Still on the road

We are still on vacation. Been to Indianapolis, Hershey, Boston, the Cape and now in Upstate New York near Lake Ontario.

Will be back to active blogging to post pics of all our destinations when I return home to MO in about a week.

Thought I'd leave you with a "special" photo from the road:

Mission Beach 2006 & 2009 and NO tattoos

Here is Nicolee on Pop's shoulders at
Mission Beach in 2006.
She was almost 4.
This year she is still in NY in school.
First grade is very important.

H was only 6 months old in 2006,
so we didn't put her up on Pop's shoulders.
But here she is, 3½ in 2009!

And Baby J 2009 at 18 months.
Of course she wasn't even around in 2006!

Daddy and Pop and the little grandgirlees.

A man walked by as we were taking this next pic
and just oozed and fussed about
Jay and Christy and the girlees,
"This is "The American Family"!!
He went on and on!
And an odd statement he injected in the middle was,
"And NO tattoos!!!"
We have been joking about that ever since.

We are on our way to Boston

and plan to take photos with
the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues
in the Public Gardens that will "match"
with one taken in 1989 and another from 1999.
Come back and see in a couple weeks...
with NO tattoos!!!

Tea Parties

While out in San Diego, my KSF, Cecilia invited me to tea at The Aubrey Rose Tea Room in La Mesa.

Cecilia worked here as a server for a time before she went back to nursing.

Cecilia boasted that The Aubrey Rose is THE best tea room and she was not wrong.
Of course, Cecilia hates to be wrong, and on this occasion I conceded.

High Tea is not fare for the faint of heart!

And the tidbits were served beautifully as well.

Everything was just a bite of this and a bite of that.

It just kept coming and coming!

Delightful!

And after the last morsel was consumed,
we were stuffed,
as Sandi so willingly expressed here!

Here we are, the 3 troublemakers:
Sandi, Cecilia and moi:

And Cecilia's daughter, Jenn... who is a gem of a young lady!

I love this photo of Cecil with Jenn's impish grin in the mirror!

David, the shoppe owner's hubby snapped a pic before we left.
A small glimpse of the delights the Aubrey Rose holds for visitors.

And then on to another tea party just yesterday!

With 2 of my little grandgirlees.

This was quite a feat for Baby J, she doesn't use clinking dishes very often.
Can you see that lipsmacking going on?

She was quite dainty.

Lots of tea stirring and strawberries.

The only thing missing was Nicolee!
See you on Wednesday in Boston girlee!!!

Baby Jay is enthralled with the kitties, even though they are not thrilled with her!
She is very gentle and thought it very funny that the kitty lays in the bird bath.

So whether you have a tea party with the big girls
or with the little girls, enjoy your cuppa!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I heart my Longaberger dishes.

I have been growing my collection for quite some time.
I began with the Classic Blue and mostly had some serving pieces.



I considered getting the dinnerware but just couldn't seem to make the jump.

That is until we visited Bass and Baskets Bed and Breakfast on Lake of the Ozarks for our 29th anniversary:(Click on the above photo to get to the B&B site)
Deb is a Longaberger dealer and has decorated the entire establishment with Longaberger baskets and pottery!
She used the multi-color pottery for her table service and I went home with inspiration.


(click on the above photo to read about her in the Longaberger magazine)
So here is my Longaberger dinnerware.
I really love to use the luncheon plates, but sometimes we need the dinner size.
Tonite I will use both because I am attempting to duplicate a bruschetta recipe from a local restaurant.
Believe me, it is AWESOME bruschetta! When I get it right, I will post the recipe.

I also just bought some new flatware!
I was inspired by Gollum.
She has many tablescapes and many sets of dinnerware and flatware.
So I searched and found the Avalon flatware.

And they even had spreader knives, cocktail forks and mini spoons.
H thinks they are for her and Baby J!

And the little Longaberger plates are part of the Children's Tea Set.
Cute, huh?

And one more of my favorite things... My friend Stephanie!!

Stephanie came up from Arkansas, Greers Ferry Lake area for a very quick one overnighter turnaround visit.
Steph and I go way back.
We both lived in El Cajon back in Cali days.
We met in Sunday School, used to go to the Mission Beach Monday nights at the beach.
And we were humongo preggers together, she with her second, me with my Baby.
Since we both moved from Cali, we've both gone back to school: she's now an RN and I'm teaching.
Our kids are all grown up and we both have grandgirlees!
The visit was way too short, but I was happy to get even a little one in!
Come back Stephanie... and bring Gary with you next time!

P.S. I've gotten rid of most of my Classic Blue and am slowly replacing the serving pieces.

Wedding Girls

Three of my girls were in a family wedding today.
Thought I'd share pics.
The littlest one was supposed to be a flower girl.
She slept through the whole thing.
Her momma said better sleeping than cranky.

I made the little one's dress last year when the bigger girl was a flower girl (same dress).
We wanted little Sissy to match even tho' she was sitting on Nana's lap.

And the pretty Momma
(my daughter-in-love):

We have been gallivanting around and I have more photos of places and friends and family we've visited.
Please be patient, but stay tuned.