Monday, May 29, 2017

"It's Now Time for Everyone to Stop Being Polite."

Breakfast this morning caused me to wonder if I'm keeping a food blog.  I suppose when I visit Steve and Janet, I am.

Rain today forced us to cancel our outdoor plans.  I asked if Papa and I could play with the kids inside.  No one offered any counter plans.  First up:  Go Fish!

Camille was determined to win.

She and I tied.

We took a short break to watch the bunny in the backyard.

Next up:  Mexican Train.  Papa Ben and Adele were on the same team.

Kyle was quite thrilled about winning.  My dominoes are on the left.

Kyle sat out the next game and worked with his new cube.

Camille and Gloria are pretty good Blink players.

No one stood a chance against them.

Lewis enjoyed playing with us, but once the puzzles came out, Papa took him away.

In no time, we put together a very interesting gnome puzzle.

This is a fun puzzle with a lot of interesting creatures and flowers.

I worked on the interesting creatures.

In the meantime, Lewis fed Papa's fish.

Steve practiced the piano.

And Janet took pictures of Lewis feeding Papa's fish.  It was way cute.

Once the puzzle was finished, my peeps and I headed downstairs.

This is one of my favorite episodes, but Kyle is developing a bad habit.

In the middle of the show, we had to discuss whether or not all fires are plama fires.  (This was after we all held our breaths during this scene.)

Then we had to discuss whether antimatter implodes or explodes.  I'm not certain I can handle watching more ST with a 10-year-old.  Well, at least with this one.

Steve took advantage of Ben's expertise in dismantling a faucet to examine a leak.  Turns out a new part is required.

Then it was time for Neon Sushi.  These kids are absolutely the best in restaurants.  They each know what they want to order, and then they eat their meal without incident or complaint.

Lewis knows how to politely ask for more.

This kid.  He has a look.  He is adorable!

My goal to add fried foods to my diet was met today.

All the kids except Lewis eat with chopsticks.  We not only ate well, but we had a fun conversation.  I taught Camille how to count to five in Japanese.  Steve taught her how to count to twenty.

After lunch, we had time for another Star Trek episode.  I need to be more careful.  Kids like shows about Data and this is a good one.  However, the background story was quite complicated and I had forgotten that.

After realizing we were finished with Star Trek for this trip, we got out my favorite puzzle: Dogs on the Beach.  It took three of us 10 minutes.  These kids are amazing!

And then, before we left, Kyle played a concert.  Lewis is dancing.  All I can say is -- what a great trip!

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Camille's Baptism

I have been looking forward to Steve's pancakes for over a year.  He ground the wheat this morning.  Cornmeal is in the batter.  Fresh blueberries are in the mix.  Camille and Mommy made the strawberry jam.  Wow.

After church and lunch, Papa and Daddy returned to the chapel to fill the font.  Lewis slept.  Janet made dinner.  I played my favorite game with three of my favorite people.

This was way fun, and I'm looking forward to another game tomorrow, even though Kyle might beat me again.

Mom said we didn't have time for another game, but we had five whole minutes.  What to do?  A 100 piece puzzle.  Can we do that in five minutes, I wondered?  No problem at all.

Camille's baptism was a tender event.  I only cried a little.  This was a wonderful day with a lot of family, great food, and a yummy dessert.

Thank you, Julie. You're Welcome, Louie.

Did I really want to start this last post of Steve's visit with another picture of my groupies watching Star Trek?  I sure did.  We'...