Summer is coming.... Time for family and Friends

Yes, I am growing hair where I can...

It is the end of May and I have completed a social milestone. I have completely met ALL of Daisy's family now including her oldest nephew's fiancee. (I will be attending that wedding in November.) 

Lindsey, Frank, Ricka, Cliff, Laura and Ann are the younger members of the family in this photo and Dan wasn't able to attend

To meet this last bunch I traveled to Kansas City to see a music choral performance that Frank and Lindsey starred in.  We went to church in the am, had a quick lunch and then back to that same church for the concert. This concert wedded dramatic acting of Shakespeare's prose with choral  music.  A very dramatic linkage that was most entertaining.
We had a family dinner that evening featuring KC Bar-b-Que  of blackened beef tips, spareribs and a unique presentation of sausage that was in a loaf form and sliced thin like sandwich meat.  Of course there was slaw, potato salad and a corn pudding mash to round out the meal.

Now it is my turn for family visits. The next day Daisy and I went to Manhattan, Kansas about 3 hours away. There I was able to introduce her to Shannon and the guys. She had a gift for Josiah and Levi of Va Tech athletic clothes (like Pop-Pop wore she told them) that the boys liked so much they wore them to bed. Josiah decided right away that he needed to teach Daisy the correct way to throw a Frisbee and occupied her time while Levi and I worked on his swing set  and pitching technique.

"Now you hold your arm like this Daisy... and throw hard"

"Swing Faster Pop-Pop...."

 

Pop-Pop, Siah, Levi and Shannon...I am blessed for sure...

Daisy and I had driven separately from KC. I left Shannon's to head North 370 miles to Sioux Falls, SD to renew my driver's license. I am still a legal resident of SD and had to be physically there for this renewal. Daisy returned to Missouri to revisit her brother Don, and sister Mary Lee. 

Several of these African drummers live here

Yes Eureka has an Ozark Africa Festival

In early May I attended the ARTrageous Parade in Eureka Springs, Arkansas as reflected in these pictures. It is truly a unique community. Its  monthly festival themes highlight that uniqueness.

These two ladies are both named June. They are the city Librarians no less. One is 83 and the other is 79. They tell me they never miss a party and thought I might be fun !

Yes we have belly dancers too. 

Margo the Queen Clown

There is no lack of color and colorful people in these local parades.

This bug went around spreading pollen

This last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful for this region. Tornadoes, flooding and too numerous deaths.  I was in SW Joplin just 3 days before the devastation there. Roads around here are washed out in places. Just recently, I helped my friends  Rick and Darlene remove furniture from their basement just in case. As of now the water has stopped 2 feet from entry.

Panoramic view from my Deck

I have renters coming this Memorial Weekend so I am in the campground staying in my house on wheels. For the most part I will be living in the RV this season and using the house for WIFI  and hot tubbing sessions. I am planning this being my last season having the house on the vacation rental market.

Anyway, bye for... now!

Shannon and her 'Boys' in Arkansas

Mr Levi and domino stacking

Josiah at his best

On Good Friday the Miskowskis came to visit this old man. It was fantastic. I was finishing up the Spring prep work on the house for rental when they turned in the driveway. This was a good reason to celebrate with their visit. I was a little concerned in that the weather forecast was for a series of strong thunderstorms on a daily basis that might keep us house bound. I had already been told by 5 year old Josiah that he wanted to go to the lake and skip rocks again like I had taught him before! Little 2 year old Levi did not have any preferences.  He wanted to do whatever his big brother did on the "big Wa-wa (lake)".  (Josiah was my translator).

Of course Levi was very shy about meeting me at my real house until Josiah decided  to break the ice by playing pile on Pop-pop and wrestle. So, when ever I was on my hands and knees the boys were on me.  They liked to tickle and be tickled.
And where you might you ask were the parents during these turbulent and noisy times? Letting grandpa have quality time while they chilled! They are addicted to their iPhone. (I might want one too!)

I promised the boys that they could help me do two things on Saturday.  Yep, since the Easter Bunny was coming and there needed to be an egg hunt we had to color eggs. But to minimize possible coloring accidents, I limited the area of creativity to the stainless steel sinks. The hardest thing to monitor was that Levi wanted to and did stick his fingers into the dyes and wipe and drip on the next available item, people, floors and counter tops.

After we had fun doing that I had them help me make the Easter desert. My favorite is a banana-strawberry pudding with vanilla wafers. Levi did very well at placing the cookies side by side using the formula: one for the dish and one for my mouth.  Josiah liked to use the throw-the-sliced-berries-and-bananas-into-the-bowl-in-piles method.  I was informed that his way was better than the layering method Pop-pop wanted to use! It all tasted great in the end.

Yummy

After these two hands-on activities,  I needed a nap in the rocker and Levi decided I needed company and a drink!

"Suck it Pop-pop" he says.

We all had a great time attending church, playing games and eating a ham dinner that I prepared in the crockpot with yams and the classic green bean casserole and baked rolls as fixings.  We did however spend almost all the time inside due to the 16 inches of rain we got during their visit.  They left on Monday morning and by the time they got home flash flood warnings were abundant here. My house is safely above the flooding zone.

Note these pictures.

This is the day after we all stood inside this fishing structure

We stood and skipped rocks 8 feet below this level

A good time was had by all. Shannon called to tell me that when the family drove up to their house Monday afternoon, Levi cried and declared to his parents that he would rather be at Pop-pop's house.  I am smiling!