family,food, cake and a hike

After DC the family got together at my house for some food and relaxation.We did do a lot of walking after all. I have to say mother nature really cooperated and the weather was wonderful so we gathered outside.

My daughter, her husband and their kids Adam, Emmanuel and Xavier drove down to visit with my brother Paul and his daughter Amanda who were visiting from Hawaii. I'm afraid we didn't get pictures of everyone but here goes...

Here's Heather, my daughter and her Uncle Paul hanging out saying their hello's.

And here's Mom, my son Matthew and my son in law Bo enjoying the beautiful day and an adult beverage before we ate.

My husband isn't much for cooking in the house, however he is great at the grill! And of course that's Heather again, even as a child she was a ham bone!

My grandson Emmanuel's birthday was last week so we had to have a cake right? What kind of grandparents would we be! With his parents looking on he's blowing out his candles and making his wish.

Then they all took a hike back onto our property which is about 26 or so acres, this is what they saw.The next three pictures were taken by my nine year old grandson Xavier. I think he's got a bit of talent don't you?

This is our pond, a timber company just cleared about one square mile of timber on the other side of it for a family who inherited the land. It looks terrible and leaves much of my area looking more like a prairie.

This is our old three level tobacco barn. It hasn't been used in many many years as you can see by it's condition. The tobacco would be hung on poles up on top across beams and then a fire would be built on the ground and the tobacco is smoked before going to market.

These are a several trees that are sure to become fire wood for our wood stove at some point. They are most certainly storm damage from our last hurricane. 

And now a few pictures that my niece Amanda took when she was out and about on the hike.

This is a deer track that they found out in the woods, we have a family of deer who come up to the house regularly and eat the apples and pears off the trees.

Our apples are just about done as you can see, this one is pretty rotten on the vine, and the leaves are almost all on the ground now.

And that was our family day, with food, cake and a hike. My brother and his daughter left to go back to Hawaii early this morning. We are SO happy that they could come and so sad to see them go. Maybe next time we can all get together; all of us.

no more books?

I love to read; or I should say I used to read a lot, the accident and subsequent death of the kids changed my ability to concentrate so my enjoyment for reading has diminished greatly. Now alas reading has become something I hardly do, so I blog instead. And on a rare occasion I find a book that I can get through then I am grateful with a capital G. Suggestions would be appreciated on any good reads, I'd like to try making a renewed effort to do some book reading again.

My house is a readers house that fact cannot be denied, look at the bookshelf on my balcony.

Now lets look at the down side to this book shelf.  It is so huge you need 

                                            this and this to clean it.

And guess who does the cleaning? Moi.

It's filled with books and other stuff, many of the books I've read many times over, they are like old friends.


My two guest rooms have a stack of books by the bed side, the bathroom has a basket of reading material and then there's my cook books too.

Like I said old friends.

But the other day I'm not sure what possessed me, I went ahead and did it, broke the ice and made my first holiday purchases. You might ask what it is that would make this last minute shopper extraordinaire shop in October? And what in the world this has to do with books!?

When you have grandchildren who have a lots of everything it becomes difficult to buy them cool gifts for Christmas. Last year we got them the greatest sports watches in bright colors like red, lime green, khaki and blue! 

They do love to read but I wonder if I'm doing the right thing here, I love seeing them with real books. Then again if Kindle's with encourage even more reading then I think getting them their own reader. This is me trying to convince myself I made the right decision in buying them. And there's always the fact that their Mom my daughter gave their purchase her thumbs up!

Kids in this generation are such techies -nerds, and my guess is the kids are going to be thrilled with their gifts.   I have to admit however that this was a hard purchase to make because of my personal love of books, and because I'm a bit of a dinosaur. So tell me dear readers, do you own a reader or are you a book person?  Would you buy a reader for a pre or teenager for Christmas?

I'm ready for fall

Before I take out my fall stuff; yes I do have a pumpkin or two even though we don't get a single trick or treat-er at the house I thought I'd show you some of my favorite summer pictures.  And I tried a new way of presenting my pictures; you like?

