Entertaining

Very busy weekend. Saturday evening we went to the Muny in St. Louis and saw "Miss Siagon". We went with my brother and his wife and had a great evening. Our daughter and SIL even joined us for dinner -- so I held and played with my grandbaby again! The play was interesting and they even had a helicopter hover over the crowd as part of the story. The story is haunting. A Vietnam war love story.

Sunday evening we invited two couples over for blackberry picking and homemade icecream. This is my table setting above. We had oreos, chocolate syrup, blackberries and raspberry jam as icecream toppings. We had a fun evening of catching up with each other. We all had been busy traveling and vacationing and hadn't visited in awhile. We have been doing a lot of redecorating in our home lately, so it was nice to have friends over to see our changes.

Our next project in our home is to to finish a playroom for our granddaughter. I have a small room downstairs that has many toys from my past and my children's past that needs organizing and decorated. We need to hurry up and have ready because it won't be long before Cora will want to play in grandma's toy room!

Thankful

I blogged about this outfit awhile back and wanted to show you what it looked like on my granddaughter. Cute .... just like I thought! She is laying on a blanket that was mine when I was a little girl. Many good memories.

Cora is sitting up now and reaching for everything that is close to her. She is just beginning to laugh out loud -- I haven't gotten to see this in person yet. She is a lot of fun and grandma loves to be with her us much as possible.

Cora is almost 200 days old. I put a calendar count down on my cell phone before she was born and it is still counting but now shows how many days since her birth.

Thank you Lord for your blessings. A healthy, precious little girl in our life ... we are thankful.

Grant's Farm

Last weekend my family went to Grant's Farm in St. Louis. The last time I visited Grant's Farm was when I went on a field trip in the 2nd grade. Let's just say ... I have no memory of this trip! The only cost is the parking cost of $10. For my daughter's upcoming birthday, I bought her a parking pass for the rest of the season so that they can go as often as they like. Grant's Farm is very close to where they live. Below are a few pictures of the day we spent at this beautiful park.

Gadgets

I love gadgets! The picture to the left is a cute little handbag holder. I found this at a fun shop in St. Charles Historical Downtown. I never know where to put my purse when we are eating out ... now I do. Can't wait to use it.

We also purchased a Garmin Nuvi 200W this weekend. We will never get lost again! No more asking for directions. It is a fabulous toy. It knows exactly where you are at and then once you've entered the address you are going to, gives you directions in a nice voice step by step to get there. It also recalculates your instructions if you choose to go another way. I'm ready for a road trip!

I have a lot of pictures to share soon. We took a trip by Amtrak to St. Louis to visit our daughter and SIL and stayed very busy going to the Zoo, Grant's Farm, bowling, swimming, St. Charles Historical Downtown, and eating out at some new places.

We had a great time and played with our granddaughter Cora for 4 straight days! She is growing up so fast. I said, "come to grandma" and put my arms out and she turned her body and stuck her arms out to come to me. That was a first for her. Wow -- that was great. She is smiling all the time and just beginning to laugh. Let's see ... what excuse can I make up to have her come to grandma's house!

Bobblehead

Do you know what bobblehead this is? I saw this at a store over the weekend and thought it was hilarious.

If you haven't guessed by now ... it is Justin Timberlake! They actually had the whole band in bobblehead. I refrained from buying it. I'll let someone who grew up loving him purchase it.

My husband and I are on the countdown to see our granddaughter (plus our daughter and SIL)! We are taking Amtrak and staying for the weekend. We thought we would try this out and save the gas money. Amtrak has discount deals and you can get a pretty good price for the trip.

4th of July Weekend

The weekend went way too fast! We had no problems traveling to and from Waterloo/Cedar Falls Iowa. We even found a faster route.

While there we checked out local eateries and fun shops in Cedar Falls downtown. Beck's is a sports bar in Cedar Falls. They had good food and a TV close by so we could watch the Cards vs Cubs game.

My son showed us where he worked and we checked out the John Deere plant and all their tractors. While working for John Deere, my son lives in the University of Northern Iowa dorms. On the UNI campus, there is a beautiful tower that is on the right. That is my son and I.

Downtown Cedar Falls had some really great stores that we checked out. One of them was "Cup of Joe". Great coffee shop. Check out their teas and the names on the tea boxes (get growing, get relief, get a grip, get lost, etc.).

Saturday evening we ate at Doughy Joey's. This restaurant was in downtown Waterloo. They had pizza Chicago and New York style.

Saturday evening we watched the most fabulous fireworks I have ever seen. The sky was filled with multiple fireworks for at least 30 minutes non stop. This picture is my husband looking toward the bridge that they were getting ready to shoot the fireworks from.

The picture below and to the right is a night shot. I tried out different functions on my camera to see if I could get some interesting fireworks pictures. This is right before the fireworks started. To the left is one of the fireworks displays. I thought it turned out well. Fireworks are always hard to capture on film.

We enjoyed our visit in Iowa. Hope you and your families had a wonderful 4th weekend.

Fourth of July

Have a very happy 4th of July! I'm looking forward to the time off. We are getting up really early Friday morning to drive to Waterloo Iowa to visit with our son. He interns at John Deere in Waterloo. We hope we can make it without taking a boat! They have had a lot of rain in that area.

Waterloo is right next to Cedar Falls and they have fireworks in one city Friday night and fireworks in the next city on Saturday -- so double the beautiful sky show!

The rest of the weekend is up for grabs. We will see what there is to do in that area. If anyone is familiar with that area - leave a comment on what is fun to do. I'm sure we'll chose a movie to go to this weekend sometime. My husband is interested in "Hancock" with Will Smith. If we do go to that movie, I'll post about it later to let you know if it was any good. It looks like a good one to go to with my two men!

Have a Happy Holiday and I look forward to reading your blogs about what you did on the 4th!