Alan enjoyed decorating, too.
A trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo
Alan enjoyed decorating, too.
The Holiday Concert by the Mesa Verde Middle School Bands,
directed by Mr. Schwartz. The arrow indicates Jenny,
wearing a red Santa hat for the Christmas medley.
She is second chair clarinet.
Everyone was asked to help clear the stage after the
concert, but Jenny and her friend Kristin did the bulk of the work,
taking down stands and carting them back to the
band room.
A rainstorm made wonderful puddles in the backyard.
The boys just had to try them out. Lisa and I stripped
them down and applied dry clothes as soon as they were done.
Breakfast with Granddaddy.
Roger enjoyed 'getting' Grandmommy.
We played several bouts of Apples-to-Apples, a great
game for a group. Even Granddaddy got into it!
Jenny is our resident and self-proclaimed pyro.
She loves Christmas candles.
Sarah is ready to wrap up this bear as a birthday present
for her friend Jennifer.
Alan put together a Lego Racers track in the kitchen
and provided his own sound effects.
Jenny got some new reading material for Christmas and
proceeded to put her nose in it.
Mother and Dad passed the torch, that is, monkeys, when
they decided that this pair belonged here, especially since
Sarah is a known collector. The older one was acquired
in Manistee on their honeymoon in 1955 and the new one was
purchased at the Congregational Church in Manistee in 2002.
Roger and Alan helped Granddaddy put slides in carousels.
We enjoyed an outdoor fire on a couple of different days.
Granddaddy and I watched a major engineering project
in the sand area.
We had a Bingo party for New Year's Eve. We spent much of the
evening chatting and doing the jigsaw puzzle, but we
made a point of doing the bingo, too.
Roger called the letters/numbers for us.
The first of our Twelve-Day presents was a new
1000-piece 12-Day jigsaw puzzle. Ginny and Cheryl
Hankins are shown here helping Lisa and Grandmother on
New Year's Eve. We didn't quite finish by midnight,
but it only took us another 1/2 hour.
Maggie Walsh invited Sarah to join a
family and friends football game at the park. Robert
Jackson thinks very highly of Sarah's skills and
insisted that Maggie call her.
Mother, Dad, Roger, Alan and I went to the park to
observe the football game. On the way home, we used
the 'portrait' tree.
Roger couldn't resist getting in the picture!
And then I asked the boys to climb into the tree with
their grandparents.
Roger had both his mini driving range and his
miniature golf game set up in the yard. He was
one happy camper!
Meanwhile, Glen planted two trees for us on the hill;
an Algerian (Clementine) Tangerine and an Encore Mandarin Orange.
I hope they will thrive.
This is my tiniest tree. It started as a volunteer last year
and I've been nursing it along.
Surprise, it's cherry blossom time! Blossom, singular,
on our new cherry tree that we just planted last spring.
I guess it's healthy.
And while we were all busy planting or playing golf,
Alan quietly wrote his own name in sidewalk chalk (I
underlined it with red).
He was proud of himself when we all clustered around
to admire his work.
Our backyard forest is growing, and so is Roger.
Look at this balancing act!
My Giant Sequoia continues to thrive. Thanks to Jenny,
a turtle now hides under its branches.
Roger 'surfs' on this bouncy board.
Roger is an expert at Lego Racer on the computer. He
frequently wins.
Alan mooched much of Sarah's smoothie. He likes fruit drinks.
Roger and Alan are good daddies to their baby dolls.
The boys and I like to have campfires during the week.
We roast marshmallows, and sometimes even hot dogs.
Jenny's science fair project was to test trusses
of various shapes to see which ones would support
the biggest load.
She tested them to destruction.
And here's the presentation board.
Happy 14th Birthday, Jenny!
Several of Jenny's friends slept over after her party,
Kristen, Sarah, Mandy, and Emily.
Alan built this structure all by himself, with no
direction from anyone.
Then the 'Wrecking Ball' came and knocked down the
building once it was properly aged. Buildings become
'old' very rapidly here.
We painted our house project to waterproof it and
make it last a bit longer outdoors.
