Apple Blossom Parades

We attended both parades for Apple Blossom and each was a blast. The Firefighter Parade had both new and old equipment from localities near and far. The Grand Feature Parade was terrific and a great example of Americana.

We sat with our family and many friends from church and ate goodies while we watched hours worth of fun and fancy floats go by in perfect weather.

Fashion for the Apple Blossom Festival requires all attendees to wear pink or green in any and every shade they have. Most of the men in this town have pink shirts ( and some have bright green pants) for the occasion!

Donna and her family watched the Firefighter's parade near us . Notice the terrific outfits!

Patience and Handsome sat together through the whole of both parades and behaved splendidly.

Sam marched in both parades, playing the cymbals!

Rain Buckets

Torrential rain was pouring off the roof , specifically concentrated in one area. Fearing flooding in the basement below, I ran to get buckets to catch it in.

I didn't mind reaching my arm out of the house to adjust the buckets to catch the maximum amount of water.

These four buckets filled in less than 10 minutes!
Thank you, Lord for the rain! We had no flooding at all.

The Kid's Bloomin' Mile

John, Juby and many of their cousins ran in the Bloomin' Mile. Once again, the weather was perfect and we all had a nice time hanging out together as the races were going on.

1,360 kids between the ages  6 and 14 ran in the many heats of this course laid out downtown. Traffic was diverted for hours for the kids to be safe running on the city streets. A giant loop made it possible for the start and finish of the race to be near each other, and a vantage point from across the school grounds was handy for folks to be able to run over to see the kids at the halfway point.

Here are the cousins (second?) who were born in the same month.

They are talking to some more cousins who are also buddies.

The girls are hanging out waiting for the races to start. There were four of our families who ran in the race and many other family members who came out to watch!

This is such a pleasant gathering and it is great to see so many young athletes. Next year, I'd like to take a picture of all of the cousins together who are running in the race.

The Budweiser Clydesdales

The Clydesdale Horses came into town and we went to see them in their temporary stables at the beer distributor who sponsored their visit.

They travel in three tractor trailers with all their gear.

The stalls were set up and mulch and flowers added to make everything attractive for the many visitors who came to observe them.

It was really a treat to watch a few horses being bathed.

The Clydesdale are famous for their size, strength, and lovely white fetlocks.

We were surprised that the Dalmatian was allowed to walk around the lot!

The next evening we saw the team hitched up and being driven in the parade. The driver is managing 75 pounds in his hands as that is the weight of the reins including the tension of the harnessed horses. Not to mention 16,000 pounds of horseflesh, well trained to their task, Thank Goodness!

Hiking at Red Bud

Uncle Dan put out the word that he and the kids were going hiking. Juby and I were delighted to join him on such a beautiful day.

As we ambled along, we chatted about the books we were reading and the wonderful scenery.

It was great fun and a privilege to spend time with him as he spent time with his children which he does every morning. This was a smaller group than our usual family gatherings and that made it easy to talk.

We must have walked about three miles, no joke. We took the long way and met many folks out walking their dogs or jogging.

This was such a pleasure that we all agreed we should do it more often!

The Saddle Club

While we were babysitting the kids, Juby got the G-man dressed up for riding and set up this double horse on some exercise equipment in the garage. They had a ball playing "The Saddle Club".
The Saddle Club  began as a book series which the girls have read but is now a fantastic series found on NetFlix. I highly recommend this series to kids interested in horses. Each episode is about something that happens at the barn or between the regular characters who are fun tween girls who have their unique personalities. The show is filmed in Australia  and the accents are fantastic! I like to watch it too and love the theme song: (the meter is tricky and irregular)

Hello World, this is me,
Life should be
Mmm mm yeah,
Fun for everyone..

Life is easy if you wear a smile.
Just be yourself ,
Don't ever change your style,
You are you, I am me
We'll be free,
Hello World!

This is really catchy and makes you want to get up and dance!!!!

Very Dorky but true!

Spring Concerts

On the way to his concert, John said "I'm so nervous, I have butterfiles in my stomach." He also said that he was going to play his trombone Like a Boss!

His group sounded great. I am always impressed with the amount of control the band director has by keeping the kids so well behaved and focused on him.

I also enjoyed seeing John interact  with his buddies at the school.

A week or so later, we went to the high school to hear Sam play the cymbals and snare drum in his concert.

It was quite a sight to see all these high school fellows in tuxedos which is the concert attire. Band "Moms" take care of fitting the kids and one said that they always remeasure the freshmen boys for the Spring concert. Sure enough, Sam's trousers needed to be lengthened from the winter, and they did that.

This concert was spectacular. The Band director is retiring after many years of work and he really gave it his all. Once again, the group was professional and as with John's concert, the difficulty and the quality of the music progressed with the increasing age of the students.
The music program has been a real asset to these guys and has been one of the benefits of them going out to school.

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers on the Grill!

We wanted to get together and realized that since one has to eat anyway, inviting folks to a pot luck meal is the way to go. Greg fired up this grill on his covered porch and we had a feast!

Seeing our grandchildren playing together was a wonderful sight.

Cindi's piano sounded good.

Just a slight resemblance here!

It was really nice to eat a fantastic meal of barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs while visiting together on a Sunday afternoon.

Horse Show

We had fun going to a very low key horse show nearby.

Juby got two fourths. There were four people in the class. Two girls in their later teens, a thirty year old woman and Juby!

She was the cutest and did just fine managing her pony, April. Tears ensued after her second fourth and lessons on good sportsmanship were taught!
After she showed, she was able to ride bareback around the grounds on another pony that we brought.

Natalie did very well and got four blue ribbons and a trophy on Kodak.

Natalie is riding Bailey here who is too small for her but is being exercised.

This is our favorite picture of the day. The girls are together at the gate with Donna, their good friend and the owner of the farm and horses that they ride. She didn't show but drank coffee with me! She is a lot of fun and has been very generous in allowing the girls to ride at her barn.

At the Car Wash

The middle school kids in the Youth Group had a car wash fundraiser for Work Camp and John and I worked at it.

He wore his bathing suit thinking that he would get wet but spent his time making posters and then holding them up on the sidewalk encouraging folks to drive in for a wash.

The weather was ideal at a sunny 74 degrees. I brought a chair to sit in but never did and instead, helped the kids to wash and dry the steady stream of cars that drove through. There was never any down time during the 3 1/2 hours that we were there. 600 dollars was donated which will go to buying building supplies for the home improvement projects for handicapped and poor folks during the week of Work Camp.

Soccer Games

We have had a great time watching the boys play soccer this spring. The practices have been pleasant and the games have given us a chance to get outside each Saturday to cheer our boys on.

The spectators sit facing into the sun which has given me a suntan on the face! Greg and Cindi came to see a couple of games and offered terrific coaching from the sidelines as they both played high school soccer. I foresee some dynamite coaches in the future when this little guy....

is ready to play!

This is an official photo of Sam's team. His team was extremely entertaining to watch mostly because of the efforts of one hot dog/ hot shot/ show boat player who could be counted on to make at least 4 or 5 goals per game. Sometimes he would switch jerseys to play on the other team for awhile to help them to catch up! The players on Sam's team and the husband and wife coaching duo all had great senses of humor and each game and practice was a blast with lots of laughing camaraderie. I have truly loved this soccer season and have enjoyed every minute of it. Larry was able to attend every game, even the mid week ones and  he enjoyed it all as well.