This little cutie pie ...

It was Mother's Day yesterday. I had intended to make a special lunch for Nana and bring it over and share it with her after church--but my plans were waylaid by my brother and my step-brother who sent my mom gift cards to Olive Garden with the specific instructions to use them on Mother's Day! So … I got a nice treat. When we drove up to the restaurant there was a CROWD inside and outside and we heard people muttering that there was an hour and 45 minute wait! We walked up to give our name and said there was TWO of us and we were seated immediately, ate our delicious meal and walked out the door passing the very people who were still waiting …

Mom and I played a game of Scrabble and visited for awhile and then I drove over to Dylan and Kelly's house with a quart of ice cream, chocolate fudge and whipped cream. We enjoyed huge sundaes together with this little cutie pie ...

 Brendan was very glad to see his Grandma Carol. He is so sweet. We stripped him of his checkered shirt so that he could eat his chocolate without getting it all dirty.

 YUM.

 "Look! Look, Grandma Carol! A drink box with a STRAW!!"

 AH! This face!

 You are something else, Brendan!

 This is the beautiful basket of flowers that Brendan picked out for me and brought to my house the other day. The basket was very heavy, but Little Fellow carried it up the stairway to my Beach House to present them to me. He was so pleased. ME TOO.

 And this was the cute card ...

 With Brendan's very nice art work!

I love these guys ...

Emma's Spring Choir Concert

Thursday was Emma's Sixth Grade Spring Choir Concert over at the high school auditorium. Actually, the 7th and 8th grade choir sang, the high school choir performed, and an ensemble group also did a few numbers. Here is Emma, all dressed up for the big event.

The Sixth Grade Choir performed, "Year of the Tiger." Emma sang very well. She loves being in the choir. She is very musical. 

 As I watched her singing, I couldn't help thinking how very precious she is to me -- how very much I love this sweet girl.

 I was really proud of her. She followed every cue, she knew every word, she did a wonderful job!

This is Emma and her Grandma Hand, who has been very sick for more than a year. It looks like she is on the mend now, and everyone is so thankful about that.

Bubbles and other fun ...

My Little Fellow came over Wednesday night to play for awhile so that his folks could have a date night. We ate a nice dinner of fresh veggies, watermelon, and mac 'n cheese too. Brendan ate as much as I did.

 He has a very healthy appetite and enjoys the whole meal from start to finish.

It was a gorgeous, summer-like day Thursday afternoon. I opened up my brand new bubble maker and we went out on the front porch to play.

 Brendan really really liked this ...

 I love his little scrunched up faces ...

 This makes giant bubbles if you blow gently enough ...

 Brendan was very good at making gigantic bubbles ...

Brendan let me have a turn too, so I made super huge bubbles while he ran to pop them before they hit the ground or floated away. We had so much fun. 

 We played underneath the craft table for awhile … I'm not sure WHY exactly, but I think we were pretending it was some kind of hideout.

 Brendan thought he needed more iced tea for his new dwelling ...

I naturally took tons of pictures of our time together. So thankful for the digital age … this little munchkin would have me broke in no time if I had to purchase and develop film!

 I love this precious little person ...

 Brendan gave dolly the ride of her life ...

 All the while running and shouting, "Dinosaur" very loudly ...

 I ran away feigning great fear and trembling … to this little soul's delight ...

 He is a scream to play with … so full of JOY.

But all too soon, Dylan and Kelly returned. It was late and time for bed! 

My favorite moment of our time together was early on when Kelly dropped Brendan off to me. Kelly and I were visiting briefly. I was sitting on my floor in the main room and Brendan scooted over to me, crawled up on my lap, laid his head down in my arms and looked up into my eyes with the sweetest look of love. He stayed there, all cuddled up, a little bit sleepy, for the longest time. Such a sweet little heart he has.

Our first zoo trip of 2015 … but surely not our last!

Little Fellow and I headed off to the zoo Saturday morning -- the first perfectly sunny and warm day (almost) that we have had this spring! For some reason, Brendan was mostly excited to see the flamingos; sadly, they were not out yet! There were five pelicans that he enjoyed, but zero flamingos.

Actually, there were tons of exhibits that were not officially opened yet; such as the sting rays, the baboons, the budgie birds, the pygmy goats ... 

 Thankfully, the farm was open and there were plenty of goats to enjoy ...

Brendan is not one bit afraid of animals. He loved being in this place with critters quite a bit larger than himself!

We hiked WAY up to the top of the zoo to see if there were any tigers home. YAY! Last year, I had gone three times near the end of the season to see the tigers and never saw any at all. But Saturday, both tigers were out and about ... 

They came VERY close to the window and got acquainted with Brendan who was roaring at them and shouting, "Dinosaur!!" at the top of his lungs. Poor sweetheart is under the delusion that if he shouts "Dinosaur!!" it will evoke fear in any living creature. This is, of course, his family's fault (including me) because when we animate our puppets for him and he shouts, "Dinosaur!" we pretend that Paco and Cocoa are TERRIFIED and run away and hide making squeaking sounds--which cracks Brendan up. 

 These tigers were NOT impressed with Brendan's roaring and shouting whatsoever. What was kind of fun, though, was that they would walk by the window and look as if they were not coming back; so I would say (kind of softly), "Please Mr. Tiger, come back so we can see you!" and every time, one of the tigers would walk back to the window. Brendan thought it was pretty cool that they would come when I called for them!

 Yikes. This is as close as I have ever been to a tiger. Brendan enjoyed every single second of it.

 We left the tigers and walked down the boardwalk to where the camels were and I actually allowed myself to get talked into riding a camel with Brendan … Brendan is the one who talked me into it! We rode on top of Ellie the Camel. It was a very bumpy ride with Brendan smiling from ear to ear. I didn't get any pictures of our fun because … well … we were on top of the camel holding on for dear life.

I will hopefully do a better job of photographing our time at the zoo next time we go! Little Fellow had so much fun … me too!

My First Earthquake ...

I just want to document the earthquake that was felt here in W. Michigan on Saturday, May 2, 2015. I have never "felt" an earthquake before and at the time it happened, I didn't realize that it WAS an earthquake … but it was! It registered 4.2 on the scale even.

Brendan and I had been to the zoo from about 9:45 - 11:45 am Saturday morning. We were quite tired from our happy time there and drove back to my house to enjoy a healthy lunch of fresh fruit and veggies, along with some mac'n cheese.

It was about 12:25 that we were sitting around my white round table when I heard a rumble, kind of a low roar, and my little place shook and the windows rattled for a full 15-20 seconds. I thought it was a very low-flying helicopter but since I was in the middle of feeding Brendan (which means I was busy cutting up veggies and fruit and serving these to him) and he was being such a cutie, I didn't really stop to analyze the moving and shaking of my little house.

I had Brendan until about 4:00 in the afternoon, came back home here and never listened to the news until 11:00 last night when I found out about the earthquake that happened a little bit south of Kalamazoo. THAT was why my house was shaking and the windows were rattling! THAT was the roar that I heard! Yikes. My first earthquake! And I lived to tell about it …