HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Add forty more candles to those you see,

and you will have the correct age.

Usually I skip town on my birthday, but this year we stayed home and I threw myself a little party.

Johanna

Tyler and Willie enjoying a beautiful day.

Nicolas and Bentley get acquainted.

Tyler, Willie, Harry, Benjamin, Valerie, Bentley, Adriana, and Johanna.

Benjamin, looking cheesy.

Vereni has invested in some children's play equipment.
She hopes to generate a little profit by renting these toys for parties.
The grandkids certainly enjoy them at grandma's birthday party!

Vereni and Jake supervising the set-up.

Adriana and Benjamin are curious on-lookers.

Up we go!

Here comes Kaya!

Sofia needs some coaxing to come down the big slide.

Joey and Jake laugh at Sofia's surprise landing.

Sisters Ava and Kaya in the bouncy house.

Sofia enjoying the little slide.

Later in the afternoon, John and Helen bring birthday wishes and a bottle of TractorShedRed wine,
Jerry and Carol bring best wishes and Ste Chapelle Riesling,
John Schilder arrives with birthday wishes and Menage a Troix white table wine.
Thanks, everyone, for making this a very special birthday!

THANKS FOR THE SONG, KARIS

Dear Karis,
Thank you for singing "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone this morning.
I could understand every word.
You made me feel very special.
I love you,
Grandma Flora

BORN TO BE WILD

WILD WOMEN
...actually it's just one wild woman.

My friend, Loriann Lee, received this Harley from her husband.
And, YES!, it was exactly what she wanted!

Loriann is the music director in our church. I work as a volunteer in the music department, so I've gotten to know her quite well. I always tell her that she is an amazing woman. She is very talented, hard-working, and gutsy. She is always ready to try new things. I've observed this mostly in her job performance at the church. But obviously it carries over into other areas of her life. Loriann has already earned her motorcycle endorsement on her driver's license and she is revvvvvved up to go!

PETE AND JENN VISIT BUHL

On Thursday May 21, Pete and Jenn arrived for a weekend in Buhl. We were blessed with great weather the days that they were here. Liam and Karis had the chance to get reacquainted with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandpa and grandma as we ate nachos at El Cazador with family and friends, peanuts on the patio on the dairy, carrot cake in honor of Brad's birthday in Twin Falls, and spinach dip and french bread at Elly and Rob's house. If there's a saying that goes, "The family that eats, stays together," we are on the way!

Sofia and Karis watch "Ratatouille" in the toy room.

Liam returns from a walk on the dairy

Sofia and Liam find some cheap entertainment in a puddle on the sidewalk.

Pete and Jenn take their little family to Balanced Rock to hike and to enjoy the park.

Lizzie welcomes us to her house for dinner on Saturday night.

Grace and Kaya are good buddies.

Karis shows an excited smile.

Uncle Brad building his model rocket

Tante Adriana carefully follows the instructions that come with her rocket.

Joey checks out the weather to see if the wind is too strong to launch. We all decide that it's too breezy to launch, and to save the rockets for another visit. A disappointed Joey heads home after the decision.

As everyone else prepares to leave, someone suggests we launch just one of the rockets anyway. That plan quickly escalates to include all the rockets,...except for Joey's.

Pete and Jenn watch "the show" with Karis and Liam in tow.

Sisters Kaya and Ava huddle in the doorway of Elly and Robbie's house, not knowing what to expect.

Uh-Oh, where did Lizzie's rocket go? It looks like the wind carried it into the trees.

We were able to find most of the rockets far out in the fields on the Castleford farm.

Sunday morning Liam is dressed for the day, ready for the drive to Boise and the plane trip home.

I FEEL NAKED!

Rocky, the dog, before his haircut.

Rocky, the dog, after his haircut.
He is clearly embarassed.

BABYSITTING AN ANNIVERSARY

Adriana and Brad wanted to celebrate their anniversary this year by taking a short vacation to Las Vegas. I watched Kaya, Ava, and Benjamin while their mom and dad were away.

Sunday afternoon I invited family over for pizza. Jake and Vereni brought this inflatable slide for the kids to play on. It was a big hit!

Cousins share pizza.

Coffee and Donuts and Conversation

The next morning, this crow helps himself to the peanut shells that we tossed in the yard.

Each afternoon the streets would fill up with the neighborhood children. Will arrives daily, asking to play with Kaya and Ava. Experiencing a neighborhood was something new for this country girl. I met many of the kids on the block....Will, Ian, Izzy, Savannah, Corbin....

Will, Ava, and Kaya enjoying after school snacks on the patio.

"Barefoot Benjamin" is sporting shoes?!?

I make it home from my babysitting stint just in time to see the finale of "American Idol"
Kris Allen takes the title!

Adam Lambert is the runner-up.

CAN YOU SMELL THIS PICTURE?

Everything in the yard is waking up with the sunshine.
I open the door and the dairy smells are barely noticeable
because of the sweet smell
of all the budding & blossoming things.

ROCKETS BLAST OFF

Grandpa Harry proudly stands with his pretty grand-daughters.

The kids in Lizzie's third grade class built rockets, and today was the day they got to launch them and see them fly! After a pot luck lunch in the cafeteria, students, parents, grandparents, friends, and relatives headed to Jean's Park to watch the the show.

Robbie, Dan De Kruyf, Harry, Ben, and Twinkie assess the situation.

The students line up by their rockets. Lizzie's rocket is the black and yellow one.

Lizzie pulls the lever to launch her rocket's maiden flight....a flight that is a little disappointing.

After repairs and adjustments, the second flight is great!

Friends celebrate a great afternoon.

Gracie and her dad watch the show.