Let There Be Music

The kids did great at their spring recital.

Happy Birthday Amy

Amy really knows how to milk her birthday, making it last several days.  This year was no different.
Yesterday, mom and I went out for dinner, presents, and cake.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Then today, she started her birthday with the traditional birthday pancakes...

...celebrated with her kids at school...

...and enjoyed the afternoon on her new porch swing.  Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Look Who's Riding

Evidently, if you wait long enough, it's really easy to teach your child how to ride a bike.  Amy and Todd tried to get Owen to ride a couple of years ago.  He fell and didn't want anything to do with it. Then, the other day, all of a sudden, he was off!

Monday's Memory--Mickey Ice Cream Bars

Last week, while I was at Disneyland, I bought a Mickey ice cream bar, and found myself thinking back to the Disney cruise and all of the Mickey bars consumed on that trip.  It started out with the kids.  Dessert after a meal was always a Mickey bar...sometimes more than one!!  The kids loved them.  Well, the adults tried them, and they were an instant hit.  I have to admit, they were might fine. I hate to think how many of those bars we ate during that cruise.

I think Owen wore more than he ate!

Theirs was a little fancier!

Easter Breakfast

This was the year that the group just kept getting bigger and bigger!  We ended up with 25 people!
Milo and Gale came down, which was very fun.  Then, Todd M's sister, Marilee, and family were going to be in town, so we invited them to join us.  Then, Marilee's husband's brother  (did you get that?) wanted to be included, so of course, the answer was yes.  Put all of those with the usual crowd, Mark, Kris, Matt, Lauren, the girls, Amy and family, and mom and me...and you get a whole lot of potatoes!
I must have been busy, there's no pictures of breakfast...but the kids had a great time after breakfast, playing badminton, horse shoes, and exploring the lake.

The adults just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and visited.

But, the highlight, as always was the "egg" hunt.

Goodbye Fritz

My good neighbor for the last almost 30 years passed away early this morning.  Fred Heath, but we knew his as Fritz, was diagnosed with mesothelioma many months ago, underwent chemo, and steadily went downhill until last week. Then, he really went fast.  In one week, he went from getting dressed, eating, walking under his own power, and having conversations to being in a hospital bed on oxygen, and not being able to say much more than a word or two. It was a blessing when he finally passed.
Some of the things I'll remember about Fritz:
*He was in the newspaper business, so he had really early hours.  Most Christmases and Thanksgivings, we filled a plate of dinner for him and left it on his porch for his to eat later.
*We always traded "mail duty" when either one of us went on a trip.  Just yesterday, I found the paper grocery bag he always brought over to me when he had a trip planned.
*Fritz was our "gofer guy".  He was always bombing not only his, but mine as well.
*He loved to play pool, but his passion was golf.  I can't remember a time when I was over visiting with him these passed months that he didn't have some kind of gold tournament on the TV.
*For a long time, Fritz had a boat on his driveway.  He didn't use it much, but I remember one time he took mom and me to the LB marina and out onto the open ocean.  Another time, he took a bunch of us to see the Christmas lights in Huntington Harbor.  Every once in a while, he would start it up, just to keep things running, and it was so loud, it scared me to death every time.  I told him he needed to warn me ahead of time, but he just laughed.  He never did warn me!
I loved Fritz.  He was a great guy and neighbor.  And I will miss him lots.

Spring Crafts

I love making crafts.  I'm not very good at creating, but I"m an excellent copier.  I love cutting the wood, painting, and stenciling. Actually I love everything about making them.  These are the two crafts that I made for the house this year.  I adapted the word blocks from something I saw on P
interest, and the garden sign was inspired by a sign I saw at Hobby Lobby.  I think they turned out pretty cute!!!