Horton Hears A Who, and Panda Hut Too!

Before Amy and Curtis left for Hawaii last weekend, Amy planned activities for her girls for most of the days they'd be away. Today was 'fun with Grammie' day and the babysitter kept Kenzie home from kindergarten so she'd be ready to go as soon as I got home from work around 1:30.

Luckily, Horton Hears A Who has just come to the theatres, so that's where we decided to go (the girls came over last night so we could plan this date). I loved the movie and so did Kenzie. Syd dozed during the middle part of it, but enjoyed the popcorn and pop when she was awake. After the movie I let them choose where we'd go for dinner. Kenzie chose Panda Hut (they both seemed awfully familiar with it and the menu selections!) so that's where we spent the next hour and a half. They love the play area (the restaurant used to be a Burger King and the new owners saw fit to leave the play area there for their customers) and what they didn't eat of their noodles and rice, we brought home for them to eat later, or for the babysitter, whichever comes first. It was a fun day and the babysitter had a peaceful afternoon with just Aidan to take care of.

The McCarthy's - 1983

Just looking through some of my old photos and came across this one. It's my family taken shortly after Lloyd and I moved back to Nova Scotia with the kids...I'm the one in the white t-shirt. My sister and her family came from Winnipeg and we had a family reunion at Mum and Dad's place for the first time in years. I would have been about 34, Wendy 35 and Ken 31. I have kids older than that now! That was a lovely summer. Wendy's 4 kids and my 6 (Emily wasn't born until 1986) had great fun getting to know one another and all the great-aunts and great-uncles (mum had 13 siblings and most of them lived in that area...dad had 4 not too far away). It's sad to think that there's just the three women left now. Ken was killed in a mining accident when he was 39 and Dad died suddenly of a heart attack when he was 70. We have more happy memories than sad though. I love looking at these old pictures and remembering the fun times. This is why we scrapbook!!

I've got to put this link in to Sara's blog - it's the funniest, sweetest, blog I've read in a long time. Maybe you'll like it too. http://fip.typepad.com/mommy_moments/

Surprize Visitors

Jenny and her two youngest boys came to town today while the three older boys were at school. It's always nice to see them. Micah is two - a very big two - and Jammers (James Anders) is 4 months old, although he should only be 3 months old - the little monkey was born a month early. Micah calls me Grandmummy - the only one of our grandchildren to change my name from Grammy...cute. Both boys are happy and healthy and we had fun visiting with them. Jenny is still putting the finishing touches in their new house in LaCombe and makes regular trips to IKEA for supplies.

I'll Drive - You Navigate

Some things you just can't wait for the snow to melt to enjoy. Cousins Max and Sydney go for a swing ride together at Easter when the snow is still fairly deep in the back yard. Max, because he's the 'man' and a few months older than Syd, is the driver while Sydney appears to be telling him how to do it and where to go. The picture is out of focus, but hey - they're driving!!

Brooklyn

This little sweetie hasn't been featured much in this blog, and she's just too cute to leave out. This is our son Rob's daughter - 4 year old Brooklyn. I took this picture last summer, the first time I saw her with her glasses on. I love her in them - she looks so cute in them. They help her so much that her parents have no trouble getting her to wear them and leave them on. She's sweet and shy but once she warms up to people, she's very much into the fun. She loves dressing up and has quite a tickle trunk of costumes to wear.

The second picture is a studio photo Sara took of her last summer.

Introducing.....

Sara...my middle daughter...middle child...#4 of 7...mother of three of our grandchildren...wife of Quincey...great photographer...successful businesswoman and a believer in the power of positive thinking. I've credited her with several of my 'pictures of the day'. So I figured it's time everyone meets her. She and Q. are also half-owners in our Arizona house. Sara has the distinction of being our only child born in High Level, in the wilderness of northern Alberta 31 years ago, where we looked out the window of our room in the health centre and saw a black bear ambling by.

Throughout the year I'll introduce each of our kids on this blog. Middle kids don't often get to be 'first' so...to Sara...here's your turn at being first.

Navajo Bridge

This is an example of the incredible scenery in Arizona. We were driving along the Hwy 89 where it was nice and flat when all of a sudden this amazing gorge was in front of us and we were on a bridge over it. There was a visitors center there where we could read the history of this bridge and the subsequent one built to replace it. There's so much to explore there. I'm going to love it.