Happy Halloween !

Wishing everyone a happy halloween ! yep, that is 1981 !

This shot has my niece Alissa as the bunny rabbit and my niece Jennifer as the angel is right behind her, then of course the 3 Schuld pumpkins !

I went to a Halloween Parade !

I saw the cutest halloween parade yesterday ! It was so fun to see the little preschoolers all dressed up ! Here is the cutest fireman ! They were all a little timid as the room was full of parents and cameras and people ! They all stood together and sang a few songs ! Garrett is ready for work with that reflective tape on his costume ! There were 2 mini mouses, a pirate and a princess and a race car driver.

And then there was a Dinosaur !

He sure had fun watching the kids, then we had to zoom to the store to get the chocolate donuts ( that some parent forgot) During preschool for snack time the children were sticking pretzels around the side of the frosted donut to make a spider for the legs and gave it skittle eyes, they were so cute.
So that is "the end" of the parade, it sure was cute !

Happy Anniversary to Mike and Corissa !

This is my nephew Mike and his bride Corissa 3 years ago ! What beautiful wedding memories ! They share the same anniversary as my parents ! Wishing you many more years of happiness Mike and Corissa !

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad

Today is my parents 58th Wedding anniversary ! This picture was the day I took them to the airport to go on their cruise to Alaska

This was a year ago up at their 2nd home in the mountains. They have a beautiful deck to enjoy the trees and birds and squirrels from. This was last night, Marcy and Vince and Ken and I took Mom and Dad to Serranos for some mexican food, yummy ! We had a nice evening and all got a kick out of my Dad's meal. They had some great happy hour dinners and his came on about 4 plates ! They'll have lunch for the next 2 days.
I found this "gem" That is my Dad coming in the door as Santa and my Mom in the stunning red outfit ! Amy is in her arms giving Santa wide eyes and Chris leading the way !

So with that Happy 58th wedding anniversary Mom and Dad !

Happy Birthday Christopher !!!

Today is Chris's birthday !

Isn't this a great shot from his wedding day ! Here he is with MB, this is when they were still dating.
I loved this shot of him, he was going to take me for a ride until the plane broke ! Oh well, we had fun taxiing all over the runways !

Here is a great shot of he and his Dad

And this is A LONG TIME AGO !!!
Happy Birthday Chris from your Ma !

A fun birthday party for Chris

Tomorrow is Chris's birthday, he's got to leave on a trip so we had a fun celebration tonight. MB planned a great cookout, her sisters and families were there, Eric and Lori and kids from across the street came, Amy and the 2 big boys and Ken and I, we all had a great time. The kids all got to pick some peppers from MB's garden. Chris has such a neat shade screen over it, I want to hire him to come put one on mine ! Garrett thought it was fun !

The little kids had a picnic out on the patio, it was beautiful out. There were a bunch of kids so they were all having fun since so many are all about the same size ! 2 are missing here but they all had a fun party too !

Aiden and Papa !

It was so nice out, the weather was perfect tonight !

MB and her sister Melissa lighting all the candles.

Between the chocolate cake and the frosted sugar cookies no one left hungry !

Happy Birthday Chris, thanks MB for planning such a fun party !

Ethan

Ethan was so cute the other day during preschool he and I went to do some errands, groceries, bank, gas etc. He just was being so happy and flirting with me in the car from his seat in the back! The lady at the bank gave him a sucker, ohhhh that was fun ! Course he fell asleep on the way home so went down for his morning nap quite sticky ! oh well !

Ethan you are so special, I"m glad I get to hang out with you, your Grammy loves you !!!

October Thronberries quilt meeting

We had an impromtu change of venue today for our normal October meeting for our quilt group, we hung out at Joe's BBQ and had a nice time visiting and having a fine lunch there !

Barb brought her halloween table runner she finished up. Great way to use up leftovers from a quilt she had done! Sue did some piecing on our block of the month, mine is buried somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd layer in my sewing room UGH !Her blocks are sure springy and pretty.
Barb finished a baby quilt she's stashing away for a gift.
I finished this October wall hanging, we figured it was our group project at least 7 years ago...well mine is finally done and it is still october ! I was stitching the binding down as we visited around the picnic tables in the lovely fall weather.
Louise was working on this great toothbrush rug, it's for her hallway and so she's just going to keep going and going until it's long enough !
So it was a shortened version but at least we got to visit for a couple hours, thanks Joe's BBQ for the impromtu event !

