Happy People

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Easter

After church, Sarah, Tony, and Abby went over to Tony's parents' for dinner. Liz, Clay, and Izzy came over for chili and rice. We started the ham cooking and then it was time for reading and relaxing. I found some Amelia Bedelia books that Izzy is enjoying. She also did some drawing.

Easter baskets

Izzy is excited about her Princess Yahtzee game.

Abby was so excited with everything!

Izzy had fun hunting for eggs outside.

We had a great family day.

Coloring Easter Eggs

Saturday after dinner, two very excited little girls got ready to color Easter eggs.

Their moms set up their egg coloring stations and they began.


Abby has been looking forward to this. She has been talking about it for days.

Waiting for the color tablets to dissolve.

Eggs in the color, now they are getting serious about this egg coloring adventure.

Stickers! Abby was anxious to put the stickers on. Try telling a two year old that you have to wait until the eggs are dry before you put the stickers on. You will notice, the eggs are still in the color cups.

Izzy was excited to use the "magic" crayon and write her name on an egg. She also drew a butterfly on another egg.

Abby was serious about her egg coloring.

It is so hard to wait patiently for the eggs to get enough color.

Abby's eggs

Izzy checking the progress of her eggs.

Izzy's eggs

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful time preparing our Easter eggs and then getting ready so we could get to church on time Sunday morning.

Saturday Fun

Saturday was a beautiful day. Gary helped clean at church, ate lunch out, went grocery shopping, picked up Izzy and headed home. The weather was beautiful!

This lizard was scampering around the yard.


Izzy checking out the stakes for the deck.

Tony is building a deck out back. It will attach to the side porch and then continue across the back of the house to the mudroom door. I am so excited to finally have a deck and get the ugly boards off of the sliding doors in the dining room and family room. Next year we will put a screened porch on part of the deck.

The girls were outside playing in the back yard. I took this picture form the dining room sliding door - you know, the one with the ugly boards across it.

I started zooming in on the girls.

Pretty good shot for my little camera. I love watching Izzy and Abby playing!

We were talking about going out to celebrate Sarah's birthday (She is 27 years old today - wow! how did that happen?). She was deciding between Okada, a Japanese steakhouse, or Olive Garden. Then we realized that if we went out, we wouldn't have time for the girls to color Easter eggs. So we will have her dinner out another time.

So instead . . .

Love that chicken from Popeyes! Chicken, red beans and rice, corn on the cob, and biscuits, yummy!

Exploring Outside

Abby loves her magnifying glass

She uses it to check things out all around the house.


She even put it in my purse when we went to Target the other day.

I love watching her explore the world around her. She tells the most amazing stories. Sometimes she even acts out a Dora or Diego episode. This girl is smart!

Ready to explore the yard now.

We headed down by the patio and swingset.

Gary's dad gave him this apricot seedling and for many years the deer have munched it to the ground. Last year, it was more successful after Gary moved it and put a cage around it. We have to get a taller cage now or the deer will win again.

The patio area is starting to bloom again. Pollen is thick in Maryland at this time of the year. Every day we have to wipe down the outside furniture before we can sit. The cars are even covered with the yellow pollen.

Massage Therapy

Since Gary's surgery (see here and here) , he has continued to have problems with the muscles in his neck and back as well a nerve issues down his left arm. He had physical therapy for awhile and it helped. What helps the most is massage. We have a friend, Amanda, who is a massage therapist and she comes over every couple of weeks to massage his neck and back. He can't lie face down, so she brought over a massage chair. We have now purchased a chair, so she doesn't have to lug it back and forth. The first time she came over, Abby was intrigued with "Papa in a circle". She kept walking under the chair and looking up at him, playing peek a boo. It was so cute. Amanda came over the other night for Gary's massage and I couldn't resist taking a photo of "Papa in a circle".

He is really thrilled with the photo :-)

After Amanda left we had dinner and had left the chair up. After dinner Abby decided to check out the chair. So we also have a photo of "Abby in a circle".

Don't you love her face? I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "I in a circle like Papa".
She is so funny!

Lunch at Salsa's

Today the girls took the little girls to the park.

Afterwards, I met them at Salsa's.


Liz posing for me

Denise just got back from visiting her family in NY and joined us for lunch. Denise and I teach 4th grade together.

My Izzy

My Abby

After a yummy lunch, we walked to White Rabbit, a great children's bookstore in Leonardtown. Abby and Izzy enjoyed picking out some new books.

Cousins

When we were shoppping the other day we found these matching "My Auntie is" shirts for the girls

Trying to get them both to smile for a picture is the trick these days

Abby finally smiled when she got closer to me.

Lucky Me

As I've been posting about my spring break, I really appreciate how lucky I am. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and together we have enjoyed 31 and a half fun years together. We have two beautiful daughters who have married wonderful men. Each of our daughters has a beautiful little daughter. We love being grandparents! We love having our kids close by. I love that I can be friends with my daughters. I love watching my granddaughters grow.

Because of our travel with the Air Force, we didn't see our families often. Our parents were great long distance grandparents sending great care packages to the girls where ever we were stationed. Every two to three years we would go back to Indiana to visit. Luckily we are from the same town, so we could settle in for about a month and visit every one. My girls always felt close to their grandparents. Remember this was in the days before email, texting, skype, home computers, and other current technology. Lots of cards and letters were mailed. Phone calls from overseas were not as frequent, but we planned them. My girls loved calling grandparents to tell of a lost tooth, a science project, broken bones, etc. They loved receiving care packages with their favorite kool-aid flavor that we couldn't get overseas, paint with water books, stickers, bubble gum, dress-up clothes, etc. Later when more technology was available my girls loved getting a box with video tapes of Full House, Facts of Life, and other TV shows that we couldn't get when we lived off base in Germany.

I am glad I get to see my granddaughters grow up. I can take them shopping, out to lunch, to the museum, or to the park. I can have them over to bake cookies, draw pictures, watch a movie, read a book, or make a project. I appreciate the effort of our parents and siblings who always made my daughters feel loved even when they didn't see them often.

I love my family! I love my little family here in Maryland and all my family members in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Washington, and where ever else they may be. I am grateful for technology that allows us to stay in contact and share what is going on in our lives.

Girls Day Out

Monday we headed out for a shopping day. First stop was Target, a favorite for all of us girls.

Then we stopped at Chipotle for lunch.


It was a beautiful day and the little girls wanted to sit outside.

We had a fun time together.

The girls loved eating outside.

Abby was enjoying getting her picture taken.

Then it was off to Kohls for some more shopping fun. After Kohls, it was naptime for the little girls and quiet time for the adults. All in all a fun day.

Sunday Afternoon

After church we had the Ainas and the Kissels over for lunch. Abby decided to play under Papa's foot rest on his recliner. Then we had pulled pork. Some of us had pulled pork sandwiches and others had pulled pork on rice. Abby liked rice with cheese on it.

Izzy helped her Aunt Sarah try out the new jogging stroller. Izzy said Abby will like it!

The stroller has a speaker and Sarah hooked up her ipod. Izzy started dancing.

She strolled/strutted/danced down the sidewalk. I wish I had my video camera with me.

And then she was done performing for me. We had a fun afternoon together. Gary took Izzy for a walk in the woods while Abby napped. Sarah and Tony took Abby and Izzy for a walk after Abby's nap. Izzy and I read some Amelia Bedelia books. Izzy loved them. It was a fun day. The Kissels left before supper. We had a YOYO (you're on your own) supper. Many leftovers were consumed. When I was growing up, we called it smorgasbord when everyone ate what they wanted. No matter what you call it, it is a great way to clean out the fridge.