three years old, and a superb new year's eve party

We gathered at Dan and Alicia's to celebrate the Little Guy's birthday.

Kids were very wound up.

 This is where I intervened, "No more jumping on the furniture!"  They all looked at me like I'm crazy and did kind of half stop doing it.

 Happy Birthday, Mister!

 They have some very realistic looking fake food over there:

Eventually it was time for gifts. The cousins attacked them with enthusiasm, all trying to help the birthday boy out.

 And the cake, a creation of Dan's.  He used Christmas gift animals and chips to decorate.  It was an impressive sight.

 Cake time!

He had the sweetest little funny shy smile on his face while we sang.

Yes, it was a great evening celebrating a great kid.  

I kissed the top of his head as he tasted his slice of cake, and he swatted me away, so I teased him and swatted back.

Buddy, I just love you so much.

Three years ago you turned up here by surprise, quite suddenly on New Year's Eve, and we were happy to have you.

You make everything better, funnier, more special.

You were such a gorgeous, plush baby, and we nibbled and nuzzled your cheeks and ears and toes all day long, and here you have grown into a beautiful, determined little boy, and we still love you so darn much.

Thanks for being our kid. The whole family is lucky having you.   love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody.

the pool today

Yeah, it was -6 degrees F when I received notice from Alicia that they were taking the kids swimming for the Little Guy's birthday, if we wanted to come too.

This was yesterday evening--thank you for almost 24 hours notice to psych up--as much as the kids LOVE all this, I detest being cold and wet and in a bathing suit in the winter.

Or the summer either, for that matter.

But we went and it was balmy inside.

 There's the birthday boy, three years old.

 Dan was there too, and also pj came along.

We had lunch at the tables in the snack bar and then back to the pool for FIVE MORE MINUTES before we had to leave, and yes there was some hollering and so forth, but it was fine.

Onward!  We have to get home or we'll never get to the party tonight!    love, Grandma

the end of the year

Santa's going away this weekend at some point.

Back into the box.

The tree was so crispy two nights ago that I didn't want the lights turned on anymore, and yesterday morning it had to come down.  We took off all the ornaments and lights and sorted them into the right boxes.

Then Jay came running through looking for food and having to make a few phone calls, and he and Maria hauled it out of here.

The Christmas Village was all put away tonight, everything packed in boxes for another year.

 This pet caused no trouble today.

 This is Lillian, Lydia's new gecko. She's hilarious, bright and sassy, quite the little hunter.

And as 2014 comes to and end--it's all good Bring 2015.   love, Val

our family party

Saturday we had our family Christmas party.  

 This was a pretty loud puppet show.

And another Christmas comes to an end.  

Love you all so, Mom, aka Val, aka Grandma