Sam is 3!!

Happy Birthday, Sam! Now You Are...3!!!

Sam when he was a couple of weeks old (June 2010)

Sam's blanket from Grandma, which lovingly
has seen its end! Sam was never seen without
it until this spring in MN when a new one of
its kind HAD to replace it!

Hi Grandpa!  Home from Africa Feb. 2013.

Mom's big helper in Africa!

Happy Birthday to the greatest 3 year old! 

We love you tons and tons!!

Grandpa and Grandma

Doughnut Making!

So after the birthday cake, everyone except Mom went to play frisbee golf.  Then when the 3 older ones left for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Daniel, Timothy, and David L. went on a long bike ride around WBL.  

After returning home and eating (about 9:30 pm), they decided they'd like to...make doughnuts! None of these 3 ever made them before, and it was a grand success!!

Making the doughnuts was by far the hardest part.

Daniel making a smile for the camera to shoot!

Cooking the doughnuts was quite a bit easier!

Testing the oil!

And finally, they are all done and ready to eat!

The best part!  A great success!

Birthday Song for Timothy!

Happy Birthday, Timothy!

Timo has started the summer baseball season,
and his team is the Cubs again! 

At the recital last night.

12 years old! In the morning, the guys all went to Joseph
and Daniel's final playoff game (they lost 12-13). Then
we had a midafternoon lunch and opened his gifts.  Timothy
chose and made the angelfood cake for dessert.  It turned out great!
David Labarre came over after the game and for overnight. 

 Happy Birthday, Timothy!  We all love you tons and tons!!

Recent Happenings!

 I see facebook rarely, so you may have seen this photo already.  But I wanted it on my blog.  What a beautiful picture of Dan and Becca's family! When Ruth was visiting them at the beginning of May, she took this in the same little town that David and Kelsea took their wonderful engagement pictures!

These roses for Mother's Day were so beautiful that they
almost didn't seem real!!

  

A small taste of Africa!  Our washer broke down, and after 3 attempts by Joseph to fix it (with some success!) we finally got a "new" (used) one.  In the mean time, many baseball games, etc. causing all of us to do wash by hand.  A good lesson for us to continue to be very grateful for all the fixtures that make our life a little easier.

See that sweat on his brow, and the pain on
his face?  Ahem...and how dirty the water is!!

By the time we got a washer to use, the wash was about
three times as much as you see here!  

Timo took this one of me waiting at a game and
being very Grandmotherly.  The blanket is for Charlotte,
and Rebecca, you will notice that I am OUTLINING!!

And I got this one of Esther and Timo who were waiting with me!

Daniel and Timothy had their auditions and recital this week.  Here are a couple of photos from the recital.  They both got a Superior-Plus rating on their auditions.  

Joseph's Grand Slam!

Last night bases were loaded, and Joseph hit a grand slam!  That in itself is very cool, but I didn't know till today that that game (won 6-4) made Liberty their Conference Champions! They were tied for first place before that game. It's great he got to do this in his senior year!

Yay Joseph!!

Something "Loony"

On our way to little Ben's benefit breakfast (pictures to be posted later, I hope!), we came upon an exceedingly strange sight:  A big fat healthy loon sitting right in the middle of the road.  We stopped and I got out to try and shoo it off the road, as there was quite a bit of traffic.  But if you know how a loon is built, it can't even waddle like a duck.  Its legs are set way far back, so it is very clumsy on land.  I would not get close to it.  It was BIG and doing its beautiful loon call the whole time! And its very sharp beak kept me safely away!  Thankfully, the somewhat stubborn loon thrust its way off the road just before cars came from both directions. We could not figure out in the least why a loon would be there, with no lake near.  I'm glad I had my camera with!