Gypsies At Heart: 04/01/2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Games With The Grandkids, Addisyn and Tommy

After dinner tonight Danica had the kids choose a couple of games to play. I can't really remember the names of either board game. The one Tommy chose involved all of us playing versus the pigs. If we were able to find certain objects on the board, then we could proceed home. If we managed to get home before all the picnic food disappeared, then we won. Sometimes we had to draw a card and some of those were cards that said the Pig got some food. Everyone was very unhappy when someone would draw a pig!

I guess I didn't take any pictures of the second board game. The one Addisyn chose was a Princess Castle Game where all of us were trying to get to the castle first. I won one game and Addi won another. It takes quite a bit of time playing these games because Danica insists that Addi and Tommy count their own squares and move the pegs. If they count wrong or move wrong they have to start over. So, it takes awhile. Danica also makes sure that Addi recognizes the numbers on a card and I kept getting in trouble for saying go 3 spaces. If I didn't give away what the number on the card was then Tommy did so we both kept getting chastised!

Monday, April 28, 2014

Our Granddaughter, Addisyn's, Dance Class and At Home

Tonight our Granddaughter, Addisyn, had her dance class and so we grandparents were invited to go with her and Chance to watch her practice. Unfortunately, we will be gone when she has her recital. When the class is so full of young ones, you never know what any of them are going to do. Often it is hard to tell which child is doing the right step because none of them are in the same place. It is fun!

Listening - now that is the hard part!

After dinner tonight Danica allowed the kids some tablet time. They were both so engrossed and they both knew what they were doing. It is amazing how computer savvy little ones are now! Addi had a headset on and every once in awhile she would just start laughing like crazy. It was hysterical watching them.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Our Grandson, Tommy's, Concert

Our grandson, Tommy, had a school concert tonight with the theme of Saving The World. The songs were really cute and many were about recycling and conserving energy! We really enjoyed seeing the kids perform.

Tommy is in the middle on the top row.

The third song they sang was with the entire school. Tommy was on the floor for this one and so it was hard to see him. We had to stand up to get the picture of him. The show school is in the bottom picture. This is an unusual school in that it is for grades K-3. A lot of parents really liked having the smaller kids in their own school but, due to budget cuts, this school is closing next year.

Legion

This is Legion. He is the Adkins-Butler dog. Here he is playing with his toy. Danica filled it with peanut butter and he worked hard to get all of the peanut butter out.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

New Bohemia Neighborhood - Cherry Building and the Ale House

We stayed the night with our good friends, Barb and Larry Taylor, last night so that we could attend the Baptism of Nicholas Wooff, the newly adopted granchild of Carol and Jerry Schaub, other good friends from Marion, Iowa. Our rig is parked in Des Moines this week. Barb showed me all her latest fused glass creations. She is getting quite talented.

I admired this piece so much that Barb gave it to me and, of course, I didn't refuse! I also got the directions for it although I'm not sure we can do this in Texas or not. I'll check it out with our jewelry instructors when we get back next winter.

The pieces above and below are some of Barb's other creations.

Larry and Barb at their house

Barb invited us to head down to see the glass studio where she has been working on her fused glass projects. The glass studio is located in the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia neighborhood which is centered on Third Street SE near the Cedar River. The neighborhood links the Downtown District with the Czech Village. This area is recognized as the Bohemian Commercial Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places.

Barb showing Lee some of the glass

Larry is looking a bit bored!

Displayed items from the Ceramic and Glass Studios

Back of the fused glass piece above.

Ceramic Exhibition

The Cherry Building is a great place to visit because of all the artsy businesses that are located in it. There is a nice ceramic studio, glass studio, floral shops, photography studios to musical instrument repair services. Right now there are about 30 small businesses in the building. Barb gave us a tour of the glass studio and showed us a lot of the projects she was working on. She also gave me some glass scraps that I could use when we are down in Texas to make some more fused glass jewelry.

After we had our tour, we all headed across the street to the Ale House for lunch. The Ale House is located in an old Bank building. We checked in for a table in front of the large bank vaults. The food was really quite good.

Entrance to the Ale House

It was great spending time with good friends!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Visiting Cousin Raejean at Wild Hogs

Brother Paul ordering dinner at Wild Hogs

Tonight we drove over to Wild Hogs in to visit with my cousin, Raejean, who is a part of The Good Ole Boys Band. They were playing tonight at Wild Hogs. Paul and Pat came over to visit with all of us too. It was a fun night and good to spend time with family that we don't get too see very often!

Me and Pat

Raejean and Paul

Raejean loves to dance and so she grabbed Paul and Lee a couple of times. I would have loved to dance some, but since my knee replacement in January, I haven't been able to dance very fast yet. Lee and I did dance one slow dance.

Reajean and Lee

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Easter Dinner With Lori and Phil

We spent Easter this year with Lori and Phil and their families. It was fun to be with all the little ones while they gathered eggs and to be there for Kira's third birthday party.