Our Days Off...follow along!

It was one of those weekends filled with wonderful events but when it's over you need a weekend to recover! Do you know what I mean?

Friday morning Grandma Great and I went to pick up Madison and Grace and take them to school at 8:30am. It was Pastries with Parents Day and Book Fair! It was also Pajama Day and Bring A Book Day! What Fun!











Grace's Kindergarten room. She bought the long flexable pencil at book fair with an "All About Me" Journal and poster.
Madison's 2nd Grade room. It was warm in there. She bought a "Me and My Friends" Journal and a Time Travel book.

We headed back to Frazeysburg for a couple of hours then back to Coshocton to stand in line for the Elite Dance Spectacular. This is a program that showcases all the competition dances unlike the Dance Recital in June for all the Miss Jennifer dancers. It also serves as a nice fund raiser for the group.

Grandma Great and I were first in line this year! We are usually in the top 5 but we have never been first!

All the dances were "spectacular"! Madison made us very proud. She is an incredible dancer!



Part of Madison's fan section...Grandma Great, Aunt Debbie and Grandma Mona. I was behind Grandma Mona with Val's friend from Pataskala, Natalie, and her 3 children. Grandpa Mike, Matt, Val, Grace, Courtney, Katie and Grandma Sally were in our section too!


I didn't take any pictures during the program this year. Grandma Great and I got Madison a bouquet of flowers.
This is Madison's costume for the end of "Wizard"! It is their wonderful production number with all 60 dancers.

Up early Saturday morning. We had to be at Tansky Honda at 9am to sign the papers for the new Civic. We have leased all 5 of our Hondas from Tansky and our friend Gene Nangle, who was my Guidance Counselor at Tri Valley.





My dad told us to pick a pretty color this time. He was tired of our charcoal color. We found this atomic blue metallic....SOLD! We stopped for lunch at Bob Evans, ran some errands then came home and got ready to watch college basketball.



I was looking forward to church on Sunday morning. Pastor Jeff began his series about "heaven!" It was a WOW service....Great music, great message, great friends! I can't wait for next Sunday! I went the IGA to pick up some groceries and the ingredients for cheesy potatoes to take to Val's later. We headed to Coshocton around 2:30 for the Coshocton Celebrities vs Hopewell Indians Charity basketball game at Kids American AND Madison's 8th Birthday Family cookout after the game.
Matt and his "celebrity" team. Sorry buys but those little daughter cheerleaders stole the show! Give me a D! Give me an A! Give me a D! Give me a D! Give me an I! Give me an E! Give me an S! What do you get...DADDIES! That was precious!!!
There was a nice crowd of supporters!
The girls had several cheer advisors throughout the game including Grandpa Mike who had them yelling "lets go Dawgs" and "All you Scotty fans stand up...." He will always be an old dawg!
Cheerleader huddle....
The wonderful Hopewell Indians won the game and we were all inspired and blessed. They were runners up in the Special Olympics....Congratulations Hopewell Indians! I'm sure Val and Kirby will have more pictures on their blogs.

It was 5:30 when the game ended....back to the Miller deck for the first big family cookout of the year! After a day of fairly warm weather....the sun was behind the clouds and it was a littler cooler than I had anticipated (I left my jacket at home!) But it was wonderful to be with family and celebrate Madison's birthday!


Grace and I were all snuggled together. Notice the sushi on the table...Val made it! It was delicious! I'm craving it right now! She promised to show us all how to do it!


Lots of good conversation and appetizers while we waited for Matt to cook the brats and dogs!
The kids posing with the birthday girl...(can you believe Andrew and Courtney will be 15 this year!!!
Candle time......HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!

Our Postponed Easter Weekend....

Chad came home from North Carolina the week after Easter with Keri and Anabella (aka Bella). This was our first time to meet Anabella. Madison and Val were at a dance competition on Saturday so Grace came over to play and spend the night.