Dinner at Caffe Boa

Ken and I had a delightful evening with Bruce and Vicki tonight. For those of you who havn't met them, they are Jamie's wonderful parents ! When you meet them, you'd know why Jamie is so wonderful and when you see her Dad smile, you see where Jamie got her beautiful smile ! I'll always remember the first time we met Bruce, we were with Jeremy and Jamie in Washington DC and Bruce happened to be there on business so he drove to where we were and met us for pizza, I remember the first time I saw him and saw him grin at his daughter across the parking lot and I thought, there is Jamie's charming smile !

So I FORGOT my camera, can you believe that, I who have it attatched to me at all times. Well we subbed in the Iphone but it sure doesn't take the pictures in the dark that my camera does. But this is better than nothing ! So here are Bruce and Vicki. They were in town scouting out the area for possible relocation and so we met them for dinner at Caffe Boa. YUMMY ! It's a little place just into Ahwatukee in a strip shopping mall, looks rather iffy when you drive up but the food is great, they are written up all the time in the local "best" places to eat. They have a charming little casual outdoor area to sit and eat, pretty little lights and fountains. So we all picked different pasta dishes, mine was yummy and will be another meal tomorrow ! The Ciotta's live in New Jersey and will be heading home soon, but were having a nice "ride" while here in this cute convertable. So I had to take this picture so all their "girls" could see what their folks are up to these days !!!

So Vicki and Bruce, thanks for the wonderful evening, we had a great time visiting and hope to see you soon, we hope the Valley of the Sun stays in the top running for your relocation !

Cute Pumpkins !

Well I thought I needed to share 2 cute pumpkin ideas I've gotten this month ! Mindy just surprised me with this at lunch today when we met. They are made of fabric and stuffed and so cute ! She put a real stick for the stem where she gathered it up and used a couple cute ribbons to tie it up with the fall leaves. MB gave me this cute little thing, it's a pie pumpkin that has been carved out and she put a potted mum inside and actually planted it in there, a little poke thing of fall leaves, isn't it cute ! And how easy ! I've been watering it every couple days. She cut the bottom of the pumpkin off and then when she hollowed it out it came thru in one place so it made a little drainage hole so I can't really overwater it. I put it sitting on just a little clear plate.

So we had a fun morning !

So today was preschool so off I went zooming to Amy's house, just in time for Garrett to show me his new BIG BED ! He was so excited ! Then 2 little boys got to have a Grammy day during preschool as Aiden was still on his fall break from school, so off we went, stopping at the lake nearby since I happened to have bread crusts with me !(imagine that, just happened to be in the car !) Then off to McDonalds to check out the toys. They hadn't been to this one , it is "Chris's McDonalds" since it is near his house and we hadn't seen the fun toys they have there ! Lots of fun run-around time ! Then we thought we needed a snack so we got pancakes and apple juice ! Ethan thought that was so cool to have a drink box of apple juice all to himself ! He can drink thru a straw very well now so it was fun until he squeezed it....but it eventually dried on his clothes !
Yummy pancakes ! Aiden is so independent now, fixing everything on his own !
Then we still had 1 hour so we went to " Chris's park". It's the neat park near Chris and MB's house that has a fun "big toy", so we always call it Chris's park.

This little dude thought he could do it all....yikes ! Aiden had fun going high on the swings too !

Cornish Pasty

I had a fun evening after work yesterday, met Sarah and Denise for dinner at a great little hangout called Cornish Pasty. Kind of a pub atmosphere and yummy food. Here is my "gobbler" pasty. It had turkey, dressing, carrots, all rolled into this pastry and baked with cranberries and gravy on the side. It was wonderful ! Not healthy but yummy !

It was great catching up with Sarah as I hadn't seen her for months ! If you get near a Cornish Pasty they are worth the stop !

Gene's 80th Birthday Party !!

Well we had a fine celebration of a fine man yesterday ! All the planning was worth making this man smile ! We had a nice afternoon of visiting and appetizers and drinks... Then off to a dinner at Black Angus.

Everyone enjoyed the great food !

Gene with Amy and Aiden !
A toast to the birthday ! Dan and Gene

Chris and his GrandpaJeremy and Ken

Ken and his Dad

After dinner it was time for birthday cake !

We had very tall candles that sparkled when they were lit, Gene enjoyed them until they burned way down. Then he had help from his great grandsons blowing them out !

What a fun family reunion, what shall we plan for your 85th Gene????