Aug Birthday party Jeff 65 yr Aug 12, 2015

Notice the cake, (rice crispy bars) have a 65 candle since it was Jeffs 65th.  We all love rice crispy bars. 

Every August we get together with our friends for the August Annual Birthday Party.  Some times the party is at a park, sometimes in the hills and sometimes like this time it was in someones yard, our yard.  You see, out of this group of friends, there are 3 who share Aug 12th Birthday.  Then there are 4 more who have birthdays within 2 weeks of that date.       

 We had planned to make s'mors on the fire pit latter in the evening but it got very windy so we had to do without the fire.  We really didn't mind since it had been 100 degrees earlier in the day,  I was glad it had cooled down to about 90 by picnic time.  

We enjoyed having Ryan, Leslie and their 2 lovely children here from Colorado.  We always enjoy spending time with them when they come to visit our friends, Nancy and Jim. 

 Leslie did get the candles lite for just a second before the wind blew them out. 

 Rich had his trusty cigarette lighter and also gave it a try.  After we sang Happy Birthday (below)  Rich lite his lighter so Jeff could blow it out. 
 YEA, good job guys.  When there is a will, there is a way.  

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to You,
 Happy Birthday dear Jeff,
God Bless you today. 

  

 We all enjoyed the company, visiting, 
food and warm windy evening.  

 
This is another way to enjoy a Jump Rope.  Play horse and run real fast.  Below they even got their grandma Nancy to join in the (play horse) fun.

A lot of giggles!

We had a fun treasure hunt with everyone picking a folded paper from the hat that had the clue, some in rhyme to help them find their treasure.   Above is sweet Claire posing with 3 of the treasures she acquired.  We all enjoyed the hunt but the 2 children enjoyed it the most, I think they could have played treasure hunt all evening.  

 This Dr Duck was another treasure that I happened to find the next morning sitting on my frog by the garden pond. (I'm thinking Jim had something to do with this stunt). The treasures weren't great or worth much but a lot of fun.

Some one thought it would be cute to change
 the numbers for a younger age!
I wonder who might have done this?   ?    ?

We all realize that every year is a blessing from God and He has our life planned out.
 We ask Him to guide and protect us and to use us according to His will. 

Week 2, enjoying the grandchildren while mom enjoys Mary Kay seminar 7-15

We had a great hot day to cool off and enjoy Angusdora Lake. The children had a ball with all the sun, beach and warm water.  We met the childrens Baptismal sponsors, Godparents at the lake and also enjoyed a fun visit and picnic lunch. 

Mom enjoying some fun with the children, cooling off and also getting a good dose of vitamin D before she left for her Mary Kay Seminar at TX.

 

Barb and mom (Melissa) give some assistance as this large fun sand castle was built.  I guess I had my hand in it too and also spent a lot of fun time 
in the water with our grand-kids.    

It was so much fun having a picnic on the beach in the shade of one of the few trees on the lake shore.  

 FIRST adventure of the week with out mom.  

We had so very much fun with the grandchildren, they were so good, helped with the house work 

so we would have plenty of time 

to play and see more sites. 

 This is not only fun, a great view of Rapid City from the top of the  "hill"  but lots of exercise and counting fun as we climbed the hundreds of steps to the top. 

 They look quite small standing 
under this old land mark for Rapid City.

She must have been checking for something
 in that gigantic nose hole. 

Hang on to your hat,
it is windy way up top of this hill.

Nice view, looking for Main Street Square. 

They could spot Story Book Island
 from this location.

This is showing all the steps and how high it is from the parking lot. 

 We tried to have fun food for our meals and lots of fun activities at Nana and Papa's house.  

 A special note to mom to let her know how much fun they were having.   

 It wouldn't be a stay at Nana and Papa's with out  "Cherry Pie"  It was Dezzi's idea when we were shopping for a few groceries, 

she said, "We just need to buy Papa a cherry pie." 
We all enjoyed eating it though.   

 Here they are puzzling with Papa on the Ipad.
  It was a cute kitty puzzle. 

 Another trip to Story Book Island.  According to the grandchildren, you just cant go to Story book Is too many times.  

 We went to the magic show this time and when they ask for volunteers, they both raised their hand and Dezzi got chosen.  She was overjoyed and did such a good job listening and doing what was ask.  

 All the children could get their picture taken with the princess after the show.  Just look at those
 big smiles. 

