Child of delight

Today Eve has reached the double digits which is hard to believe.

10th birthday in Maryland

She is the first of all of my nieces and nephews- real or fake- in that she was the first to enter my life. I still remember eating crabs with her parents and my brother and sister in law the night before she was born.  I still remember holding her a couple of weeks old almost in tears knowing that her family was moving halfway across the country and my relationship with her would be built on infrequent visits. Pretty much every year for 7 years(?), I would visit her family and relish the time I had with her and her siblings until her family moved to Virginia and finally Maryland when I saw her much more. But God is good because, despite the infrequent visits for years, I have always known Eve and loved her deeply.

Reading in California

She is sweet and loves well.
She is eager to please and desires to help others.
She is full of creativity and imagination.
She is a joy to all who know her.

Visiting Eve in Oklahoma

Happy birthday, Eve!

The one who giggles and one who pursues knowledge

This week, two of my favorite kids have birthdays.

Christmas bowling

Susie, a 4th of July eve child, turns 8 and Matthew, a 4th of July child, turns 10.

Girls' tea

I love these kids.  To those who don't know Susie, you would think she was shy, a little giggly and doesn't talk alot.  Well, she is shy and she is VERY giggly, but she does talk alot.  And when she does talk, she is funny and there will probably animals involved in her stories. Susie loves her animals - passionately.  Oh and she is the best hugger - she squeezes tighter than anyone else I know.

Susie's soul food- ice cream

Matthew is not so quiet though maybe with strangers. With people he knows, he shares a wealth of information or is seeking to acquire knowledge.  He may be the smartest person I know.  Play a strategy game with him and you will know what I am talking about. Some of my favorite times are playing strategy games with him.

Happy birthday, Susie and Matthew!

She who does not hug

Mikayla is 11 today.  How? How? I remember when she was a baby flirting with me over her mom's shoulder.

Craft Night Gone Wrong circa 2016

I love this kid. She is funny, sassy, and sweet.

She may hate to hug me- not that that stops me from hugging her.  But she is one of the kids I love to hang out with. Whether it is a craft night, eating sushi(!), or just playing games, I love to have her there.

With Baby Emory- because everyone loves Baby Emory

Happy Birthday, Kayla!

Graduation, Games, and Gifts

Rachel graduated.  I have lots I could say. I will simply say I love this girl and spending time with her tons and tons.  As a friend said Saturday, sometimes we choose our family, and I chose Rachel and her peeps and they chose me.  And that I'm glad it worked out from me to go to the ceremony against odds.  I may have been THAT person who walked in late, but I made it!

Graduation!

Made it just in time to see her graduate

Rachel' graduation party was fun - good food and great people.   Last week, Rachel, Juliet and I had made lawn Dutch Blitz.  After trying it out Friday night, we got two games in at the party.  It really is lots of fun and amusing to watch the runners try to get the cards into the middle of the lawn.   I hope to get lots more games in this summer at reunions, birthday parties, and other gatherings.

My team made a valiant, albeit unsuccessful, effort

Jessie got in one game- here's too more games with her

Last year, I surprised Evan with an Eagles quilt at his graduation.   For Rachel, she picked out the fabric and pattern.   Somehow, I completely mismeasured the fabric I needed.  I had to improvise.  The backing was going to be all rose fabric and now has a strip of blue and green which I love.  And I had to use my 2 leftover squares as binding.  I love when improvisation turns out better than the initial vision.

I love the colors and the Split Rail Knot pattern

Back

And speaking of quilts, I am working on a Christmas rag quilt.  I had cut the material back and am sewing the squares together now to rag.  More on that later.

Rachel, your graduation day was wonderful.  I pray that as you go to college that you make your faith your own, dig into God's Word and be deeply satisfied, and "that your love will abound more and more in all knowledge and depth of insight so that you may discern what is best and be perfect and complete for the day of Christ being filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God."

An outdoor tea

Today, we put on a tea for 4 year old to 6th grade girls.  We wanted to show them love and that was the theme- loving one another.

Although a little hot, I took advantage of a nice weekend and set up outside.  Added some flowers from my yard and called it a day.  I have to do me- and that is minimal decorations.  Plus I knew Lori's china would make everything fancy.

I love my blue bottle

Those plates!

For food, we kept it simple too (gotta do me) - pastries, cookies, and triangle sandwiches. It was too hot for real tea so we just did cold drinks, lemonade and raspberry tea.

For the message, Lori talked about loving others even when it isn't easy-  I would do well to learn from that.

It's little girls so we did a craft, of course.  In keeping with the theme, everyone made sunshine jars filled with candy to give someone with a note to say why.  Several girls were so sweet with their notes and why they loved the person they were giving the jar too.  Susie made hers for me (that girl!)

Almost all our girls were 10-12.  But I love the little girls who came.  And a shout out to my favorite 4 year old who made her sunshine jar for her silly uncle.

I think Lori, Rachel and I were all tired after the tea. But it was worth it.  Time well spent.

