Bluegrass Concert

While at my Dad's on Father's Day weekend, we all went to a bluegrass concert in a local barn.

First everyone dove into the potluck .

Here's the crowd, while the band is setting up.  It actually got a good bit more crowded and many were standing.

The band, Dad's friend, Earl, is the banjo player...

Iris got hot and sleepy...

Then she was determined to dance.  But as soon as she and Stephen got on the dance floor, she got scared so he picked her up and danced with her.

Clyde sitting by the dance floor watching.

Lucy and Stephen dancing.

If you want to watch videos...

Here's the band playing.

Here is Iris's feet refusing to stay still.

Here's a nice 2step :)

It was so fun and the video sound doesn't really do the group justice, but you should still go watch!

Father's Day 2014

We went to my Dad's for Father's Day weekend and, of course, had a wonderful time!

Sherry patiently listened to Clyde read a Plants vs Zombies; Pick Your Own Ending book for quite sometime!  He did look awfully snuggly!!

When we went outside into Grandmom and Grandad's fabulous wilderness, Clydie borrowed my camera.

Stephen let him practice using a knife some...

Grandmom in a ballcap!!  I hear she used to play softball... we got a little glimpse :)

Iris's favorite thing was to have one of us hold the end of a rope which was tied to a skateboard and let her slowly glide down the driveway.  Here she is at the end of one such ride...

Lucy tries her hand at some whittling.

Grandmom lets them each make a sheet full of cookies "for the fathers."   Course we all ate them.

We did the official Father's Day stuff Saturday afternoon :)

Here's Grandad after reading Lucy's card.  The two of them share quite a memory.  When she was just a little shrimp of a girl, Grandad took her fishing down at the pond.  She fell in and of course he went in after her.  And it wasn't the cleanest water in the world.  He kids her about it quite a bit, and I think he was a tiny bit surprised that she depicted the scene in her card :)

Grandad with Iris and her card...

and with Clyde and his card...

Dad with Sherry and I...

Dad with kids and grandkids...

Grandmom gives Grandad her card...

Stephen opened his toolbox from the kids...

Stephen and Lucy...

Stephen and Clyde...

Stephen and Iris..

Stephen gets a card from Dad and Janet...

Later, Lucy turns their livingroom into a gameboard...

Here's everyone standing on the starting place.  Notice Grandad smiling back there while eating his Father's Day pie.  His job is to roll the dice for everyone so they can move forward.

We had a really wonderful weekend!  Always great to hang out with Sherry, Dad and Janet!!

Hangin with Nena

One Thursday, Mom just came over to hang.

Clyde and Iris went out and smashed rocks to exchange and admire..

Mom and Lu started out drawing fashion...

Then they started making some...

Then we adjourned to her house to scoot...

bike...

and read comics.

Ferreting Around

These two cuties are our biggest troublemakers.

Lupine likes shoes.  Alot.  She finds them and does her best to drag them all under the couch.  Fortunately for us, most don't fit under there.

Laurel, however is our biggest troublemaker.  You may remember a post from a few years ago where she made her "collection room" in the box spring under our bed and hid many many items in there.

Our boxspring now sits on the floor, so she found a new one.  We recently bought a new couch.  It, apparently has a nice hollow arm.  if she climbs up from under the couch and through the back corner of where the arm meets the back, there's a little doorway.  Here is Clyde after pulling the cushions off to get better access.  He's pulling the items out one by one.

Here's the stash.

Dream Dessert Night

Stephen does not like my bright ideas very much.  Actually, he would tell you that my crazy ideas are okay, as long as I give advance notice.

One day, we were sitting at the dinner table and I blurted, "What if we had a dream dessert night, where everyone got to have their absolute dream dessert?!"

The kids, of course, were all for it!  Stephen had to recover from his shock for a few minutes before asking how this could even feasibly occur.  I came up with a  plan, then diplomatically, to the kids' chagrin, suggested we do it two weeks out to give his poor heart time to adjust ;)  He was a good sport and agreed with the condition that I had to have a plan to accomplish this ahead of time. 

Once I received everyone's orders, I realized that the only way to congregate the desserts in one place without melting any of them was to have them at home.  Our house is milk-free and not all of the desserts were, so I was going to have to be extra careful about storage and after-clean-up.

Stephen simply wanted a moist chocolate cake with creamy icing and chocolate chips.  I accomplished this with a visit to a local specialty grocery store and sprinkling of chips.

I wanted a coconut cake, but when I visited the local bakery that makes awesomely-moist cakes and pastries, I decided that a cinnamon roll was actually my dream dessert ;)

Lucy wanted homemade brownies (Aunt Dyan's recipe, please) with chocolate icing on top and sprinkles.  That was easy-peasy!

I nixed Iris's first request of a mug made entirely of chocolate and filled with root beer.  (another day, my sweet)  So she happily opted for a strawberry split.  After further inquiry, she described this as dish filled with cut strawberries and topped with 1 scoop of chocolate, 1 scoop of vanilla, and 1 scoop of strawberry.  Then it's topped with chocolate sauce.  Okay!  Got it!!

Last, but most certainly not least, was my darling boy.  He has what I guess you would call a creative palette.  He wanted rainbow sherbet with malt balls mixed in, topped with caramel sauce.

The evening was a glowing success!!!  Even my husband may have enjoyed it!

Lucy's Finger Infection (warning- kinda gross)

While Stephen was away, Lu started complaining about her finger hurting.  I looked an it was a little pink.  Within 24 hours, this is how it progressed...

She had to go on antibiotics and soak it in saltwater.  But it finally busted and is now much better :)

But isn't that a crazy amount of infection for such a tiny finger?!