Birthday celebration

On Saturday, Josh's family went home for a wedding, but they were coming back to finish our family week of celebration' my birthday and their 23rd wedding anniversary. 

Jill, her girls and I went shopping downtown.  Mindy doesn't care to shop.  Correction - she likes to shop on-line, not on foot with 2 little girls in tow.

We went to Norms again, of course! 

Just for fun, we went to look at rings.

We felt like queens.

Claire and Sophia had gone on a scavenger hunt and came a bit later to pose.

We stopped in at Faith and Life.

And then we went to an antique store where Sophia came upon a Sophia Landing and Hannah found a Hanna Court.

While we were shopping, the little ones were napping and the guys were golfing in that awful humid heat!  That evening, instead of cooking, Jason and Mindy chose to take us out to eat at Back Alley.  My neighbor, Francesca, who I walk with, was there with her granddaughter too!

It was really busy!  Back Alley is the place to be!  Amazing brick oven pizza!

That evening, the girls helped me cook what they call "Nani Cake" for the following morning.  That bowl is one that belonged to my grandmother.  She made her famously known cinnamon rolls in it.  We also made bierrocks, always requested by Jason, who does not like cabbage, but he loves these!  The filling is cabbage, ground beef, onion and garlic.  Fried down and put into rolls.  You can use thawed Rhodes dough if you prefer to making dough from scratch.

On Sunday morning, Claire and I volunteered to teach the Lamb class (3's) at church.  During the summer, they use volunteer workers so the regular ones can take a break.  One never knows how many children to expect with families taking vacations.  Several children were gone, but what a JOY to teach Tenley and Kaia!

My friend Jess also helped out.  Can you tell what our story was?

When we got home from church, Josh's had made it back from Arkansas from their short trip for a friend's wedding.  

Tenley was so excited to see her cousin Eli!  She would just cling to him.

After lunch, the teens went to play pickleball and Claire and the little girls went to swim at the Y.  Josh and Staci made dinner.

That evening, they celebrated my 70th birthday.  We had spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.

This girl loves her noodles!

And we had pie for dessert!

They knew I would want chocolate pie rather than a birthday cake.

Jill had each of them tell something nice about me.  It was rather embarrassing to me as I do not deserve all the things they said.  But so appreciated too!  Often these things are said at a funeral and the recipient is not able to hear them, right?

"They rise up and called her blessed."

Proverbs 31:28

They got me a bird feeder with video cam!

Pretty cool!  Thank you, kids!!

After dishes were put away (they wouldn't let me life a finger), we had a family painting session!  They didn't know about it.  I had seen this on-line and thought "what a great, fun time this would be!"  I had them pick seats across from each other. Then I handed out pallets and paints and told them to paint the person across from them.

Oh, my, we had many laughs!

Originally, Tenley was doing a great job of painting her mommy.

But she likes blue so much, she decided to go with a blue blob instead.

We all know who the best artist is.

Josh did go to college in art, afterall.

They found a home on my stairwell.

Happy anniversary, Josh and Staci!  And happy 4th of July!

Time for nighty-night.

A road trip down memory lane

I had mentioned in another post that Allen and I had put together our "love story" for the kids; how we met, falling in love, our wedding, our personal testimonies of how we decided to follow Jesus.

We chose one day to take them on a journey to see where all this happened.  We rented a 15 passenger van and went back to Pretty Prairie.

Mindy and Jason took their own van so that the little ones could nap in the car.

Our first stop was at the Dutch Kitchen to eat good old German cooking, the type our ancestors ate.

The cheese curds there are AMAZING!  Best I've ever had!

We purchased some Dutch Kitchen tee-shirts that were on sale for those who wanted them, and also some neat books for the girls to keep them entertained.

My dad grew up not far away from there and we showed the kids where that was.

We also drove through the litte village of Castleton where my dad and Allen's mother went to high school.

We came into Pretty Prairie from the west and I showed them the house I lived in when we came to the States on furlough in 1968.  Allen and I were in the 8th grade and I had a crush on him!

Then we drove to the block where I lived when my dad was the pastor at the First Mennonite Church.  This is the parsonage.  After our dates, we often would sit in the car in the driveway or in front of the house, until my dad would come flick the lights off and on to tell me it was time for me to come in!

On that same block two houses down was where his grandmother lived.  She told me once that she could spy on us if we parked on the street!  She told Allen to take me to youth group before we had ever dated.  She was a dear friend to me.  I would often stop at her house when I walked home from school and she and I would talk and talk!  She taught me so many things.  I learned about the geneology of the Graber family (which is the same as my dad's too as we are related) and she taught me some quilting.  Behind Grandma B's house was my grandparents' house.  They were cousins.  Down the street from their house was Allen's other grandma's house.   

We were going to get out and walk around the block, but it was too hot that day so we just drove around it and we pointed these homes out to the kids.

Our next stop was the church where we got married.

My dad and Allen's dad are in the photo they are looking at.  They are about 12 years old.  On the photo above it we found Allen when he was four years old.

Here was a photo of the pastors of the church and the kids found Grandpa Pete.

Here is where we were married!  

When we were juniors, Allen was sitting in the choir with the high school choir when he first spotted this pastor's daughter walk in the balcony wearing a mini-skirt!  Woo-wee!

Jason was in the car with the girls as they were napping so they aren't included in the picture.

Those chairs behind the pulpit are from the early days of the church!

Aren't these beautiful??

My dad

The pastor took us up behind the choir loft to see the pipes for the organ.

When my dad was the pastor, this was the spot "Reserved for the Pastor".  Dad hated that.  He felt that a pastor is not any more important than the janitor.  At any rate, we did park here since it was designated for him and it is where Allen first asked me out!  I was sitting in the car after church and he found me there!



We walked to the cemetery and we showed them where our plots are - between his parents and mine.

There were cattle watching what was going on.

When we finished, we drove to the family farm.  Allen's youngest brother lives there now.

Skeet shooting

Gayle let the little girls play with this little noise maker that sounds like gas!

Oh the giggles!!

When Allen's brother Reuben and family came, we cooked hot dogs.

Corn hole

Time for S'mores!

There was also special cake for our 50th anniversary celebration!

Josh took a video with his drone.

We piled into 2 pickups to go out to the field to see the cattle.

These two didn't go with us.

Instead they fed the fire!

What a fun day sharing the start of our story with our kids and grandkids!

"We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done...that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children."  Psalm 78:4-7

When we got home, it was really late....but not too late for these teens!  Adam went with them to Drubers for the late night run!