Susan's Birthday and Kristen's Shower

Before I start blogging, how 'bout a shout-out for Susan, who's 22 now. Happy Birthday to a FABULOUS up-and-coming young woman!!

Susan is just weeks away from her college graduation. In May she'll have her master's degree from Mountain State University in West Virginia.

Two weeks later, Susan's younger brother (my stepson, David) will graduate from high school.

In May, our family will travel down to West Virginia, for a visit with Susan and David. It'll be our first big trip with Leila, as well as a fun chance for Michael and Emma (and me!) to expand our travel horizons. We're looking forward to it.

And who knows? We may even get to meet Jay's parents while there (hint hint, Susan and Jay).

Someone else who knows all about kids graduating is my future sister-in-law Kristen. She has two sons, and both graduate this spring (one from highschool; the other from college).

Kristen is two weeks away from marrying Jon's oldest brother, Brent. To celebrate, Jon's sister Sally threw a wedding shower for Kristen this weekend, at Sally's (amazingly beautiful) home in Holcombe.

Pictured above: Kristen's mother; my mother-in-law, Jane; Emma; and the bride-to-be.

The shower was also a Pampered Chef party, so we got to try out fun kitchen gadgets while a salesperson prepared fruit pizza for us.

We were all impressed with the chocolate chip grater... especially when it dusted our fruit pizza with delicate shavings... yum.

Emma enjoyed being one of the Ladies at the party, looking on and sampling goodies with us. She was also very helpful with Leila, who has turned into an active little busy-body.


Here's Leila, at right. She LOVED Sally's piano.

This tiny set of wicker furniture was perched atop Sally's piano. It's made of THREAD and is intricately hand-crafted. Sally acquired it years ago from the maker-- a woman in her 90's who was almost blind. Each piece is only a few inches tall and absolutely amazing in its detail.

It's been warm and sunny lately (though cloudy today). The snow is melting and puddles abound. Even the insects are waking up.

Emma made good use of the warm weather at Sally's. She peeled her coat off and jumped with abandon on the outdoor trampoline.

Leila joined her briefly, but seemed intimidated by the large, alien jumping surface. She's more comfortable jumping up and down inside her crib-- a daily occurrence when she wakes up each morning. At Sally's she scrambled off the edge of the trampoline pretty quickly, once I was there to help.

While we were at the shower, Jon and Michael were in Plover, Wisconsin for Part 2 of Michael's knowledge contest.

This time he didn't bring home any tangible rewards. But father and son spent quality time together. The competition was a good experience, even if Michael learned he isn't the biggest math whiz of the LaCrosse diocese (the contest was put on by Knights of Columbus).

Meanwhile, other breaking news: my eighty year-old father is DRIVING himself to Florida. Yes, that's right. He's driving himself to Florida. He's already made it as far as Georgia, and will be gone for another two weeks.

Dad has a brother in Georgia and a sister in Florida (both older), and will visit with them and other relatives along the way.

This big solo road trip isn't Dad's only adventure these days. Two days ago, while on the computer checking my Facebook account, I saw a friend request waiting for me... from Dad!

That's pretty progressive for someone born during the Depression era! I really have to give Dad credit for changing and taking on new challenges during his elder years. I hope I'm flexible and up for changes when I'm 80!

We spent as much time as possible outside yesterday-- the weather was great. Lots of mud, though. Emma and Leila wore their rubber boots and visited every pile of mud and muck they could find.

We walked up to the neighbor's farm with an apple and bucket of oats for Macy. Emma found each of us a stick along the way, so we had walking sticks in three sizes.

Leila's puddle-splashing frightened the nearby calves, who mini-stampeded their way into a nearby shed (we were on the other side of a fence from them).

Macy was glad to see us. She's so gentle we go right in the pen by her, though I keep a firm hold on Leila's hand, to make sure she doesn't get underfoot.

Emma has turned into a true animal-lover, just like big sister Susan.