Valentine Day

Big celebration today... starting with mailing calendars to Julie and Jessica, breakfast at LaMadeleine, returning an item to Belk's, and getting cold medicine at CVS.

Also, a stop at the library to pick up a Book of Lists - very intriguing, by the way.

Then home to veg out the rest of the day.

Aaah...

Breakfast at IKEA

As soon as we arrived, Naomi took charge of the kids' area in the cafe. She and Pa watched cartoons on the small TV while Mimi, Danielle and Jenny got breakfast.

Danielle likes feeding herself. She did a great job, in spite of the largeness of the spoon.

After breakfast and shopping were completed, Mimi gave Naomi and Danielle an exciting ride in the shopping cart.

As usual, it was a fun outing for everyone!

Christopher

Christopher at preschool, reading with a friend.

He sometimes sits cross-legged. Very regal.

Happy to be eating blueberries. He ate the whole batch...

John

John leaping after gymnastics - he wanted some time to play 'in the grass' (outside the gymnastics center).

Playing with wooden toys made by his Grandpa Mike.

Sliding on his fort in the back yard.

Off to the Park

Christopher loves beans! (as well as practically every other kind of food...)

Today after school, Julie and Pa took the Three Amigos to Camelot Park for an outdoor play time, since yesterday was cool and kind of misty. No, this is not a police cruiser - Keats is in the back behind the dog screen.

John climbed.

James climbed.

Andy climbed, and Julie had heart flutters.

Keats kept a close eye on the proceedings.

Off To Clemson: Escaping the Storm

Off we go, to Grandcamp East, once more! We headed east just before the 'Superstorm of 2011' hit our area.

Each time we go through Shreveport-Bossier City, there are a couple of B-52's practicing touch-and-go landings at Barksdale AFB. As old as they are, they are still an imposing aircraft...

As soon as we got there, we gathered up the boys and headed to Fuddrucker's for some good grub. My, how they've grown in just 8 weeks!

Christopher is quite a block builder, now.

And generally very happy!

Both boys enjoy playing with John's collection of miniature cars - mostly "Cars" movie characters.

Chili Lunch for Teachers

One of Mimi's many activities is working with a team of ladies from Christ Fellowship Church to provide monthly luncheons for the teachers at Webb Elementary School near downtown.

This month, the ladies provided several varieties of home-made chili, with all the fixin's.

As always, the teachers seemed to enjoy the meal and attention.

Hooray For Panasonic!

Due to an unfortunate interaction with gravity, my little Lumix camera developed a case of 'stuck lens' - aka, broken.

Upon visiting the Panasonic web site, I submitted a warranty request. They responded with a case number and instructions for sending the camera in for replacement.

And... a week later, back came a factory-refurbished brand-new-looking camera!

Excellent support and service, I'd say. They made me a loyal customer. Oh, yes, the camera works good, too. And I sent them a thank-you note.

Geeky Stuff - New Helicopter

My new (bigger, faster, stronger) R/C helicopter kit arrived. The boring details are here:

HK500 on Azure Engineering blog.

Our Snowy Day

We had a snowy day today. It rained a lot during the night and this morning, then turned to snow around noon.

Back yard...

Tree...


Tree limb...

Across the street...

Fence...

How to spend a snowy day...

Playing in the Leaf Pile

Danielle wasn't so sure about jumping into the leaf pile.


But Naomi certainly was...




After the leaf pile came swinging on the rope swing. Naomi is good at it.


Naomi talked her Mom into trying it. She didn't do so well - the swing is too low!


Next came outdoor bowling.


After a couple of minutes of that, we did some driveway writing. The marker didn't work so well.


That led to using real chalk, and the chalk board.


Danielle helped clean up.


Naomi picked a bucket of berries from the Nandinas and Hawthorns, and then sorted them...


And planted them in the flower bed. Naomi is a regular farmer-girl.

My New Favorite Way To Eat Mincemeat Pie

Thanks to Jessica, I have a lovely assortment of mincemeat pies to eat. I've liked mincemeat pie since I was a kid. But, after a while, mincemeat begins to taste the same each time you eat it.

So I decided to try dressing it up a little.

The result: a spoonful of cranberry sauce, a dab of clotted cream, and Voila'! Mincemeat Pie a la Yummy.

Christmas Day

Our friends Nancy and Doug, and Nancy's Mom, Irene, joined us to celebrate the day that commemorates the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. It was special for us, as we had not seen them for quite some time.

Great Grandpa Huber spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us, too.

Jeff, Jenny, Naomi and Danielle came by for a visit. Naomi and Danielle received a joint Christmas present of make-it-yourself-stuffed-bears-with-costumes. They seemed to enjoy it.

Wink loves Danielle, too.

As usual, the boxes were as much fun as the presents.

Danielle's Dad gave her a hand with stuffing her bear.

Later on, we enjoyed the excellent lunch Gail had prepared.

Merry Christmas!!