The 100th Rose Festival

The Portland Rose Festival opened their Water Front Village yesterday. There are many events that will take place over the next couple of weeks.

One of my favorite things is the fireworks that officially kick off the whole thing. We arrived down at the East Bank Esplanade around 7 p.m..... 3 full hours before the fireworks were to start. Even at that time the places that didn't have any obstacles in the way were taken.

It was a beautiful day and it seemed that a ton of people brought their suppers down there. We were in that group as well. A brief stop at Dominoes and we had a Pizza Night Picnic. Sebastian ( our grand-nephew) came along. Our friends Tom and Kim met us down there too.








Finally the fireworks started. I am glad we went. It was worth the wait!

Fifty is Nifty.....Right Har?

This is a belated birthday blog for my Harlan. We had a great gathering of friends at Overlook Park to help him into his Fiftieth year without too much pain and suffering. Some of our good friends couldn't make it :-( but here is a look at some of those who were there.

Little Tykes

These little tykes that hang around here periodically are pretty cool.

Whether they are wrangling stuffed snakes or basking in bubbles we do enjoy them.







Their momma has gotten them some official "Little Tykes" stuff.

They have tons of fun with the play structure and the cars are a big hit too. Especially with Genevieve. Could it be she may have a little bit of "Driver" in her too :-)

I hope she makes it....

About a week ago we discovered a squirrel residing in our basement. I know we have heard squirrels in the attic space upstairs. But how one got in our basement I haven't a clue. We surmise that she was born in the attic and perhaps fell into the wall and ended up in the cellar. In any case we have been trying to live trap it for a couple of days. Every morning I open the door to see it hanging on the curtains looking out the window of the back door. As soon as anyone approached, though, it was off and running. We didn't want to open any windows or doors to let it out for fear that we may be letting more in!

The little thing thought it was living in a spa. All the cat food and water it could consume and lots of running and climbing room. I finally got smart.....we weren't going to lure it with peanut butter when it still had cat food to eat. The food and water were empty this morning. This was our day..... When we returned from our outing this afternoon we had a squirrel in a cage. YAY!

We drove it over to forest park area. I hope she likes her new digs. Though rain and wet ground seemed to be a little bit of a rude awakening. Last we saw her she was rustling in the tall vegetation to the right of this building.

Now I need to catch her a friend....
Perhaps the large male that has been wreaking havoc on my bird feeder :>O

Post Script: Special Spa Surprise! Mother's Day Continued

Mother's Day Marvels still happening one day later....

This project was spear-headed by Alyssa and Courtney. Contributed to by Hayden and Cameron and financed mostly by Harlan. The "kids" gave me a total spa experience with candles, chocolates, flowers, and my choice of relaxing music or a new DVD "Music and Lyrics" to watch. Those along with plenty of potions, lotions, creams and fizzies and I feel like a pampered Prima Donna.

Spa Spectacular will have to be on my weekly schedule.

Mother's Day Moments

A group of us got together for some food and fellowship for Mother's Day. The food was prepared and served by non-moms. It was YUMMY! Fresh fruit, 4 different kinds of pancakes, french toast, scrambled eggs with ham, sweets of many kinds, and of course Tots and Pannukakku! Thank you everyone for the marvelous spread



Here are the moms that were in attendance. Kassandra (mom of Steven and Bre), Me (you should know all of my kids) Alyssa (mom to be of "Batman"), Joy (mom of Rashell, Isaiah, and Garrison) & Debbie (mom of Nathaniel). We were treated like queens.

Then there were the princesses....What is it about girls & coloring? Genevieve seems to be having a grand time learning the princess traditions.




Another cool thing was that I saw or heard from all of my kids. I received a text message from a busy mommy-to-be that was celebrating her hubbies birthday. I also got calls from San Antonio, Texas; Walla Walla, Washington; and Pusan, South Korea. I am a blessed mom.


The only drawback to the day was that our little guy Wyatt woke up not feeling well. He and Grandpa stayed home and played together. Thank you Harlan for being such a good Grandpa. Isn't it going to be fun to have more of these little critters around :-)

ER, OB. & RR

Today started out to be one of those normal days. Alyssa and I had to return something to the mall. The school kids were schooling. Har came home for lunch.

Then we got a call from Joylynn. Genevieve had fallen and hit her head losing consciousness. She wanted me to meet her at St Vincent's ER. Lyssa and I took off and met her there. I got to spend some time with Wyatt while the girls stayed with Genevieve.

The stress of everything put Joylynn into premature labor. So while Alyssa and I stayed with Genevieve and Wyatt in ER. Joylynn was sent up to OB.

I (being the only non-pregnant adult in our little group) got to go in when Genevieve had a CT scan. There was no bleeding in her head. Just on the outside. They got her cleaned up and superglued together and we went up to see "Mommy" in her room.

Wyatt and I took off from the hospital around 2 hours after I first got there. I needed to get back home to pick up the rest of the kids to go to Cameron's Royal Ranger Gold Cup Derby race. It is always such fun to be there with all the families cheering on there Royal Ranger or Pioneer Girl.

Here is a picture of Cam and his buddy Grant with their cars. Grant got a trophy for his design. Cameron got a ribbon and won three of his races.

It has been a long day. I'm glad I had my camera with me.

Mother's Day Month

Now that it is May. Thoughts go to Mother's Day.....in addition to a million other things. But I thought I'd put a couple pictures up of the Mom that made Me a Gramma.

Here she is with the whole family. She and Jess have their hands full now. Just wait until late this summer when they present us with a 3rd grandchild. Just after Lalita and Bob bless us with a grandson. Then Lyssa and Logan will be giving us another grandchild in October. Christmas should be fun this year!!!! All the unmarried Aunties and Uncles need to be on board for baby duty.


Here are a couple more candid shots of the Kiddos. Typical shots of both of them. He is pretending to be someone searching for something with Grampa's bike mirror.
She is "cheesing" for the camera.

So much busyness... so much fun!