Category Archives: Friends and Family

An artist….who knew?

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My parents have been friends with and fans of a local artist for many years.  His name is Andy Smith.  You can see his works here.

Last year my mother gave my father four lessons with Andy as a gift.  My dad dove into these lessons the same way he approaches everything in life, with full gusto!

Turns out my dad really has some talent.  We’ve all been impressed by the watercolors he’s created.

Last weekend Andy had an open house for his students.  We went to support my dad and it turns out he was placed next to his best friend who has also been taking classes.  It was a fun time and I was really impressed by works from all of Andy’s students.

I was especially proud of my dad and his beautiful watercolors.

You can see the students’ works here.  Just click on “my students’ paintings” on the right hand side.  Then scroll down a bit until you see Jim Tanner.  These are my dad’s works.

I told him that I’d really love one of his works for my birthday this year.  I wonder which one he’ll pick out for me?

St. Patrick’s Fun

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Our girls have been learning about St. Patrick’s Day at daycare.  Rylee has been learning more than Brynn and has been fun telling us all the fun things she’s learned about potatoes and Leprechauns.

I decided to have some fun stuff for them on St. Patrick’s Day this year.  They were both excited to see this for breakfast on Saturday…

Saturday evening Frank & Paula came over with Michael to hang out on the deck and let the kids have fun together.

We all had a great time.  It was wonderful to be able to spend the time outside.

The kiddos enjoyed a dinner of green mac & cheese.  Michael hadn’t had it before so he was with me in the kitchen to see the magic happen. He thought it was pretty neat.

After they finished up I gave them each a small bag with three different flavors of green Jelly Belly jellybeans.  I think that really put them all over the top!

Us adults had some great meats & cheeses along with Southwest Egg Rolls for appetizers.  Then we got to enjoy Bill’s wonderful pulled pork. He smoked that on the egg for hours. It went on Friday night and came off at some point Saturday afternoon.  Deelish!

Great friends, fun music, wonderful food and unbeatable weather….perfect day in my book!

 

Brynn is 3!

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How can that be?  She was just a baby, sucking on two  fingers and scooting backwards across the carpet.

This year Brynn was beyond excited for her birthday.  She talked about the theme, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, since last summer.  Thanks to some help from my sister-in-law Julie and my friend Erin she loved it.  Erin made a great personalized banner with a Mickey Mouse theme.

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04-Feb-2012 12:02
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04-Feb-2012 11:47

Julie made this amazing cake.  She really did a great job on it and Brynn was in love with the cake.  She was particularly excited that she got to keep the figurines to play with at home.

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04-Feb-2012 14:02
This party was on February 4th and it was to celebrate not just Brynn’s birthday but her cousins’ Maiah and Zoie’s birthdays as well as their Dad, my brother Danny.  Julie was so clever because she created “another” cake on the backside of Brynn’s Mickey cake for Maiah & Zoie.  The girls had told Julie what colors they wanted on their cake and Julie hit it dead on.

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04-Feb-2012 14:04
Not to slight Danny she made him his own cake.  I will say he was a bit selfish and didn’t share his cake with anyone.

Since Brynn’s birthday was on a Saturday we made cupcakes for her to take to school on the Friday before.  Both Rylee and Brynn helped to mix up the batter.  I decorated them after Brynn went to bed and she was so excited to see these in the morning:  

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16-Feb-2012 19:26

Here are photos of her at school on her special day.  She was excited because she got to be line leader too.  That means she was first whenever they went out side to play and to come back inside.  Her teacher, Miss Erika, made her the cute hat that she has proudly worn ever since she got it.  Note the big difference in the before and after shots!

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17-Feb-2012 14:48
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17-Feb-2012 14:57

Love ya like Brynn love cake!  I like the bit of icing on her nose the best.  (Of course she commented on how messy Ryland’s face is in the background.)

On Brynn’s birthday, this past Saturday, we headed out for a fun day that Bill and I planned a few months ago. Brynn couldn’t wait to get started on her fun day.

Our first stop was Adventure Aquarium.  We took Maiah and Zoie many years ago when it was first remodeled.  There’s a lot more fun stuff now and there’s still one area, for the kiddos, that is under construction and will open in the Spring.

Brynn’s favorite part was the Hippos.  We had to go back to the exhibit about four times because she wanted to “see them again!”.

Bill and I really enjoyed the shark tunnel..

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18-Feb-2012 11:14
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18-Feb-2012 13:10
Rylee said that “everything!” was her favorite.  She really did enjoy the touch pools they had.  Brynn wanted no part of them though.

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18-Feb-2012 12:00
We got to see a 4D show too.  We saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and Sea Monsters.  We really thought the girls would enjoy it, but we were wrong.  Also, the 3D part of it was rather blurry.  But didn’t Brynn look great in her glasses?

It was such a fun time for all of us.  We’re thrilled that we got a super deal on an annual pass because we all want to go back again soon!

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18-Feb-2012 15:30
After leaving there we headed toward home and Chuck E. Cheese.  The girls really have a lot of fun playing the games and riding the few rides they have there.  Rylee is definitely getting better at the games.

Once the girls turned in their tickets and gathered their loot it was time to head home for our family party.  Brynn loved her ice cream cake and the gifts she got to open too!

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18-Feb-2012 19:01
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18-Feb-2012 19:12

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Baby!

Love, Momma

 

Mom’s Pantry Organization

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My mom’s pantry has always been less than organized.  It seems that within the last few years it has seen an overload of items.

I offered to help my mom organize it and she was quick to take me up on the offer.  What came as a surprise to her was my emptying of the entire pantry in order to assess just exactly we were dealing with.  She kept commenting that she couldn’t believe I was going to empty the entire pantry, she thought I would take it shelf by shelf and drawer by drawer. Had we done that we would have created at least double the work for ourselves.

