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| Playing a tune for Grandma! |
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| Big sister, Sherry, and Daddy, who is a real trumpet player, showing Billy the mute. Looks like it even has a case. |
Here you are about 19 years old when we lived in Newton, Kansas, and you were going to KU. How the years have flown by.........................
and now here it is your 59th birthday.... and you are just as cute and sweet as ever! The fellow you married and with you in this picture is pretty nice, also, as are your three awesome daughters. Your dad and I were so blessed to have had two great kids. I'm so glad that school is out now and you have the summer to wind down a bit and get in some good times at your cabin. 
Twenty-one years ago today, this sweet little baby girl was born and she was named Hannah Alice. In this picture, she is just a day old - give or take some hours. It was so much fun that they asked for clothing to dress the baby up for her first picture and added a sweet bow and flowers in her hair no less.
Now here she is - all grown up and twenty-one. This was taken a few hours ago when we were at lunch in Ann Arbor celebrating her big day. Sher, Barc, their best friends, Deb and Steve, and Hannah and I had a good time eating and watching Hannah open her gifts. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and almost immediately everyone in the restaurant joined us with great gusto. When the song was finished, everyone applauded. Great moment! Hannah will be graduating from Michigan State this spring at the end of her junior year. The plans are in the works for her to go into the Peace Corps this fall. Our Hannah may be small in stature, but her dreams and goals are big, and she works diligently in the pursuit of those achievements. 
For my birthday last August, those three pretty girls that are pictured at the bottom of my sidebar (my dear granddaughters) told me I would be getting the Ally McBeal series in October. It has arrived as they said it would and I want Norah, Molly and Hannah to know how much I am going to enjoy this gift and that I thank them so much for such a great gift and that I love them so very, very much. This is one of my all time favorite television series that I just hated to see go off the air. So quirky and cute. Any series that David Kelley had anything to do with has always been a favorite of mine. Picket Fences, Boston Legal, Boston Public are the ones I think of right now. This will take a while to watch, but it will be there for me on the long nights this winter and I will enjoy it as much now as I did then. 
Here is a picture showing what the invited attendees were wearing to birthday parties in August of 1931. Carol, who was three years old, is shown here with her hands by her face looking very cute in her summery dress and short haircut. Hmmm, that's sort of the way I wear my hair now. The other little girls are also wearing summery frocks. I am pretty sure the lady standing behind Carol is holding her new little sister, Joanne Lee, and her Aunt Henrietta, kneeling at left, is holding her little boy, Hap, who is Carol's cousin. Aunt Henrietta is wearing a cute sleeveless dress. She was a fun lady with a really cute giggle. Standing next to the birthday girl is Betty Brown, who is Carol's Uncle Ham's little sister-in-law. Dear Aunt Leah is at the right end of the second row holding an unknown child. On Carol's other side is her grandparents' little neighbor boy, Newell Smith. Newell lived with his grandmother and Aunt Rose. His grandma had a very high pitched voice and our grandma referred to her as "Squeak" but not to her face, of course. It fit her perfectly.
This is the first page in the baby book - there is also a post on
How is this for a chubby, happy, healthy little girl? Probably 9 months to a year.
And this is the hospital bill for mom and baby for 12 days! They practically gave Carol away!
Today is my oldest granddaughter's 32nd birthday. She was the beginning of a very lovely new phase in the lives of Ray and me - being grandparents. I know I have said it many times, but there is nothing like having grandchildren.
Here she is in her jewelry - I had an old candy tin and filled it with old costume jewelry for the kids to play with. That was well used - and for years. Also, you can see to the left, the AdLib game which Norah and I played a lot. Lots of wonderful memories of the three girls.
Norah and Chad - they will be married in just a few weeks and I am so looking forward to being with all the family again. What a great couple! 
Can you believe I used to dress her in the little dresses and slips all the time and they had to be ironed? How different were the times back in the 50's.
Here is Sherry Kay in her tap shoes and costume when she was in a recital back in Chillicothe at about age 5.
I love this picture so much - Sherry and her Dad on her wedding day going down the aisle to be married to Barclay, her husband of 34 years and my other son. She is wearing her great, great-grandmother's cameo. Sher was born on my grandma's birthday which was 138 years ago today. What a sweet picture of Sherry and of Ray - what sweet people and what a sweet day. 
Twenty-eight years ago today, a darling little girl with big brown eyes came into our lives. Molly is the middle granddaughter in a set of three all of whom have given their grandparents such joy and so much fun and happy memories.
This is the granddaughter that labeled me the "old hag" when we would tease each other. I think that got started in a spirited game of croquet back in Illinois.
Molly in her pretty dress always brings back a very fond memory. Sher, Barclay and the girls came from Michigan to Illinois for Christmas before we moved up here. Dinner was almost ready and everyone was presentable but not really dressed up. Molly came out from the bedroom in her pretty dress, white tights and red shoes - all ready for Christmas dinner. That was an "Awwwww" moment for me. 
On Saturday we went up to Mount Hood and it was like going from one season to the other. The snow is still really, really deep - in feet - up there. It is so incredibly beautiful.
We ate at the lodge - which you can barely see in this picture. I don't think I have ever seen so much snow. 
Here we all are ready for lunch. Not a bad looking group, really. The birthday boy and his wife, Sher and Barclay, are first couple on the left - then Hannah, Norah and her Chad, Doug and Molly, the old hag and Bill and Ann. 
Hannah is 20 years old today! Where, or where did that time go? She spent that time growing up to be a lovely, smart, fun young woman as you can see in the final picture at the bottom of my sidebar. She is the youngest of my three lovely, smart, fun young granddaughters.
Just how cute can a little girl be? 
In the "princess" costume we got at a neighbor's garage sale. I found the tiara and wand at the Dollar store later. We sat on the front stoop one afternoon and she was resplendent in her lovely princess outfit. Hannah looked at me and said, "Grandma, won't people be surprised to see a princess sitting here?"
Saturday, December 6th, is my kid brother's 76th birthday. This picture was taken back in Chillicothe two years ago when we were all back for the high school alumni banquet - Bud and Dot, his wife, were there from Florida for their 55th reunion and I was there for my 60th. I didn't get a card off in the mail but I hope you know that I wish you good health and hope you're feeling good and have lots more birthdays.
A long ago party in Ft. Madison, Iowa - it was your 7th birthday. Mark Edlen, Tommy Snowden, Mike McLemore, Myron Morgan (he was the most wild little kid but darling), Denny Hawkins and someone named Jeffery or Jeremy (remembered the names of all but the last two and they were written in the album.) You are the best son parents could ever want and I never would have taken you to the used boy lot!!!
Today is my daughter-in-law's birthday. This is a kaleidoscope made from a picture taken when she, Bill and I visited Molly in Portland several years ago. Sending you lots of love on your birthday, Ann!! (Click to enlarge)
