In Tune for June

 

June 4th--the first Music in the Park

for the summer! Free cupcakes and ice cream

to celebrate the 30th year of MIP.

State FFA Convention first week of June:

Grace (on the left) got 7th in milk

judging; her team got 4th!

June 5th...garden was planted on May 29th. 

If you look carefully, you can see lettuce, radishes,

and some corn coming up!

June 8th...we have had a lot of wind!  It blew down

this tree by the church.  Note all the green leaves

on the tree, but the base was all rotted!

Jett had orientation at Iowa State this week.

His friend is "Cy the Cardinal".

Bob is putting up sound boards to try to cut down

the echo in the Germans from Russia building

at the Rugby Museum on Friday, the 13th. :-)

On the 14th, the Dale and Martha Hawk Museum

at Wolford had their annual festival.

I have never seen so many really, really old tractors!

My only thought was, boy am I glad we didn't 

have to farm with one of those!

Celebrating May

George and Mary Kate with their new shoes.

Birthday gifts from Gramma and Grampa.

Early for George, but he was excited anyway!

Part of Jimmy's "fleet"...more vehicles 

at his bin site in Dodge, ND.

Grace and Luke at the park

George and I examined the "big tractor"

along the walking path at the park

Birthdays for Andrew, May 4th,

and Mary Kate, May 6th.  We had

pizza, brownies, and ice cream.

George and Mary Kate attacking their

big brothers, Matthew and Andrew

Ari and Cecelia worked on this sign for Jett's party

Supervising the artist are Lea, Cecelia, Annika, Claire, 

Ana (ignoring us) Trina, Landry, and Lydia.

Landry is Jett's girlfriend.

Before the guests arrived...Jett, Caiden, Lea, Tom,

Annika, Oaklynn, and Trina

Lea is their exchange student from Germany.

Oaklynn is Annika's dog.

Ana and her girls waiting for the party to end

After most of the people left, a car pulled into the drive,

and out popped Donna! Surprised everyone. :-)

Later on Saturday, we had pizza and salad,

and fought over a game of "31"

Trina just had to have a picture of the two

girls with braces because she still had her

t-shirt from when she had them...at age 8!!

Gramma and Grampa with Ana's girls on Sunday.

Tom, Jett, and Lea made brunch for all of us.

Us with Jett.  Graduation is 

actually on May 18th. He will 

wear shoes on that day!!! :-)

Not a great photo, but so proud 

of this young man Jett has become.

We came back up north to temps in the 80s and 90s...

Well, that was short-lived. Today it was down to 36.

I planted my flower pots two weeks ago; 

today I put them all in the garage! The flowers

on the flowering crab trees were almost white

instead of the hot pink, probably because 

of the drought conditions.

May 18th graduation. Now it's official. 

Congratulations, Jett! :-)

Annika, Jett, and Caiden are running

in the Iowa state track meet this week.

Trina is their "cheer" leader.

Donna is in Washington with cousins

Valerie and John.  They called me

to get directions for making grape leaves.

I think Donna gave them a tabouli lesson.

Mary Kate turned 5 on May 6th and had her 

first dance recital on the 21st. Kelly said that

when Grace was in her first recital, she

just stood there and smiled. Trina did the

same thing in Cleveland when she was 3,

when my mother took the kids to a local church

to be in the Christmas program.

Mary Kate's group of 4 and 5 year-olds

had two dances to learn! There were

fourteen kids in the group!

Bob and Kent are the only two able-bodied

members of our local Legion post, so they

go to the four cemeteries from Wolford to Knox. 

Kent plays taps and Bob fires the gun in tribute.

We serve a meal at our church after Mass in the cemetery.

Debbie H. gave me a bunch of Irises about 20 years ago,

these are the survivors...they didn't get mowed down

by the lawn mower or weed whacker!  I am planning

to separate the bulbs in the fall and plant them 

somewhere safe near the house or garage.

The lake was not pretty on the 31st.

Smoke from Canadian fires moved

into ND and clouded up the sun.

We ended May with "camper cleaning day".

I washed inside windows and blinds,

Bob got the tar from the oak trees

off the outside of the camper.

