Grandma's Birthday Party

Grandma's 94th birthday party was a wonderful success!  Almost everyone was able to come and all seemed to have a good time.


There was cake!



Family!

Party Revelers!

Dancing!

People I didn't know!

Weird stuff going on!



Cuteness!




And love!



Oh, yeah...and some really tired people by the time it was over.

 It worked out great!  Happy birthday Grandma!

Changing my blog template

Well, I was just changing the look of my blog for 2011.  You know...spruce it up a little from 2010...go with a little change.  Know what I discovered?  One can spend hours upon hours adjusting, choosing colors and fonts, changing and sampling and reviewing and it never comes out quite like you thought it would in the end.  The good news is...I can always change it again!  :-)

Christmastown at the Creation Museum

Last weekend we experienced a very unique view of Christmas at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.  Drove down Saturday for their special presentation of the Christmas story and Christmas lights.  It was the busiest we've ever seen the museum! 

If you've not seen it, it's worth the trip.  Christmastown at the Creation Museum



A Guard in the Marketplace




Boy selling goods in the Marketplace



Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

Christmas Lights



One of the wisemen telling his story

The great thing about Christmastown is that it is all free!  It's an outreach sponsored by the Creation Musuem.  We also saw a dramatic presentation by Elizabeth, Mother of John.  And another one by Hyam, a temple Guard.  Dr. Jason Lisle put together a special presentation in the planetarium about the Christmas star.  Pretty awesome! 

We spent the night in Florence and got up the next day to another day of clear skies.  After some last minute Christmas shopping and goofing off.  We decided to try a new place for lunch and stopped at the Casino near Shelbyville, Indiana.  UNBELIEVABLY FANTASTIC!  Only $12.85 total for both of us including drinks and tax!  Can't beat that deal plus everything I tried was delicious.  We'll definitely go back there! 
A stop at the commissary on the east side ended our late afternoon and we headed home to our "children."  Here's some of them now!!

Yvonne helping to work a puzzle

Rusty - not quite awake

And Splotches (the fuzzy one on the left!)

Merry Christmas to All!

Wreath Making Class

Following up on or "artsy" Thanksgiving weekend.  We went to McCloud Park in Hendricks County for a wreath-making class.  It wasn't so much a wreath-making class as a make your own wreath.  Check it out:

Of course no trip out west is complete without a stop for cobbler at the Mayberry Cafe.  Here's Santa in Andy's squad car.

 Sunday afternoon it was snowing, so we thought it was the perfect time to hang them outside.

My wreath is on the left and Vince's is on the right.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

Artsy Weekend

In order to enlarge our horizons and broaden the mind, Thanksgiving weekend we set out on an artsy adventure.  First we took an art class....painting Chickadees on ornaments and notecards.  We started with a blank slate:

As class moved along, our art skills progressed:

Ahhhh...togetherness!

And finally the piece da resistance!  The finished product...the fruit of our labors...

We are officially artists....well, artists in training that is...

Saturday we met friends downtown and went to the IRT for a production of "Mary's Wedding."  It was set during WW I and was about a young woman who was dreaming a very vivid dream the night before she was to be married.  Unfortunately, they turned the lights down....and well it was after 9:00 pm and well.....I may have missed a few lines in the middle somewhere....

Artsy, eccletic weekend officially completed!  YAY for long holiday weekends!  Hope your Thanksgiving was awesome!

Pumpkin Carving

Our annual ritual of pumpkin carving was stepped up to a new level this year as Vince introduced power tools into the concept:  (Yvonne is introducing herself to whatever is in the bowl.)

Also an annual ritual and right of passage for each pumpkin, the annual "I'm sick, I'm sick" pumpkin barfing up his guts: 

Ta Da!  The beautiful finished product.  Mine is on the left and Vince's "Yvonne look-a-like" is on the right:

 And of course, the spooky night shot:

Hope you got lots of candy this year!  Happy Halloween!

Crane in the Fall

It's October in Indiana..one of the most beautiful seasons of the year if not the most beautiful (and the best month of the year for birthdays!)  Time for a Fall trip to Crane to see what changes had taken place from the earlier summer trip.  You may be thinking, "there they go again!"  Well, you'd only be half right!  Mom and I, once again, "loaded" the van as the naysayers looked on and made negative comments.  (We won't name names here!)  Although our mission was successfully accomplished, unfortunately, the term "overloaded" may have been more applicable and due to the whining and noises coming from some part of the van (oh, maybe that was the guys!) - we were forced to upack and divide the spoils between TWO vehicles.

Me with EVERYTHING overloaded in the van!

So off we go down the road in our two vehicles.  The guys in the van in the lead vehicle and Mom and me in the Tracker in the follow vehicle.  (We won't go so far as to say that was a mistake..so I'll not digress here...but should I say Dale Hollow...Mmmm....1987ish?  Anyone?  Anyone, now?)  Anyway, we made it to Crane! 



Our cabin at Crane and the "second" follow vehicle.


The fall colors at Crane were vivid and the water was beautiful.  The days warm and sunny and the nights cool and perfect for a campfire.  The cooking awesome...the fishing?  Not so great, but you know us...fish we did anyway!

Mom and Dad fishing away...oops, maybe I mean dozing away.

Check out the beautiful fall foliage on the lake.  Ahhhh!  Fantasticly awesome scenery!

At night to stave off the cold and to avoid certain death by wild animals (such as cheetahs and bears that roam freely here!) we built a huge campfire.

 

Vince the He-Man building a fire from nothing.

Our beautiful fire!

Back at it the next day...here we are again:

Dad - our driver and Mom - the true Captain giving orders.
and posing for the camera!



 And as always, the worker among us....paddling us off of a sandbar...Me!:



What a great long weekend, food, fishing, campfires, scenery, peacefulness and even greater company...could you ask for anything more?