The birthday weekend

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. I feel like I’d need to post at least 10 photos to bring you up to speed on the happenings in our family life over the past week. It’s been a whirlwind.

Eliana shared birthday cupcakes with her kindergarten class on Friday.


Thanks to the Snows for surprising Vickey with your presence on Sunday for her birthday. And thanks to Grandma Snow for flying down Friday to surprise Eliana on her birthday. She had a great time playing with you!


We took Ellie out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory Friday night for her birthday. Afterwards she opted for going home to play with her new toys over getting her ears pierced. I think we talked up the painful part of it sufficiently enough to scare her away from going through with it. She now says she wants her ears pierced when she’s six.


Eliana had a dozen or so friends gather at the Henderson Mission Hills water park for a birthday celebration Saturday night. The kids played in the water, did an art project, and ate cupcakes and cookies while Ellie opened her gifts. Thank you all for the generous gifts!


Charley didn’t disappoint with the commission I gave him months ago to paint two landscape paintings for our family room for Vickey’s fortieth. I thought it would be a sentimental gift, one she would enjoy forever. Unfortunately we’re missing the paintings now because Charley had to take them back to his studio yesterday to put a few finishing touches on them. But I think it’s safe to say Vickey was surprised and very pleased with the gift.


Mark, Gordon and Charley helped over a few days’ time to assemble most of the play set. There are just a few more parts of it to put together. The kids and their friends have already enjoyed the new play set even though we don’t have the rubber mulch down yet, just a weed barrier ground cover.


We went out to dinner for Vickey’s birthday night on Monday and enjoyed some Monday Night Football and good Mexican food. Then the adults played Can I? (a family favorite card game) until way too late.

The front of the house stone work was finished Saturday. It looks great! I did some running around town Friday to secure all the trim stones we needed.


I still have some outdoor lighting work to do, as well as tending to bushes in this heat to keep them alive and completing the installation of the play set.

Work’s keeping me very busy. I usually leave at 6:40 and am lucky to get home by 6. There’s just a whole lot going on right now.