By pulling everything out we were able to discover a few things that needed tossed due to being expired.  This is what happens when you have an overload of items put away anywhere.  We were also able to find items that needed to be relocated to another area of the house.

Mom has been ridding her kitchen of plastic containers and replacing them with glass.  Fortunately for this makeover mom had been saving glass containers for this project.  Since there were different kinds of flour and dry goods the label maker got quite a workout that day as well.

Here are some before and after photos:

Full Pantry Before

Full Pantry After

Pantry Drawers Before

Pantry Drawers After

Pantry Drawer After

Pantry Drawer After

Pantry Drawer After

A Day To Remember…

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…a great man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning my friend Paula and I set out for State College, PA. The two of us decided yesterday that we needed to be there for the viewing of Joe Paterno. Paula was able to juggle her schedule and I had a day that was wide open due to recently being downsized again.

If I was going to take this road trip, Paula was the perfect friend to make the trip with. She’s probably the funniest friend I have and I knew that it was the kind of day that was going to require laughs to help us get through it.

We arrived in State College, to our surprise, without encountering any major traffic. This came as a surprise as well as the ease of finding a parking space. We parked at the Bryce Jordan Center and schlepped along to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. On our way we ran into Coach Bradley just outside the Forum. Paula managed to give him a pat of support on his back and he looked at her and gave her a sincere thank you. After seeing him we got to our destination only to realize that we were severely under dressed and we each were separately wondering why everyone was so dressed up. Then we took a look at the faces in the crowd and we realized that we had just crashed the VIP line. Leave it to us to find the wrong line. We continued walking and saw many players and coaches. We got to the end of the VIP line and asked the campus police where we should go to get in line. They directed us to another side of the building. When we arrived there we simultaneously realized, “We’ve found our people!” This was the line for the general public and they were dressed like us. Basically decked out in layers in their warmest PSU gear.

I looked around and pointed out to Paula that I could see the door. We were totally amazed, it just about noon and we actually arrived what seemed to be early. Yay!!! Early is really relative when you consider it was about 2:15pm when we finally stepped foot inside the building. How do I know the exact time, well….the lady behind us, who was there stag, kept us updated every step of the way. Once inside we waited in the ‘holding area’ for another 15 minutes and then we made our way to the hushed lobby area where we serpentined a bit until we reached the sanctuary. When we immediately walked into the lobby area Jay Paterno walked by, looked at us and thanked us for coming. This was just amazing when you consider he spent the morning in NYC doing the morning show circuit.

Once in the sanctuary you could have heard a pin drop. It was very quiet and somber. There was a lone photo of JoePa to the left of the closed casket and an honor guard, one former and one current player, on either side of the casket. Paula and I walked up together to pay our respects. On our way out we again walked past Jay who was talking with someone. We were amazed that he was still there and interacting with folks.

After leaving the building we headed downtown to get something to eat, grab a few things and then we headed back toward the car. Of course there was a much needed pit stop at the Creamery on the way to the car. We felt that we just couldn’t leave town without some Peachy Paterno. So five half gallons later we were on our way. No…not all five were that flavor. But three were!

I’ve been told that at different times during the day the line to pay your respects was up to a mile and a half long.  Getting in line so early was truly a blessing as we had to make the three hour trek back home.

I’m so glad we were able to go today.  It’s a day that I will remember forever.

Here are a few photos we took during the day:

Old Main

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JoePa Statue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stadium Flag Half Staff

 

 

 

Fall Fun: Part Deux

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22-Oct-2011 11:00

This past weekend our niece Maiah came to stay with us.  It was really great having her with us for more fall fun!  I’m pretty sure she had no idea what she was in for when she arrived.

Saturday morning we headed out to Northern Star Farms.  We visited here two years ago with our girls.  You can see photos of the girls here.

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22-Oct-2011 10:19
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All three of the girls enjoyed looking at photos of the animals.  Then, as a fun treat, each girl got to take a ride on a pony. I had Brynn slotted to ride Lily first, but she wasn’t having it.  About two seconds after Rylee started riding Brynn was ready to go.  Maiah looked quite comfortable up there herself.  Maybe that’s because she had some practice on vacation earlier this year.

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22-Oct-2011 11:04

When we left the farm I thought it would be fun to stop by Varner Farms again because our girls had a lot of there a few weeks ago.  I was right all three girls enjoyed the animals, corn stalk maze, pedal tractors and the straw bale maze.  Thanks to Maiah the girls really had fun climbing on the big tractors too!

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22-Oct-2011 11:10

After all that fun it was home to have lunch, relax and naps. I also got to spend time with Maiah creating some nice beaded jewelry.  Actually she did the creating and I did the repairing of items that Rylee and Brynn needed fixed.

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22-Oct-2011 16:31

After everyone was well rested we headed out to the annual daycare picnic at the park.  It was the first time we were able to attend and all the kids had a blast.  They spent quite a while at the playground of our local park.  Then it was time for a tasty meal and games for everyone.

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22-Oct-2011 16:53

All three thoroughly enjoyed the candy scramble.  After that Rylee decided to participate in the giant marshmallow eating contest.  It was really a lot of fun watching all the kids try to eat the huge marshmallows.  For me it was even funnier to watch the staff make an attempt at it later.  Fair warning….this idea is being filed away for future birthday parties.  I’ve figured out a way to do it both indoors and outside at home!

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22-Oct-2011 10:40

This was another weekend that made me feel blessed.  The kind when Monday morning rolls around you don’t want to back the van out of the garage because then you know it’s really over.  I’ve realized I need to count my blessings, back out and carry on.