We had our Easter Egg Hunt and Easter baskets on Sunday.

It was a nice visit.




Grace and Anabella giving Chloe some kitty treats....


A new generation sliding down our stairs...



The girls made brownies.....sweet faces!



They did a wonderful puppet show with butterflies and cherry trees.


After the puppet show they decided to make some feet puppets with the washable markers.



Down to Grandpa and Grandma Hood's for some fun on the flying swings. It was cool outside but Bella didn't want to stop!




The old teeter totter is still a favorite. The trees have grown much bigger!


I love these happy faces!



They voted to sleep on the old sofa bed. They should be exhausted!


We went to Val's early Sunday. They were excited about the egg hunt. Madison hunted for pink eggs. Grace looked for green and Anabella found all the yellow ones


The "hiders" snapping some pictures and trying to keep warm in the cool weather!



Madison had trouble finding her one golden egg. Uncle Chad had it in his pocket!



Cracking them open and collecting their treats and $$$.


Easter baskets....



Trampoline time!




Our Family Rock Star band!




A few extreme close-ups!

Rock on family!

Family Easter....postponed

....until next weekend! Chad and Keri are coming home and bringing Keri's daughter, Bella, for her first visit.

We are very excited and I asked the grandchildren if they would mind having our Easter fun a week late. They were very supportive and excited to include Bella this year!

We are planning an Easter basket hunt and Egg hunt. I'm praying for good outside weather!

Easter church service was wonderful....a blessed way to begin the day! Mike and I came home and ate a nice lunch together and watched some basketball and golf. We headed to Coshocton around 4 to see what treats the Easter Bunny brought to the grandchildren this year! Madison loved her rock painting set and Grace was excited about her fingernail polishing kit. Andrew got some nice shorts and favorite candy. Matt and Val decided to do a family gift of "Rock Band." The band version of Guitar Hero. (2 guitars, drums and karaoke) I know they say it was for the kids, but it seems to me the adults in the area are more excited than the kids! It's fun!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I'm ready for some spring weather that doesn't include rain or snow....just lots of sunshine!

Easter Egg Hunt, Dr. Seuss Silly Hat Day..

My daycare gang had their Easter Egg hunt last Monday. The sun was shining but it was cold!
Thank you to my parents for letting us "hunt" in their backyard! Ours is very muddy and full of fallen pine cones!
Our littlest one...my great niece, Nevaeh, was the sweetest hunter. She would pick up an egg and look at it then place it slowly into her bucket. The big kids were all about volume!
Tired hunters posing on the front porch steps with me and Grandma Great!
Thanks to Grandpa Mike for doing all the egg hiding this year! I removed my boot cast but I'm not walking very fast or smooth yet!






During our Week of Rhyme we celebrated Dr. Seuss and this was Silly/Favorite Hat Day! The kids loved the flowers growing out of my hat! What a fun day!

Now this is a snowstorm

We've been hearing it all winter....snow warnings! It comes in the night...2-4 inches....school is cancelled...then it warms up, rain comes in and we have slush! There hasn't been a good snow for the kids to play in for any amount of time.

This weekend...now that everyone is ready for SPRINGTIME...we got ourselves some snow!! And it was on a weekend. Hope everyone had a great time! Mike and I missed having children around for the snow tracking, snow forts, snowmen, snow angels, snow ball fights and hot chocolate!

We have wonderful memories with Chad and Valerie in the snow! I couldn't do too much with the broken leg but Mike went out and took a few solo walks around town. We watched the remaining Lonesome Dove series, ate great food and remembered past snowy days with the kids.

It was wonderful....


Here are a few pictures Saturday and Sunday.....


It seems like an endless chore...
This was the beginning of the storm
Our backyard was pretty but seemed a bit sad without snowmen, forts and snow angels!

Mike's new fence sections waiting on Spring...
The neighbors kept Pearl's sidewalks clear so she could get out....We can't wait to see her on the porch this summer!