Nana's Birthday

On Friday the 9th, we got the drop on Nana with a surprise 60th birthday dessert party. Friends old and new converged on Peniel United Methodist in Newport armed with a plethora of sweets: Austrian Chocolate balls, 7-Up cake, home-made bon-bons, chocolate dipped marshmallows and more...so much more.

Everyone had a grand time. Special thanks to Aunt Debbie for all her hard work on the event. And, Happy Birthday, Nana!

Due to technical problems, I lost the actual moment everyone yelled "Surprise!".
But by God's grace, I was able to salvage the rest of the video footage. Enjoy.

Alex's 13th Birthday

Well, its official: We have our first teenager. This past Thursday, Alex officially turned 13. Pray for us all... :)

Easter 2010

We celebrated the resurrection of our Savior this past Easter Sunday. Being the creatures of habit that we are, after church, before dinner, we had our traditional egg hunt up at Grammy's house.

Actually, we had 2 egg hunts. Mommom Granny missed the first go-round, so we took all the eggs from the kids (tell me how happy you think they were), re-hid them, and did it all over again...

Take Home Teddy

One of the highlights for each of our kid's preschool years has been their chance to bring Take Home Teddy home with them. Well, that time came for Aidan last Thursday.

Among the highlights of Teddy's visit with Aidan were their lunch at McDonald's (Aidan tells us that Teddy loves french fries), their time in the back yard on the swings and slide, and, of course, time on the Wii playing Super Mario Bros Wii.

Teddy has to go back to school tomorrow to visit with another little boy or girl next weekend. But the memories we all had together will last a lifetime...

RLCA International Fair - Spain

The big project for 5th grade is the International Fair, held this year on March 18th. The project involves putting together a lengthy report (for a 5th grader) as well as prepping a presentation that includes dress, music, food, pictures and any other trinkets you can scrounge up (money, stamps, dolls, etc)...all to be presented in the school gym to the teachers, students, and parents.

This year, Abigail chose Spain. From the traditional Flamenco dance and La Tomatina to Basque Pelota (comparable to our Jai Alai) and bullfighting, Spain, with its rich heritage and passionate people, provided a wealth of learning.

Abigail dressed for Spain's favorite sport, along
with Emily (left-Poland) and Kristin (right-Greece).

Gas Leak Part Deux

If you remember back in my February 19th post Got Snow? I mentioned that we had dealt with a gas leak in the midst of Snowpocalypse. Well, it turns out things weren't completely resolved.

We called the power company on Wednesday, March 17th because we were still smelling gas outside the house. Their assessment: We had a leak underground in the line leading up to the house. And a pretty significant one at that. Significant enough that they immediately set about getting a crew to come out and address it right then and there.

By morning everything was resolved. And as a bonus, the old tree stump in the front yard disappeared as well.

This would be our old tree stump being dug up...
at 9 o'clock at night...by the power company.

Quilting for a Cause

Per Mom:

Each elementary class at RLCA was asked to make an art/craft project that would be auctioned off to raise money for the school. Amanda's 3rd grade class decided to make a quilt; each of the kids got to decorate a square and then I put them all together and made a quilt with them.