BURIED TREASURE

During the week the weather was so nice that we decided to hunt for buried treasure. Around the yard are 40 year old overgrown shrubs that Dave decided to cut back. Everyone decided to get in on the fun.
Down by the garden past the patio Dave heard there was a water faucet and decided to clip around it and unbury it. Whoa under the bushes he found a beautiful rock wall! Also a barrel that used to hold geraniums, an old tree stump, some barbed wire, also an old lost set of horseshoes, a can of pop, and a pretty big cement slab!!! There was even an old bathtub that Pops says was not lost but I hadn't seen it so it is treasure!!! Cool
Joel was rototilling the garden but I don't think he was so lucky... only a few rocks. Now it is ready to plant peas. I guess that is a pretty good treasure right there.
We had a truck load of branches to haul back by the barn to burn. Sherilyn and Seth helped grandma and I load the truck while Pops supervised
This hill was covered with shrubs out past what shows in the photo. It is looking really good and we want to put a little sitting area there to rest after working in the garden. Just wait it will be beautiful!

Grandma's Birthday Cards

I think everyone that reads this blog already knows about the "card party" the family had for mom's 89th birthday but we decided you need to see the results and the final tally of how many cards she got! Every day mom would go out to the mailbox and bring back an armful of cards. She finally started taking out a grocery bag so she could carry them. This is one days mail and she had several days like this. It was so much fun reading all the cards. Several had pictures and many were homemade. All of them said the nicest things. We all had fun sitting around and listening to mom read them. Pops said several times that you can sure tell how much everyone loves her.
Believe it or not there were 136 cards! Most of them were mailed individually so mom was forever opening and reading and admiring and enjoying the cards. She is still enjoying them!
Somehow the pictures don't do it justice but it is pretty impressive! Mom says thanks a million to everyone, it will be a birthday she will never forget. Pops says what in the world are you guys going to do on her 90th??!!! Oh oh!

Please leave a comment if you read this! :)

Keep on reading to the next post to hear about our Birthday Buffet.

Grandma's birthday Buffet

On Monday Feb 16 we met at the Golden Corral for mom's birthday dinner. We decided that Saturday would be too crowded because of Valentines Day but were shocked by how many people were eating out for Presidents Day! We had made reservations so we didn't need to wait in line and it worked out great. Leo and Jared and Mary usually have Family Home evening with us so this makes an especially fun FHE for them. Even Ann came to enjoy the party.
Randy's family missed the ferry by 5 cars so they were a little late but not too bad. The extra cars on the ferry was also because of Presidents day and no school. Jared and the other kids didn't let that curb their appetites.

Lisa home schools her kids but today was a holiday so they were tickled to be invited to celebrate moms birthday. Savannah and Dave seem to like it too.

Mary and Jared visiting with Randy who had been cutting trees all day with his tree service and was glad for the break and good food.

Janice and Matt are always ready for a fun time! I love this picture of them.

And here is the birthday girl and Pops! We were all glad for a reason to celebrate! Lainey, Sherilyn, Seth and Joel are all chowing down...Yummy!
Robin visits with Janice and Matt while Bill and Nina Dearinger and Meledie visit with mom. When it was time for dessert they brought mom a plate of goodies with a candle lit on top of a cupcake . They announced that it was moms 89th birthday and everyone in the entire place sang happy birthday. Thanks everyone for a fun Birthday Party!

Grandmas Birthday Cake

We had a special birthday dinner today to celebrate Mom's 89th birthday. We invited the missionaries, Meledie, Uncle Leo and Sherilyn. (Joel was gone.) Meledie made the birthday cake, a yummy spice cake with cream cheese frosting! Mmmmmm

We put on and lit 89 candles! What a blaze!

Mom huffed and puffed.....

and huffed and puffed and finally decided she needed to stand to get a better angle....

WOW!! It is so hot it's burning my hair!!

I need help or it will set the house on fire! Come on you windbags BLOW!

Wow! We did it! All 89 candles are out! Whew!!!

Our view at night

We are still working at making the mound beautiful so we decided to show you how it looks at night. We put low voltage lighting out there and it is lit in the evenings. There are a couple of lights in the background that are in the neighbors yard far away but they don't don't really show. Pretty huh?

Our wild pets

We told you in our last blog that mom and pops didn't want changing the mound to scare away their birds and squirrels. Yesterday we showed you all the blue jays now today our friendly squirrels came to check it out.
He's hanging by his toes to eat the bird seed. He has a great view of the new fountains and doesn't seem to mind them one bit.

This is a pretty fat one. No problem getting lots of food with the bird feeders so handy.

This squirrel mom named Tipsy because he has a bad back leg and falls over pretty easy. I had to throw out several pictures because he would tip over and look almost dead in the pictures. Now all we are missing are pictures of our deer. They come around every few days. The old mound would almost hide them from the window so they might be a little shy with the heavy greenery gone. We will put in their picture if we can get it!
What do you think? Don't we have great pets? We could watch them all day!