Saturday

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. On Saturday, Jamie took Allen golfing with my brother-in-law, Kevin and my nephew, Scott. So Audra, Alicia and I hung out with my sister-in-law, Laurie. She wanted to stop by some wineries to take pictures for the website that her son, Scott manages. He works for Finger Lakes Regional Tourism Alliance. I guess she's taken pictures for him to use for it before. I highly recommend checking out the website if you live in the area. There are some great ideas about what to do and see in the Finger Lakes Region. Our first stop was Imagine Moore Winery in Naples. I had my own camera with me as well...so I took a few pictures myself.
They had a nice porch off the side. I love how this picture turned out of the girls. I think I may have it enlarged.
Then we went across the street and had some ice-cream at Bob and Ruth's. That was when I took a walk around the cemetery I wrote about the other day.Laurie had heard about a waterfall in the area, so we went to check it out. It turned out to be a rather small one. Not overly impressive. We hiked a short trail to get to it. There was a policeman there having a discussion with a group of teenagers. I felt uncomfortable because I sensed some trouble. We left our little hike early because of that.
I took this view from an overlook just north of the village. This is looking north from the southern end of Canandaigua Lake.
I feel very fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. Sometimes, I admit that I take it for granted.We made another quick stop at Arbor Hill Winery so that Laurie could take more pictures.
Then we met up with family in Rushville. Here are Scott and Lindsey.Jamie's nephew, Drew was throwing a pig-roast in honor of his wife Kelly's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday, Kelly!
Everyone had a good day...except for the pig.

Alicia's Birthday

Today is Alicia's 11th birthday. We actually celebrated it last night because today Audra had a track meet. The track meet was at the middle school that I attended when it used to be known as a junior high school. (Incidentally, my father attended there when it was a high school.) It is just a stone's throw from my mother's house. Alicia opted to hang out there instead of watching the meet. Here she is playing the marble game with her grandma.
Afterward we went to Charlie's in W. Webster for dinner.
I have to chuckle a little bit because of my sister Martha, who is a fabulous photographer. She would have made sure no one was holding the newspaper in the corner of the photo.

Birthday Lunch

On Wednesday it was my birthday. I never got a chance to do anything special at all, but today my husband took the day off from work. We went out to do a little shopping this morning and then went out for lunch at the Rheinblick. Here is a picture of my mulled Christmas wine called Glüwein and Jamie's beer (Paulaner). For lunch I had Hackfleischsosse and Jamie had the Schweinebrat Brötchen. It was all absolutely delicious! Oh...I almost forgot, for dessert I had the Bienestitch (bee sting cake). Jamie had an Apfelstrudel (apple strudel).

Alicia's 10th birthday party!

So you'd think that now that school is done for me that I would have time to relax a little, right? Nope! Not a chance! Busy busy busy!!! Crazy crazy crazy!

Last week I traveled to Cooperstown with my son and some of his classmates for the NY state history competition. We stayed over night and toured the Farmer's Museum. I traveled 3 hours home on Friday and immediately began cleaning the house preparing for Alicia's birthday party. It started at Michael's craft store with 9 girls (including two of my own) working on a craft. That was followed by pizza and presents. One little girl then went home since she was not feeling well. The remaining 8 came back to our house. On the way home, Audra was dropped off at a friend's house...leaving 7 little girls. At our house, they ran around outside playing tag and building up an appetite for brownie sundaes.I just love this interesting shot that Allen took from his upstairs bedroom window!
Most of the girls brought along an American Girl doll. One girl did not, but we had an extra for her. They spent quite a bit of time trashing my living room with doll clothes and such! Another little girl went home, leaving 6 to stay over night. Thanks to my husband, who has a voice of authority, all girls settled down nicely and were fairly rested the next morning so I could take them all to church! Two little girls were delivered back to their own families at our church. I delivered 2 more to their homes after church. The last little girl came home and waited for her parents to come and get her after they got out of their own church service.

Phew! It was really a lot of fun, but I feel like I deserve a medal for doing this! LOL!

Here to celebrate

We had a few friends come for Alicia's birthday celebration. Everyone loves a party!

Alicia is 9!

Today is my youngest daughter's birthday. She has turned 9 years old! We love her so much! "Happy Birthday, Lishey!"

Happy Birthday to Audra!

Today is my daughter Audra's eleventh birthday. I love her very much! Here are 11 things about her.

1. She likes reading "The Series of Unfortunate events"

2. She likes Mr. Bean.

3. She is a swimmer.

4. She's adventurous.

5. She sings in the 5th grade chorus.

6. She's got a good sense of humor.

7. She has cute freckles.

8. She likes to control what her mother is typing about her!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. She's a good drawer.

10. She's an AWANA kid.

11. Everyone loves her.

Happy Birthday, Audra!!!!!!

Presenting...Jamie!

I haven't written much about my husband. Saturday was his birthday and I thought I should do a special blog for him. I spent most of the day in the kitchen creating a nice dinner and dessert for him and cleaning the house so we could have friends over for dinner. Our guests left late and I decided that I would rather go to bed a then go on the computer.

