two years old!

 Today was the party for Dan and Alicia's little girl's second birthday.  The usual crowd was there to celebrate.

 They always creep soooo close watching the gifts being opened.

 These guys were happy to see each other.  Little Jay enjoyed the kids toys quite a bit, had us all cracking up.

 This huge purple unicorn was a hit.

 This one slipped upstairs.  I went upstairs to use the bathroom and heard quiet little footsteps.  It was her.  

 My dad painted that picture and Alicia admired it, so he gave it to her.  It's perfect in the child's room.

 Cake time!

She was nervous while we sang.

 But she was ready for the candles.

It's been a beautiful year, watching you grow from a baby into a little bitty girl, taking care of baby dolls,and doggedly working on puzzles, reading story books, starting to talk.

Observant and sweet, it's so much fun to be around you.

This whole family is lucky you're here.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart,

Love,  Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

a kind thing

Yes, this is kindness happening in another thoroughly tousled room in this house.

Julia started music lessons two weeks ago, taking up the trumpet, James' old one, the one my parents bought him.  We had it tuned up for her and it's exciting to begin.

Until it isn't.

Until you're no good at it and can't read music.  Learning is so slow going at the beginning.

But Lydia has been bringing the clarinet home from school to help Julia practice.  They retreat to this room together and work on music.  It's been a huge help.

Their out of tune, honking practice scares the puppy a bit. Her ears flatten, she whines.

Get used to it Elin.

And thank you my Kari, aka Lydia child for extending this kindness to your little sister.

I love you both,  MOM

friday night

 Friday is my favorite day of the week, all that un-spent weekend potential.

Here we have kids working on homework in the kitchen and two girls decorating a cake they baked.

 They found frosting tubes up in the cupboard and decorated it with blue worms.

I would say this was unappetizing, but the cake is long gone.  Blue worms did not deter any eaters here.

 And my house is so tousled.  The living room is fine, and the dining room.  The kitchen is always a work in progress, but it's okay.  But this family room, yeah.  And the Lego/Barbieland in the room below?

I guess it's a happy mess, made by happy kids playing, so I'm going to just go with that.  A lot of this was messed up by a big, happy puppy, actually.

 That sword has a battery operated sound function.  It says, "Ahoy there, me Mateys,  Woo Hoo."

Little hyper nonsense.  I bought it at Unique Thrift for $1.80 a few years ago.  It's one of Elin's favorite toys, along with empty cardboard boxes and empty detergent bottles.

And that brings us to the end of a fine Friday, followed by a lovely Saturday, and in 20 minutes it will be Sunday.

Love, Val

everybody

Today we went to the high school to register Tim.   Julia was registered for school by mail last week.

This morning we went in person to register him.

I swear it was the same counselor Heidi had, sweet lady.  Everyone was extremely nice to us.

All good.  Classes chosen, ready for fall.

The last of the babies are about marching out of this homeschool.

It's good.   Today was a very good day.

These are from 2011:

Love forever, MOM, aka GRANDMA

babysitting on monday in the rain

Jay plastered and I painted on Saturday, everything back to new:

 I still have to paint this in the bathroom tomorrow.

 We babysat Dan and Alicia's kids on Monday, and Joe came over too.  We were kind of busy chasing after kids, and I didn't take any pictures.

Dan and Alicia stayed for supper and I grabbed a few then.

 This guy has an awesome laugh, although Dan says it can make him very angry if he's laughing and not straightening up when it's not the time to be squirreling out and laughing.

Monday was definitely the time to be squirreling out and laughing.  They were all so easy to be around on Monday.  They probably ate more ice cream and Zebra Cakes than they should have, but whatever.  It's not that often.  There were some video games, and they tried to watch Curious George a few times but were  quickly bored and back to Legos in the basement.

 This little girl got so tired she was asking to go home to bed before the meal was even served.  I hope she slept well.

And that's the end of that.

Nothing but love.

Love, Val, aka Grandma

a trip to the lake

 She did great in the van, didn't get sick, hung out quietly.

 It was the same as we left it.

 The weather is strange and warm.  It was 60 degrees out or warmer.

This is northern Wisconsin in February.

Very weird.

 The neighbor's cat came over and the kids were so happy to see her.   Twelve years ago they fed her donuts when she came over, pretty tame kitty.

 Elin was excited to meet her, threw herself down and rolled over in submission.  The cat hissed and slapped her on the nose. She has claws, but they weren't out.  Elin didn't seem to care.

 The power company cut all the brush under the power line so the kids could actually get down to the open part of the swamp.   The brush will grow back fast.  I don't want that water that accessible in the summer.  Too many little kids to watch.

 Then these two showed up with their dad!  I was delighted.

 When they all went to the restaurant for lunch, I stayed with the dog, and found a pair of  my grandchild's shoes to wear that were more waterproof than my moccasins.

 They caught no fish, but had fun trying.

 Smiling pose

 Lazy pose

 They took off their soggy snow pants and boots, and she parked herself right on top of them.

Why do dogs do this??  I don't know.

It was a fun trip, an easy-going day.   love, Val, aka Grandma