A Month's Worth...

We've had a month filled with lots of good things 

since I last posted in the middle of March. Let's see...

It was very fun to have nephew David and Heather Shackelford, along with 

their kids Espen, Abel and Mairead, spend a few nights with us! 

The parents look as great as ever but the kids have changed and are growing up! 

They were very sweet and nice to have around. We enjoyed their family.

Espen, Mairead and Abel took turns lying on their stomach 

on the skateboard for rides down Bright.

Easter

For Easter we celebrated at church, then right afterwards we went to 

Fred and Mina Taylor's house for an extended-family party. 

It was lots of fun... we had pot luck and I made deviled eggs.

Mom and Dad were there...

and sister Gretchen was there too, with her camera.

Mina made these beautiful "tulips" that had a cheese salad filling inside the tomatoes. 

Aren't they pretty?

Luke Shackelford was at the party and here you see him 

serving up a plate from the bountiful table. 

 The group ate outside in the new garage. It was a great space for a big long table! 

Rain had been predicted but didn't show up! 

Clouds rolled in as we were all leaving, so that was perfect.

Here I am with Jessica Taylor, with Lois Thorpe (freshly home from Ukraine), 

Abby Stevens and Grandma Grace Latapie, to the left.

Anders was in his element with all the fun people to talk to and play with!

Here's Grandpa and Jeff Himes tricking him with a set of magnets. 

Jeff had one magnet under the table and another one on the table under the cup.

 Jeff would move the lower one around, causing the cup to move, 

all while Grandpa is commanding it to move, stop, etc. 

Eventually Anders got to see how the whole thing worked!

Lars was in his element too, walking and crawling around 

on the sawdust covered floor. 

Camp Grandma

The weekend after Easter, we had Camp Grandma for Anders and Lars 

while Gretchen and Chris got a much needed weekend to themselves! 

We had a great time with the boys, who had no problem 

being with us for two nights and three days! The first day, Friday, 

my mom came over to help me with the boys. 

Isn't it nice that my 85 year young mom could 

come over and help me with my grandkids?? Sweet. And helpful.

Here's Lars in the good old family high chair.

I told Anders about how my sisters and I, plus our two cousins, 

used to go to a special spot at Grandmother and Auntie Bell's house 

and play with Lincoln Logs by the hour. It was magical! 

Anders got quite good at being creative with our small stash of 

Lincoln Logs and had fun building things.

Anders was excited about attending his first Bible study on Friday night! 

We had picked up a couple pizzas and invited the group over an hour early 

to share dinner, so he was in his glory, holding court down at the other end of the table. 

We had told him to moderate himself, and he did, 

but it was fun to see him in action with one-liners, etc.

It reminds me of how David might have been as a little kid.

With our little teddy bears and the table with tiny tea pot and miniature food, 

I always think of them as our "Teddy Bear's Picnic," from the song. 

I had fun googling "Teddy Bear's Picnic" and playing the song, 

in a few different versions, for Anders, who really liked it and hadn't heard it.

Here's our Teddy Bear's Picnic and a Lincoln Log structure going up.

We wanted to get out of the house, so decided to take a picnic down to the church. 

The boys played around in the patio area, then we went over to the play area 

that Phil and Abby designed/built (with help) and had fun there.

Later there was lots of hilarity trying to snap the little truck 

across the table but not off... no one was able to do it 

but they had fun trying. Lars had fun watching!

Women's Retreat / Tea Classes

This weekend our church had a "staycation" style women's retreat at the church 

which was so nice! Joy Hall was set up beautifully for snacks and meals 

and the speaker's room was set up with round tables upstairs. 

During the afternoon yesterday they had 3 "break out" sessions where people 

could choose from lots of different classes such as crafts, 

mom's "Hinderances to Gratitude" class, nutrition, Tea, etc. 

I taught the Tea class twice and it was fun! I thought the best way to 

talk about tea would be with a cup of tea in your hand and a scone or two to go with it. 

So that's basically what we did.

Session One.

Session Two.

David helped by hauling tea pots, serving plates, etc. down to 

the church on Friday. When I finally got home on Saturday after the last class was over 

and everything was loaded in the car, I laid on the floor, relaxed and 

eventually we went out to the California Grill for dinner. 

It was fun and I'm glad I did it.

And At Work...

Tomorrow is the deadline for the faculty in the Nursing Department 

to get their coursepacks in to me if they want to get a prize! 

The prizes are a choice between a plate of scones or a 

plate of chocolate chip cookies, all of which I made and froze 

a few weeks ago. I plan to take a big basket of goodies to work tomorrow 

and hope everyone gets one!

The Rental House

Our lovely tenants of 3 1/2 years are moving out today... 

then we'll be preparing the house for Gretchen and Chris, 

Anders and Lars to move in next door! 

It's time for lots of maintenance items that need doing, 

so we'll be busy for the next month, 

but we're looking forward to having family right next door.

The weather today is lovely! All the flowers are blooming like mad, 

the pollen is giving David fits (poor guy), there's a breeze

 and it's a perfect spring day! I hope you're enjoying your spring so far. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you as you 

live in His earth and enjoy His many gifts.