"C" is for celebration

cheese curls and cheese and crackers- clear winners

Last night was our "C" letter party.  C is for celebration, so we celebrated my birthday.  And I invited some other friends to join us.  This time of year is lovely as everyone is itching to grill and kids can run around outside.

cool girl, costume, cat, camel, cowboy

Clothing was varied- college shirts, collared shirts, cow costumes, tinkerbell costumes, corduroy, camouflage, cowboys, camel shirts, cat shirts, crazy socks, cutoffs, capris, Christmas earrings, calculation bracelet.

cheese burgers (some with jalapenos!!!!)

chips, casear salad, casserole

So many C foods.  Cheeseburgers, cream cheese poppers, cheese casserole (Mac and cheese), coleslaw, chips, Caesar salad, cheese and crackers, chickpea humus.... So many foods.  Cider, Cheerwine, chocolate milk, cream coffee ale, lots of drinks too. And desserts- cherry chocolate cheesecake, chocolate covered cream puffs, and cowboy cookies. I am not sure what my favorite was jalapeno flavored cheeseburgers or poppers and cheesecake or cream puffs.  C food is amazing.

cherry chocolate cheesecake, cowboy cookies

chocolate covered cream puffs

Conversation, "fake" cousins, celebrations, children carrying on, creative play.

conversations and Captain America ready to save lives

Cheers to a chaming, cheery C celebration!

Emory's Entourage

Emory is currently everyone's favorite baby- he has quite the following.  Here are the three newest admirers.

Hold the Baby

Little Emory is here and well loved.  His amazing mom brought him to church and let us hold him the entire time.   I don't know if I would have been that willing to let people hold him the entire time.

Normally Monique and I sit with my sister-in-law and family.  But they were away which meant that my other "family" sat with us.   Everyone wanted to hold Emory - well everyone but Matthew.

Matthew and I took food over Saturday and, as excited as he was, he didn't get near Emory.

Mo had to convince Matt to even stand behind us.

On Sunday, Rachel was the first Bier to hold him. But don't worry, Evan is still the favorite- sight unseen.

baby whisperer?

Melissa wanted in on the action.

She always holds a baby.

But Juliet stole Emory from her- twice.

Emory loved Juliet

Even Kayla held Emory.

A little nervous!

Sadly Kristine and family missed Baby Emory. But there will be other days.

As I told Monique, I am not a baby person.  Besides Maggie, Amelia, and William, he is probably the baby I have held the most.  But it's different when it's your family.   And that is my point, we are all family- some of us by blood; some of us by friendship.  But our lives are interwoven together.  And this is good. 

Meet my new favorite person

Tuesday was an amazing day.  Okay, it is probably the best day of the month and maybe year. Why?

Because I got to meet my newest "nephew."  Meet Emory- he's my new favorite.  

So cute

So perfect

With Aunt Ginger

First selfie

Emory, I have waited a long time for you to arrive. And, now that you are here, you are even better than I imagined.  I pray that you follow the footsteps of your parents and grow into a mighty man of God.

Fun filled weekend

This weekend, with their parents and their older sister away, I had Matthew and Juliet all weekend. We crammed alot into 3 days.   The best part is that we spent time with some of our favorite adults (Holly and Daric!) and favorite kids (Amelia, Susie, and Kayla!)

Saturday, we watched the Batman Lego movie with Amelia (Maggie was sick.) Amelia and I got some cuddling in during the movie too.

Then pizza while watching Phineas and Ferb.  

I am not a Papa John's fan but jalapenos make most pizza better

Sunday, we walked the dogs with Holly and got some games in - Mexican Train dominoes and Monopoly.  I am not a Monopoly fan and did not play.  But Mexican Train dominoes is one of my new favorite games. 

And of course just the three of us played games, mostly Timeline, dominoes, and Rummikub.  I am so happy Matt has learned Rummikub, and his strategy is growing.  (Dad would be happy if he had seen how Matt rearranged the board to play one or two tiles.)

Because who doesn't love some competition, especially Biers, we tracked the winners of all games played. Winner got to pick where we ate a treat Monday.

 

But first we picked up Kayla and Susie.  Kayla took charge and made pancakes for lunch and supervised her helpers (Juliet and Susie.) And Juliet made eggs.

Then we went to the park to burn off energy.

Some of us just read.....

And then Tutti Frutti (Juliet's winner's choice) and Starbucks for me.

Susie managed to sneak by my notice when getting her ice cream and got a "Susie" portion of ice cream.  Of course, she ate it all.

To finish off the weekend, puppy time with the Kestlers and then Mexican Train dominoes with Dad and Uncle Dwight.  How special is that- games with Dad and Uncle Dwight.

One day in the not distant future, Juliet will be in college and Matthew will no longer be a kid.   Today, I am thankful for being able to enjoy these days of games, pizza, friendships, and family.  And we are family, all of us- some by blood, some by friendship, all in Christ.  I think of mom and dad and their years of friendship with Aunt Betty and Uncle Dwight.   30 years from now, I hope that these kids still think of me as an aunt and my friendships with their parents are as solid as my parents with their friends.