The week started off with a Christmas program at Sam’s school. This first picture was taken at the first concert of the year. This concert was the 7th grade band, 8th grade strings and the choir. Each performed three songs and all did the final song. All were wonderful but we thought Sam’s did the best!! This is the whole band. The school has a great music program. On Friday we attended Sam’s competitive showcase. This is the dance group she travels with and is in addition to her regular dance classes. Can you find her in this group? A very talented group of kids, who put in a lot of work to make their performance perfect. Their production number was outstanding, hoping they win a lot of awards this year! Saturday morning Sprint hosted “Cookies with Santa.” They had lots of Christmas decorated donuts, cookies, hot chocolate, apple cider, …
It was the Saturday before Halloween and time for our annual pumpkin painting. Chili, veggies, cheeses, crackers, grapes and Winking Owl Wine, from Aldi, with a side of chocolate twinkies were enjoyed before the painting started. It was time to get the pumpkins and paints out, but a bottle of wine was almost empty. Dee got very serious about getting the last drop out of the bottle. Derek decided he was going to do his pumpkin the old fashion way and started removing the seeds. Sam wanted to get started right away and took to opening the paints. Note Steve and Steve sitting in the background. As Sam started with her paints, Derek started his carving. Kristie finally gets to start on her pumpkin after doing some photography. I wanted to paint something that would carry to Thanksgiving. Looking at this picture now, it looks like the top I am …
Our visit to the Shetlar family lake house on Pomme de Terre Lake included an outing to Lead Mine. It was a 30 to 40 minute drive back into the Missouri country side. The community is located about 3.5 miles east of Tunas on Missouri Route E and approximately 50 miles north-northeast of Springfield, The Lead Mine community is made up of 50 to 60 Old Order Mennonite families. These Mennonites left Lancaster, Penn., in 1969 and settled in Missouri because land was cheaper. Most people thing they are Amish but they are members of Stauffer Mennonite Church. It is a small conservative sector with similarities to the Amish. Most Mennonite are more modern than this group and use electricity. First we stopped at the produce auction. Mennonites are known worldwide for their farming practices and in the summer, many families sell their produce. We wanted to purchase some of …
Ran across this video today and it brought back memories of Dagwood and Daisy, my granddogs playing during a visit to San Antonio back in 2014. After losing their first dog, Lucky, the kids decided after a few months it was time to add a dog into their home again. They went to get one dog and came home with two. Dagwood and Daisy were in two different locations and had never met. As you can see from the video they had a happy life together. They would play three or four times a day and it was so much fun to watch. Daisy is the one making most of the noise and the smaller of the two. Daisy was diagnosis with cancer and was gone in a few months. After this Dagwood had much quieter days.
Today we went to the World’s Oldest Indoor Rodeo at the Fort Worth Stock Yards. And yes, it was truly our first rodeo. This was the 117th Rodeo and was held at the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth. This is the last year the event will be held at Will Rogers. A new $450 million arena is being built a short distance away. We got a great parking place in the handicap lot and found our way to the first exhibit hall. The range of vendors was outstanding! Of course, there was the western hats, boots, house decor and clothing for the entire family. The vendors also ranged from mattresses to furniture, fire pit and metal signs and fences to farm equipment, home improvements to home made butter, honey, and salsa. It was a great home show, a beautiful western wear boutique and a wonderful craft show rolled into …
It was a few days late but we celebrated Steve’s 70th Birthday with family and friends. It was an evening filled with food, laughs and good conversation. For the celebration he wanted carrot cake . . . . very good choice with lots of cream cheese icing, his favorite. When it came time to open gifts we it seems we all had the same idea. After all, what do you get the man who doesn’t really have a hobby. Unless you count planning cruises, making list, working out, working in the yard and surfing the web . . . . ok, guess you could count these things as hobbies. Anyway, he does like to play slots and doing scratch off cards. He did VERY well on the last cruise with the slots. He doesn’t do as well with the cards. We all chose to get him scratch off/raffle tickets for …
Helen had dropped off the Leavenworth Time newspapers a couple of days ago. I remembered that there was a story about a son being killed in a car accident and how much he loved Halloween. So every year his parents go to the cemetery and decorate his stone for Halloween. I just knew this was the stone mentioned in the newspaper. As soon as we arrived home I went straight to the stack of papers and found the article. It was not the same family. We always thinks of putting flowers on graves for the anniversary of the death, holidays or their birthdays. But I never thought of decorating one for Halloween. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that this is probably not unusual.
We were invited to a Honey Harvest. We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew, from the invite, there would be food, drinks, music and maybe some honey. As we arrived, there were lots of cars turning into the road leading up to the ranch. We parked, grabbed our chairs and cooler and made our way up the long driveway to the barn. We found a nice shade tree to put our chairs under, then continued up to the big tent and barn. On the left of the tent were four huge grills with skirt steak cooking. Inside the barn was a very large batch of Margaritas, a samples of the honey that had been harvested the night before and many collectibles the family had gathered over the years. Beyond this barn was the horse stables and a large garden. There were about 200 people milling around having quite …
We finally have an answer to how our new friend in the pool got there . . . Dee put it in the pool Monday night. All week going to the gym and being in the pool she managed to keep quite. During a two and half hour dinner at the Melting Pot Saturday night, she didn’t give it up. Yesterday at the pool, she showed up with a retainer (for gator’s mouth). She got us good! So much fun!! We are happy to share another picture of Alli “Dee” Gator.
Miss Samantha and I went out to a paint and glaze shop for an afternoon of painting. I kind of think it was suppose to be a couple hours of painting but turned into the afternoon. I chose a fairy house and she chose a mug to do for her Dad. After Samantha finished her cup, I was still working on the house, so she picked out a bowl to paint. The bowl was finished and I was still painting so Samantha picked out a pineapple to work on while I finished up. Did I say finished up? Not so fast . . . . she painted the pineapple and started on a ring holder for Mom. After 5 hours, a smoothie and a very patient granddaughter, the fairy house was finally finished. Miss Samantha has said I am no longer allowed to paint another fairy house! I don’t have …