Goodbye August, Hello September !

Life has improved for Papa Norm. He is stronger, in way less pain (at times none), and he is able to get around much easier than when first home from the hospital. Last week we offered to stay with the kids for a few hours at their house for the first time in quite a while. We were excited and so were Claire, Chloe, and Chris. There is one thing about going to see them at their home, we are ALWAYS greeted as if we had been gone for a year. It does our hearts good. Here Papa and the joys of his life are posing together.
Claire had lots to tell us.....

Chris continues to smile for the camera...no matter how close....

Sweet Chloe giving me the pleasure of snapping a picture. She is the least interested in posing most of the time. On this day, no problem. :)

Claire, still working on all she had to tell us.....

On Sunday, after Sunday School, we brought Claire and Chloe to our home for a couple of days.

Chris was facing surgery on Tuesday morning so the girls hung out with us until Chris was home on Tuesday afternoon. Among other things, we decided to have a semi-fancy tea party. Claire and Chloe were very excited and we found some old hats for them to wear for the occasion. We got out the lace tablecloth, my grandmother's antique teacups and saucers, and made some tiny fancy sandwiches. We had strawberries, carrots, sandwiches, celery with peanut butter, and tiny cupcakes for dessert. Claire and Chloe had pineapple-orange-guava juice for their "tea" and found it to be quite delicious. We cut flowers from the yard and made a bouquet for the table and then they took it to their Mommy for taking such good care of their brother.

Chloe and Claire got the "pinkie" in position at just the right time for these two pictures.

We had a lovely time at the tea-party which ended a great two days of swimming time, park time, lots of story time, and time to work with the Lincoln logs. Papa read to them from one of my Dad's old, old, old, books called "Billy Whiskers". They were so interested in the story. Papa will have to read more the next time we see them.

The doctors think that Chris' surgery was successful but future tests will tell the tale.

Here, as you can see, he has a sleepy, quiet look. With all the anesthesia and other medications he wasn't exactly himself. He was, however, hilariously funny, at times, looking very wild eyed and being very silly. We sure laughed at him. Hopefully his pain will diminish soon and he will be back to normal. His private nurse/Mommy took wonderful care of him and and as you can see he was happy to be in her arms.

I am reminded, once again, how blessed we are!

Welcome September!