  At one point, I heard John saying, “Get a bowl.”  Then I heard, “Get a bigger bowl.”  I imagined seeing 12 bowls sitting on the counter, all dirty!

We had some rain around the time we were ready to eat, but it didn’t last very long.  Megan had a lot of fun, but Abby was afraid of Cosmo, the dog, so she stayed in Daddy’s arms most of the afternoon.

The temperature wasn’t very warm, but some of the kids swam anyway. Megan didn’t get in the water all the way and Jessica didn’t either!

Adam and Jessica spent some time out on the porch one afternoon, doing each others’ nails.  Is this a sign of things to come?