January Birthday Events Begin.....

Our family is blessed with many January birthdays. Mine starts off the run (last Sunday) and on Thursday when I arrived at the K Class to work my volunteer hours the entire class sang to me. It was so sweet and  I had many extra hugs and birthday wishes that day.

 

On Thursday evening  Paula and Mike hosted a birthday dinner to celebrate both Papa Norm's and my birthday. Chris avoided the camera the whole evening and actually we were too busy having fun to take too many pictures.... for which I am always sorry afterward. The current project at the three C's home is watching eggs that are in an incubator. The first baby chick had hatched and it was very entertaining. The kids are so excited. Since that night a second one has hatched. Below you can see the girls with the baby chick. Chloe expressed to me that she was concerned that when the baby chick is old enough to go into the chicken coop that the Mama chickens will fight over whose baby he/she is. Hmm....I hadn't thought of that before. I told her they would figure it out somehow.

 

 

 

 

 

Below the girls give Papa some attention and pose for a picture with him. Chris was definitely not going to get in this picture!

 

 

On Papa Norm's actual birthday, Friday, we celebrated most of the day. Breakfast out, an early movie, and an early dinner with friends at one of our long time favorite restaurants. After lots of begging we finally got Norm to stick his head in the birthday prop picture. Don't tell him you saw it on the blog and hopefully he will forget to read this week's post.

 



 





 

We have four more family birthdays to celebrate this month, so we will be a busy group! Uncle Superman's (Jon) is next, January 24th, followed by Chris' on the 27th and Chloe and Claire on the 29th.

 

Happy Birthday to each and everyone of us!

Happy, Happy, New Year---Welcome 2014!

We had a two day celebration time with the grandchildren to end 2013. On Monday, we attended a movie with our friends' and their granddaughters Danica and Aubrey. The movie "Frozen" was quite good although Chris did hide his face a couple of times. All the girls sat with their eyes glued to the screen. Chris did very well for his first full length movie, moving from his seat to Grandma's lap a couple of times. After the movie we had pizza followed by a stop for some ice cream.

 

 

After ice cream, the group gathered for a group hug with Chris in the middle.

 

 

When we arrived home we gave the three C's a few small treasures that we brought back from our travels to South America. Here is a hat for Chris from Arica, Chile.

 

 

After a good night's sleep we met our friends again for some play time in a new park in our community.

 

 

 

 

While Chris and I were napping Papa and Claire and Chloe picked some oranges off of our OLD orange tree. The kids are always wanting to do that so Papa helped them squeeze some of the sour juice and try it. All three of them puckered up after tasting it. Chris wasn't too happy about waiting for his turn to taste it but was eager to pass it off once he had tried it. :) 

 

 

 

All three C's shared in helping cook dinner and then the New Year's Eve party began. We celebrated New York's time I might add, and they were as happy as clams having ice cream, cookies, and sparkling cider, and blowing their horns near the midnight hour in New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a fun evening and we all slept well after our over the top celebration!  :)

 

Happy New Year! 

 

December, Where Have You Gone?

December, for us this year, was a whirlwind of travel which brought us home late the night of December 23rd. We arrived home just in time to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our sweet grandchildren who we missed more than we can express. A couple of pictures that I especially like are below, taken in the city of Vina Del Mar, Chile while traveling between Valparaiso, Chile and Santiago, Chile where we were to catch our flight home. It is a working clock and for some reason it struck me as something very special.

 

 

 

Norm and I on the tour bus...both looking just a wee bit weary! Silly us, and we were just beginning our long trek home!

 

 

While we were traveling, Mike sent us a few pictures of Claire, Chloe, and Chris taken at their  Christmas programs at preschool and Kindergarten. We were very disappointed to have missed their performances. Chloe reported that Chris didn't sing a word of his song but at least he stood up there. The girls are shown below with some of their friends. Mike also sent us a picture of their chickens in the rare snow fall that we missed. I love this chicken picture!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve was a quiet but very special time with the three C's. Below you can see a few results of an attempt to get a picture of the three of them. It was quite a circus before it was over and I have many out of focus shots to prove it.

 

 

 

 

Each of the children were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve after Daddy read the Christmas story from Luke, chapter 2, on  his Iphone....(times have changed)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christopher was the first one up Christmas morning and ready to check out his stocking! Claire and Chloe soon followed. I'm sure some day Claire will be mad at me for posting her picture but I had to, it is classic!

 

 

 

 

Opening presents took place next.....

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little time with Papa.....

 

 

Chloe tried out her new boots and retrieved the paper from the driveway....

 

 

 

Chloe eating some Christmas breakfast, a little different than the rest of us had, I might add.

 

 

We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus!

 

We are looking forward to an overnight visit for two nights starting tomorrow. We will have a New Year's Eve party and hopefully lots of fun.

 

Happy New Year!