Dinner turned out great and we had a lot of fun too!

Here are my belated 16 things about my husband.

1. His name is Jamie.
2. He is 5'6".
3. He is handsome.
4. He is Godly.
5. He bikes, swims and runs very regularly.
6. He is training for a tri-atholon.
7. He's got a good sense of humor.
8. He's got a good singing voice.
9. Shortly after we were married, he tried out for a local musical and got one of the lead parts.
10. He's a great piano player.
11. He knows a lot about fixing bikes and sometimes people drop off their bikes here for help because something is wrong and they can't figure it out.
12. He's been an inspiration to me to get regular exercise.
13. He does a Bible devotional every morning.
14. He went back to college a few years ago and completed a degree.
15. He knows a lot about apples because he had an orchard on his parent's farm.
16. He loves hiking and has gotten our family into hiking. These pictures were taken last week on a family hike.

Happy Birthday Alicia (yesterday)!

Yesterday was Alicia's 8th birthday. Her daddy took her out for breakfast before school. That is a tradition in our house. A friend came home from school with her and stayed overnight. Alicia picked tacos for dinner...and brownie sundaes for her birthday treat. I got the Charlotte's Web movie for her and her friend to watch. It was a nice birthday.

We are certainly blessed by having all of our children. We love them very much.

12!

Today was Allen's 12th birthday. I can't believe that 12 years has gone by already.

He prefers banana cream pie to any cake so that is what I made him. It was delicious if I do say so myself! I just love my boy and am thankful to God for him.

Happy Birthday, Audra!

It is Audra's birthday today. She is now 10 years old! We celebrated over the weekend with a slumber party. Four of her friends came to spend the night on Saturday. We took them all bowling, went home for cake and ice cream, and to open gifts.

The night was filled with lots of laughter, talking and giggling. I think they finally settled down around 12:45 am. The next morning was a pancake breakfast and then we took the girls to our church...where there just happened to be a Beach Bash party scheduled during what normally is kid's Sunday school. Sunglasses, shorts and flipflops were the attire for the day.

They all seemed to have fun!

Allen is here wondering if it is safe to come out yet!

Dan's Birthday

Today is Dan's birthday. Dan is my brother. He left this earth to live with our heavenly Father in 1983. If he were alive today, he would be celebrating his 48th birthday. I called my mother today. I always try to remember to call her on this day and also on Feb 17th, the anniversary of his death. Telephones are good. You can spread so much love and care through the telephone line.

My mother wasn't home. But I will try her again later. I am sure she is thinking of Dan. She and Dad might have gone to a nursing home to spend time ministering to residents as they often do. I think it is tremendous that they have moved forward in ministry and in living. I think that nothing could be worse than losing one of your own children. I knew it was tragic when it happened when I was 16...but now that I have children of my own, I think about it even more.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today my mother turns 72 years young! I talked to her on the phone today. She told me Dad is taking her out to dinner tonight...she wasn't sure where.

Tomorrow we will have a celebration for her at Martha's house. I have baked a blueberry/peach cobbler. I got the recipe off the internet and I think there was a misprint on it. I'm not sure if I fixed it properly...so don't get your hopes up just incase it turns out to be a flop. Mom happens to be glucose intolerant...so she is lucky enough not to have to sample my blunder. Rachel is making a gluten-free carrot cake which is delicious!

Anyway! Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

That was close!

Phew! I made it! I sanded, painted, painted, blew it dry, painted some more, sprayed it with gloss (3 times), put the hinges back on, filled it with stuff and wrapped it! I finished wrapping it at 3:23 and put it on the table. The bus came at approximately 3:30!

Wow! What a job...but I made it just in the nick of time!

Artist at Work

Here I am hard at work with my colored pencils while camping up in the Adirondack Mts last summer. Actually...I wasn't really doing serious artwork. I was working with Crayolas that one of the kids brought along just for fun. I had fun drawing with the kids. I was working on a quick sketch of the Lakefront at Star Lake.
Tomorrow is Alicia's 7th birthday. I am painting a box for her treasures. I am having to do some super fast work here because it needs to be done by tomorrow night. That's where a hairdryer comes in handy. Money has been a little tight lately and I'm at a loss on what to get her anyway. She already has plenty of dolls of all sorts. There are enough games in this house. Basically you can call me a scrooge because the kids all have plenty of stuff. Wait. Let me correct that. We all have plenty of stuff in this house. This house is only 1500 sq. ft. And with 5 people along with our stuff...it makes for a tight squeeze. I'm thinking that I need to simplify big time.
Anyway...I think she will like a box painted just for her with her name on it. I have purchased a few small things to put inside. Some pretty hair bows, some sidewalk chalk,...and I can't even remember what else I bought. Not too much. Don't want to take up all the room in that box. I'll try to post a picture of it sometime.
Anyway...I need to go check to see if that first layer of basecoat is dry and get back to work!