I just took a quick lesson on how to do collages from Megan over at her blog best of fates she is a self professed collage freak so she gave lessons on her blog. I'm just a beginner so here's my first effort. What can I say I had collage envy!

My brother and sister in law come visit me and Bill every summer on the anniversary of the kids accident and we usually go to the beach. However because of my leg wound the beach was out of the question; swimming was out of the question so I ended up being the camera man and observer to all.

My friend and neighbor Becky was going on vacation and asked me if I'd like to come by and check on her house and we were welcome to use her pool for the ten days she and her husband would be gone on vacation! Now how could I not take her up on that offer.

  

My sister in law Denise, my niece Alex and my son Matt with my nephew Gerard on his shoulders enjoying a day at the pool.                

1) My grandson Xavier. Why is it that all the boys get the great hair, isn't he the cutest?

2) My son Matthew, and his cousins Syd, Gerard and Alex

3)My grandsons, Xavier, Emmanuel and Adam and their cousins Sydney and Gerard

4)My brother Gerard and his Godson Matthew and his three kids.

1) top-Our family brunch at an Irish Pub with my Mom,son and daughter,son in law and grandchildren.

2) bottom- Italian night at my brother's house with the family and friends.

From my seat under the umbrella with my camera I watched my family enjoy the pool; it was a welcome relief from the hot summer days. Now onward I go to cooler weather, piles of leaves and fall allergies; I can't wait!
How about you?





Linking up with Tonya for the Whimsical Wednesday  Blog hop, come join if you want to!

party hats and other silly things we do!

It's important to me to celebrate family occasions as a family whenever possible. Last night we got together to celebrate my son Matthew's 29th birthday. It seemed like yesterday that he was born and now he's grown done with college and on his own, gosh did time fly.

I see so many parents out there in blog land and in real life who are in a rush to get their kids grown to push them through their precious stages of development; what I wouldn't do to have those moments back with all my kids. But I must say I enjoy very much being a parent of grown children and having my grand babies to spoil.

My daughter Heather called me the other day after my husband and I had left their house and said to me, "I went upstairs then their they were waving twenty dollar bills as if they'd just pulled off the heist of the century." She then added with a chuckle, "I knew you had given them that money for vacation but they were trying with their last breath to convince me to take them to Game Stop to get a new video game and I wasn't buying it for a minute!"  As a grandmother I have to tell you honestly I just love this, I cannot tell you how much!

Now back to birthdays and our family. As we were  seated around the table at the restaurant I was thinking about the little things we do with our kids and how they'll carry those things with them, make it their own and even build on it when they have kids of their own or get older. Those things that grow from the seed planted from the importance of family.

My kids know for instance  that birthday dinners when they were little or living home they always got to pick the meal and the cake; what ever they wanted and Mom's cooked it just for them. But now that they've grown and they have busy lives and work and families of their own we tend to go out to eat to celebrate birthdays.

My daughter Heather has started a bit of a tradition of her own which I love, she and her husband are both working parents. He works nights and she days so the kids always have a parent home with them.

Whenever we meet for a birthday for one of my grandsons they MUST wear a birthday hat during their birthday dinner. It's a rather funny thing too! Now mind you her kids are ages 9-13 so it's not to humiliating yet! I found two of the boys pictures on my cell here are the last two birthdays celebrated with their hats.

Adam on his 13th

Xavier on his 9th

Last night we celebrated my sons 29th birthday and she forgot to bring her brothers birthday hat to the restaurant so she had to improvise; and made one out of several napkins from the table. We were at a local sports bar so the head lock went surprisingly unnoticed by the other patrons on the outdoor patio. Oh that's right did I mention she had to put him in a head lock to get the thing on his head?

Matthew on his 29th

Nothing more than a few silly hats and a lot of laughs and new memories are made that we carry with us for the rest of our lives. So tell me what do you do? Any silly little rituals that make your family birthday's special?