Northern Oaks Easter Egg Hunt

Enjoying our picnic dinner:-)

Eric served hot dogs and sausages with his famous, Sweet Heat BBQ sauce. It was a hit!

Taylor doing some quality control on the signage...

My favorite couple: The Hundley's. Mavis is who I want to be when I'm 80. Her husband lives here at Northern Oaks and she comes to be with him all day everyday. She feeds him all his meals and is there to help him with everything he needs. There are nurses that could do it, but she wants to and is the just one of the kindest people I've ever known. She is such an example to me.

We had a fun Easter Egg Hunt and Barbeque at Eric's work the week of Easter. Eric loves to Barbeque and throw parties, not just here at home; so it was fitting for Northern Oaks to have their first annual Easter Egg Hunt and Barbeque. All the residents were there with their families and also the associates and their families. It was really fun. The eggs just covered the grass and it was like a sea of seagulls swooping in and eating all the cricuts when the kids ran across and devoured the eggs. The kids had a great time and I think the residents really loved seeing all the kids there hunting for eggs. Eric put on a great party as always.

Perini's Steak House

Authentic Texas Rustic Steakhouse: Perini's Steakhouse

Buffalo Gap, Texas

This entire town is like walking back in time 40 or 50 years ago. It's a little town south of Abilene about 10 miles, and it has a little historic area with little shops, and an old jail that's been made over into a touristy area.

When your eating at the restuarant you almost feel like John Wayne himself is going to walk in and get a table. ... fun atmosphere, and great food

We got a babysitter on Friday night once everyone was here and went to Perini's Steak House in Buffalo Gap. It was delicious. We all got their famous burger. I know... why get the burger when you are at a Texas Steak House. Well Mr. Perini won the Best Burger Contest on the Today Show last year with this burger! It's really yummy and really big! Everythings bigger in Texas, right!?

Easter Weekend

We had such a fun Easter Weekend with Eric's Family. Ben and Summer and their kids came over from Ft. Worth and Eric's parents drove up from Houston. We got a babysitter on Friday night once everyone was here and went to Perini's Steak House in Buffalo Gap. It was delicious. We all got their famous burger. I know... why get the burger when you are at a Texas Steak House. Well Mr. Perini won the Best Burger Contest on the Today Show last year with this burger! It's really yummy and really big! Everythings bigger in Texas, right!?

Saturday morning we went to Albany, a little town close by and did some shopping and the kids had yet another egg hunt. (We will have candy for years...)

Look, we grew an Easter egg in the Garden!

The kids waiting patiently to come down and find their baskets. I so remember having to pause at the top of the stairs for the dreaded picture on Christmas and Easter mornings.

Taylor with her loot!

Mimi had prizes for the kids... Mimi, you're the best!

Uncle Ben tending the babies

Mimi helping Peyton get into her egg... I don't think she wants to surrender it, in fear that she won't get what's inside.

This happened over and over again... Put a few eggs in and then lift it up and dump it over...

"Wait, don't hunt for the eggs yet, we've got to take a group picture"

Oh Mooomm...

After a little anxiety, Brent found his easter basket in the cuboard... Zhu Zhu pets... !!

Taylor was also super excited to find a Zhu Zhu pet in her basket

Do they look alike or what!?

What a fun weekend we had! Thanks Summer and Ben, Mimi and Poppie for coming to Abilene!

My Latest Project...Wheelchair Bags

Some Relief Society Ladies with Barb, the Social Worker at Northern Oaks who helped us deliver the bags.

I think he loves his new walker bag! What do you think?

All the goodies the RS dontated to go into the bags

Our Amazing RS who helped embellish all the bags!

These little business cards were all in each bag

bags, bags and more bags....

So we love to go and visit the residents at Eric's facility. The kids love to visit because they always get candy from a few of their "adopted grandmas." So a few months ago I was visiting with Ms. Judy and she had this bag that hung from her wheelchair filled to the brim with her things and hanging off of it was a needle and thread, because it was literally falling apart. So the next time I went up there I took a measuring tape and camera because I wanted to make Ms. Judy a new bag. I had a great time making her cute new bag... I was thinking in my crazy unrealistic good intention mind... " I want to make everyone a little wheelchair bag." Everyone needs a place for their personals, and needs it accessible. About this same time our Relief Society president called Eric and asked if he had any service opportunities around his place that the RS could help out with. ... They were inspired... becuase Wha Laa... we joined forces and through lots of sewing helpers and lots of time we sewed over 70 wheelchair bags and walker bags for the residents. The RS sisters also dontated tons of fillers for the bags: crosswords puzzles, memo pads, pens, hand lotion, magnifiying glasses, etc.

Our RS activity last month was getting together to embellish the bags and fill them with all the goodies. It was so fun!! And very exciting to get such a big project done. We delivered them the next week to the facility and the residents and staff loved them! They were just tickeled to each get one. We even had a lot of extras for new residents when they check in, they get a beautiful little wheelchair bag for their personals. It was such a fun project! And even more fun to deliver them and see how much the residents liked them.

My Soccer Stars

Soccer Season is here and now we have two soccer stars. If you click on the page, it'll enlarge, so you can see them better. :)

Brent has enjoyed soccer season for the most part. His first game he ran around the field after his shadow. Jogging around really extending his running arms and watching his shadow do lots of trick. He especially admired himself in his shiny new uniform. He kept looking at us and doing his thumbs up and smiling... just as the pack of kids would run past him moving the ball down the field. He really had no clue what was going on. I thought it was really funny. Eric was a little frustrated. But hey, he's FOUR! And it's OK.

His next game he scored three goals... ( it was for the other team, but we didn't tell him that part...)