 

April Fools Us

 

We had six boxes of Dominoes 

in our south clubhouse, but had

some missing from the two boxes

we used on April 1st, but we

turned out to be fooled!

After sorting the  tiles from all

six, I found the missing parts!!!

Friend Mary moved to a different

park. After seeing her new home,

we took her to the airport on the 2nd.

Her flight to Minneapolis changed 

three times after the flood.

Bob and our friend Irene at the St. Francis church

festival on April 5th.  The conjunto band in the

background is composed of students 

from La Feria High School.  Conjunto music

uses guitars and accordions only.

Headed to South Padre Island on the11th, so Bob could

ride his bike up the beach. We always check out the road

to tne north end of the island and discovered huge drifts

that had blocked the road during the latest storm.

We visited the newly remodeled Turtle

hospital, heard a talk about the improvements,

checked on some of the turtles...this fish

didn't smile for the photo!

We watched the staff work with an injured turtle,

They even have an X-ray machine in the hospital

Bob was hungry, so we stopped at the DQ.

This bird was waiting for him to drop some crumbs.

Easter Sunday in VA....Sara spotted TJ Oshie at church.

He played hockey for North Dakota and the Washington

Capitals, and RJ is a super-hockey player and fan.  RJ

was embarrassed when Sara stopped to talk to TJ, 

so TJ suggested they get a photo! 

Trina and Tom had a couple extra "kids" for Easter--

Bernardo and Ellen's daughter Maria, and Ari's

boyfriend Eric besides exchange sutdent Lea.

We flew to Miami on the 19th to have Easter

with Donna, some cousins, and a few of

Donna's friends. This was the brunch menu

at the restaurant in her condo building.

After brunch, we went to the baseball

game at Alex Rodriguez field on campus.

The Canes won 12-2 against Georgia Tech.

Cousin Pat had Grampa Smith's desk

that he brought over from Lebanon,

so he gave the desk to Donna.

Bob went bike riding on Monday, and I

went to the pool.  This little guy was the only

other "person" at the pool!

Video of the view from Donna's condo. Intercoastal

waterway on the right; Biscayne Bay on the left.

Empty pool below!

Cousin Rich and Carla and kids were at Easter

brunch, and they invited us to their home 

for a Lebanese meal on Tuesday.

Chloe and Emma loved the Rice Krispie bars at the

brunch dessert table, and I discovered that they had 

never made them at home. So, I brought the ingredients

and taught Emma how to make them. Chloe got home 

from school in time to help with the finishing touches.

Doug, Sara, and kids arrived on Wednesday, and we

took a boat tour of Biscayne Bay.

We thought we were going on a pirate ship, but this

pirate was the only one there. He sat in the bar for

most of the trip until I hooked him for a photo.

Condos in this building on the Bay

are $7,000 per month!

This guide said this was P. Diddy's home.

We found "Margaritaville" while touring

the Bay area after the boat tour.

The kids wanted to go snorkeling on Thursday--

this is "Doug the fish" in the water. :-)

While the kids were snorkeling, Bob and I took a brief

guided tour to learn about the red, white, and black

mangrove trees. They are distinguished 

by their leaves: "Red, red, pointed head," "Black,

black, fuzzy back," "White, white, sweet delight."

(the white leaf actually tastes sweet)

Aquaman!

Ready for the next adventure

On Friday, the kids went to a zip-line park

through the trees. We opted out and took

 a quick trip to Dadeland Mall with Donna.

After our dinner at the Lebanese restaurant 

Friday night, we had a Jai Alai experience..

complete with entertaining drunks, and a

dance that got hats for Doug, Sara, and the kids.

We flew to Minneapolis on Saturday, went

to a coffee house with Ana and the girls on Sunday

after church, and then went to a lecture with Ana

at an Armenian church.

While we were traveling, Caiden and Jett

went to their prom in Iowa.

I asked Trina about Jett's weird hat...

turns out that's the Prom King's crown!

The post-prom party had a circus theme,

and Tom was the chief clown! Love it, Tom.

Jimmy and Kelly's gang on Easter.  I picked this 

pic off Kelly's facebook page!