Looking good as the prince and Cinderella.

It is always fun to take a train ride around Story book Is
 to see all the things they had done and all the things left to do.  

 This train is fairly new. About one year now and it is big enough for adults to ride with their children.  They had to make the tunnel much bigger and it was nice to see it complete this summer.  The old train had been around for 40 years and made from barrels.  It was much smaller.   

Lucas was very interested in the engine
 and how it worked. 

 Another ride on the 100 year old carousel, merry-go-round.  I loved looking at the wood horses and how unique their heads, mouths and feet were made especially since I had looked up the history of vintage carousels. 

Look Nana, we climbed all the way up here.

Looks like Old McDonald has  something new in his barn yard fence. 

 This red race car has been a hit for many  many years.  
It certainly looks nice this year with it's new paint job.   

Another Adventure, McDonald's picnic lunch
in Sioux park.

 We took plenty of time to play on the big fun playground and walk around in the beautiful flower garden too. 

 We learnt  how the SUN can help us tell time with the help of a big sun dial.  We are sure thankful to God for giving us the sun for time, light, warmth and very important vitamin D.

 We even took time to walk across the Rapid Creek bridge and check out the tree garden with many different labeled and donated trees.  I guess that could be considered a start to their fall leaf study that they are doing now. 

 Fun with painting,  a wood airplane and 
bird house for Lucas,  
a flower planter steak and birdhouse for Dezzi.  
 They had so much fun and did an excelent job too.  

The Grandchildren wanted to visit more of the Bronze president statues and go back to the fun water park at Main Street Square just one more time.    We had missed President Lincoln and that is the main president they had been looking for.   

They have the pose down now
 and had so much fun with it too.

 Lets see,  foot up and hand on leg, left hand on hip.  YEP, that is it!

OH MY, that water feels cold and is so high this time.
  Lots of children too. 

 It didn't take long for Dezzi to make a new friend.  They had a ball running through the water. 
 Here they found a spot in the warm sun to warm up and dry off a bit before we had to make our way to the car.  

 After driving West a few blocks, 
 guess which president we found?   
Finally, President Lincoln.  The children were all smiles and just had to have special pictures taken with him.    

 While we were at that street corner, we checked out the other 3 bronze statues on the other 3 corners. 

Lucas noticed these bronze glasses by one of the statues so we thought this would be a cute picture.   He is so very observant and notices everything. 

 Another day, another adventure.   We enjoyed the School of Mines museum of Geology.     BONES and MORE  BONES.   This was very interesting after reading about the dinosaurs on Dinosaur Hill a few days earlier.

Wow!  Look at that big egg,  That could feed our whole family.  

Fun educational drawers for the grandchildren.  

 Dezzi had to find her birthstone on the big poster.  I had just bought her that cute inexpensive ring on one of our adventures. 

Rocks, Rocks and more Rocks.
   Some even glow in the dark.

More fun drawers, even fossils and puzzles. 

Lucas thought these were very pretty with shinny crystals inside. 

These fun blue clamp on roller skates were a find at a local garage sale just down our street.  The kids had a blast trying to roller skate for the first time.  They even tried it outside on the sidewalk.  

 These are the famous "SWEET PICKLES " books that belonged to our girls when they were children.  It was a book club and one would come every 2 weeks until the full alphabet was complete.  These have always been such a hit with all of our grandchildren and Dezzi and Lucas loved them every bit as much.  I do believe we got all of them read while there were visiting us.   
 We not only had to go over all the animals and their names but then had to locate their house on the inside covers of the books. 

 We just had to enjoy a fire in our fire pit and make some tasty s'mores. 

 Then all of a sudden, way too fast,  it was time to go to the airport to pick up mom from her Mary Kay seminar.  The kids had a lot of fun watching for each airplaine that came in and then watching the door for mom.  It was great to spot her and run to mom for hugs.  They missed her so much and were happy to see her even if it meant that their Nana -Papa adventure was about to end.  

A few tears of joy whit hugs and kisses.  Papa met us downstairs and now we got to wait and watch all the luggage come on the conveyor belt. 
 Our adventure was now memories and pictures but there was a new adventure about to begin as soon as they got back to their home church.  VBS!  What a fun time with friends to learn all about Jesus love for us from His true WORD, the BIBLE.   Not only that,  they also got to see dad who had been home working.  They had much to tell him about their South Dakota adventure with Nana and Papa.