Mum's Birthday

I just got home this afternoon from Winnipeg where we celebrated Mum's 87th birthday. She can't remember having a birthday party before (she's had many!) so was very excited to actually be receiving gifts. I guess that's a small blessing of having Alzheimer's. Everything is a 'first', new and exciting. After her dinner (prepared by the best cook in the family, my sister Wendy) and the cake and gifts, she and my brother-in-law played cribbage while my sister, niece and I played Settlers. A nice little birthday party.

Faces of Childhood - Summer Edition

By the end of the day you can tell what kind of day it was by the look of the kids. Have you ever seen a dirtier face than Max's?? Or more freckles than Wyatt's (a neighbour boy who came over to play with the kids this evening)? Charlie's dirty too, but she has decorated her dirt with Barbie bandaids to cover the scratches she got out at her other grandma's house this afternoon. They were all happy and smiling and still having fun when it was time to go in to get ready for bed though...hopefully to have a bath first! Grammie and Papa left before the action began. We all had a good day.

Cards

I've come to enjoy making cards. The problem is, I hate to give them away. So when I make one I particularly like, I try to make two of it - one to give and one to keep to use as a model for other ones. Here's some I made last week.

Jar Album

I'm going to Winnipeg for Mum's 87th birthday on Tuesday. Over the years I've made her gifts that she really likes, from cross stitch to special scrapbooks. When I asked her what she wanted this year she said "Make me something I can brag about". Lately when I've called her she's mentioned that she's looking at my family picture and can't remember my kids names...all part and parcel of Alzheimer's. It bothers her though that she can't put names to faces any more.

I saw this jar album at a friend's home and copied the idea for myself. It was fun and easy to make and turned out really well. I put a picture of each child and his/her spouse on one side of the chipboard disks and put their name on the back, along with a list of their children. Then I fancied it up with lots of bling. I made a hole in the lid and threaded ribbon through and knotted it. The other end of the ribbon is attached to the first disk by threading it through an eyelet. That way, when the lid is removed, the whole string of pictures comes out. Very effective I think it'll be something for her to brag about for awhile.

Hula Hooping

Charlie has learned the graceful art of hula-hooping and was eager to show me her skills today. She does pretty good for a 4-year old and manages to keep it up for 10 or 15 seconds at a time. With practice she'll soon be as good as her Grammie used to be.

Hula hoops became popular in the mid- to late 50's when I was 9 - 12. I got pretty good at it - good enough to win a contest at a picnic for the soldier's kids at the army base we were living in at the time (Base Gagetown, NB). I could start twirling at my waist and move it up to my neck and down to my knees without losing a beat or dropping it. Of course I was skinny as a rail and straight as a poker back then so it was pretty easy going for the hoop.

I'm glad to see that hula-hooping hasn't completely died out and that one of my offspring's offspring is following in her Grammie's footsteps.

Way to go Charlie!!

Watermelon Baby

To day Eloise had her first taste of watermelon. She looks so serious about it, but I think she was afraid someone would take it away from her before she was finished with it. See how white the ends of her fingers are from holding on to it. Maybe she just liked the coolness of it on her toothless gums...I personally can't see what all the fuss is. Watermelon is my least favorite fruit and I never eat it if I can possible avoid it. Looks like Elly doesn't take after her Grammie that way. Oh well. She has other good qualities :-)

Emily's Birthday

The family celebrated Emily's 22nd birthday today, although her birthday is tomorrow. She'll have her friends party tomorrow. It's hard to believe that my baby is 22 years old. She's grown into a lovely young woman but she'll always be my baby.

It's actually my sister's birthday today. There's interesting correlations between Emily and Wendy. For one thing, Wendy named Em. Lloyd and I tried several names on Em during her first few days with us but none seemed to 'fit' her. (After already naming four daughters, it was a bit of a challenge coming up with a name for the fifth!) Then Wendy phoned and suggested we name her Emily Patricia. We tried it, liked it, and stuck with it. It suits her. As she grew up, we realized that she looks like Wendy and one of her daughters, and they share several character traits.

My camera's battery was running low (my small camera, not my Rebel) so I only got a couple and they're not particularly good, but here they are. Here's one of Wendy too, since it's really her birthday. Happy birthday ladies. Love you both.