happy birthday

Fourteen!  


 

It has been such a pleasure watching you grow and knowing the fine person you are.

The sweetest little baby turned into a darling, funny kid, who became this beautiful teenager.

This whole family is lucky having you.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart and all the best wishes for the year ahead.

Love, Grandma and Grandpa

monday guys

There they are, ready for action.

It was a little cold, but not too bad, got outside for an hour.

It is still pretty drab and muddy, but some warm sun will get everything green very soon.

I think we might have to get a load of sand.

The sandbox was supposed to be going away, and yet?

It has so much play value, so much.

We made this sandbox for Baby Jay back in the day, and he's 34 now.  Then we took away the old sand and brought in new for another batch of little kids years ago.

And now it is mostly dirt again.

It would probably be worth it.  We are thinking about it. That little turtle sandbox I bought last year doesn't really cut it.

Anyway, that's the end of a fine Monday.

Love you all so, Val


 

some kids

We hadn't seen these guys in a while and they were so nice to grill hamburgers and spend a few hours with us.  

So much fun.  I haven't laughed this much in a while.

Lacrosse has started and they're off to a good looking season.

And volleyball too, can tell she's getting better each season.

This was the concert and Inventor's Fair, very nice evening.

Joe especially loved the songs that had the recorders playing.

Recorders are actually not that easy to play, and are easily out of tune. They did great.

That's her with the invention--an insert to keep all the items in the lacrosse bag from sliding into a heap.  It was important it not add a lot of weight to the bag.  Seemed pretty successful.

The other inventions were cool too.  One child had a guinea pig cage where you turn a crank and the plastic flooring on a roll slides straight into the trash, little poops and all.  Very useful and creative.

 Lots of love, Grandma

this and that

Okay, that's my feather duster.

Destroyed.

Who, me?

Love, Val

easter 2026

I hit Heidi up to color eggs, and she said to come over there and decorate. It was fun. These contraptions are cool, get some really fancy colorful eggs without much stress.

And then, Easter at Pam and Paul's.

They've done this so many times, its an art, and it's pretty dang sweet.

This child adores air hockey and she's quite good. Also, she does not keep score or get mad about anything, which a grandma appreciates.

Everyone seemed happy to see each other.

 These two are so cute.  They were sick on Christmas, so it has been waaaay too long, and they are friendly and funny as ever.

These guys

And these ones

 The pinata, oh yes the pinata and its many challenges.  Here we are:

Easter egg hunt:

The math is done before the searching starts--number of eggs divided by number of kids.  When you find that many, you are done, and should help the little kids.

My sister's son in law finds this comically bizarre.

In his family, he says, it is pure competition, no ages, no helping the others, winner take all.

Hahaha.

We're trying to avoid crying.

As always, a perfect day Pam and Paul.

So much love, Val and Jay and Everybody