Visit from the Liang Girls

During the last week of July, Craig’s sister Laura and her three daughters (Kaley- 12, Kennadi-11 and McKenzie – 11) came to visit from Los Angeles. Laura stayed a few days and then left the girls with Nana and Papa for another week. Several of those days also included our three. Janice is a testament to taking care of yourself; she took on 6 girls like it wasn’t a big deal. One of the games that the girls all played was to set-up a store in the basement. They used the screen of some electric game as a cash register and opened a book up and ran a pretend credit card down the middle to place a sale. I was impressed by their imaginations but afraid of their knowledge of credit cards! Janice would pretend to be a shopper. Once she had made her purchases she would go upstairs and change outfits and pretend to be a new shopper at the store. Her imagination was just as strong as the grandchildren’s!

The Liang girls also spent some time with us. They spent the night at our house one night. They played games and slept in the family room (sleep is a relative term here.) We took them bowling one day and swimming another. We all had fun. Kaley was VERY patient with Rachael who adored being with Kaley.

Day on the Ohio River

July 20, 2008 - Two of Mom and Dad's good friends are Bob and Maureen Hannon. Mom taught with Mauren for years at IHM. The Hannons are generous not only to my parents but to us. For a third year they invited us to take a boat ride on the Ohio River. The girls love to be on the boat and I find it relaxing. Drew and Emily were also on the boat although for some reason I didn't really get good pictures of them. During the trip Grace asked Mrs. Hannon if she could drive the boat. To her and my surprise Maureen said yes. The girls each ended up taking a turn driving - and for long stretches of time. They all did well, however I reminded them it didn't mean they would be driving a car anytime soon!

Visit from Murray Kelly's

The weekend after Rachael's birthday, the girls' cousins from Murray came to stay with Nana and Papa for the weekend. Cam will be eleven (?) this November, Kess is 8 and Caden is 5. Overall the kids played well together and Cam was very patient with all the younger kids and dealing with 4 girls! Rachael liked to take care of Caden by bringing him his blanket and rubbing his back. Pretty funny given that Caden is a few weeks older than Rachael.

I am very behind in my posts to the blog - busy doing things to write about so I don't have time to write! I am trying to catch up - my rule right now is less text, more pictures. Pictures usually say it all anyway. By-the-way, notice the pictures below have sweaters on the girls - in July and as I type this it is October 14 and it will be 85 degrees today. Don't tell me we aren't messing up the world's climate!

Rachael's Fifth Birthday

On July 10 Rachael turned five years old.


The girls were with Nana on Rachael's birthday. She made the day special by taking the girls on an ice cream marathon. They went to four different ice cream parlors and each took a turn picking a flavor and then sharing. When asked which place was the best they each picked the one in which they selected the flavor. That night we went out to a movie and let Rachael pick the restaurant for dinner. Of course we do have some rules. You have to sit down at the restaurant - not carry it out and they have to hand you a printed menu to order from.



Rachael's favorite gift was a bag full of paper towel rolls, toliet paper rolls and gift wrap rolls. I started collecting them in January and had a big gift bag full by her birthday. It is amazing what she can come up with to play with them.


On July 12th we extended the celebration. In the morning Craig took the girls to Lowe's kid's clinic and they each built a small dune buggy. In the afternoon we had a small party for Rachael at the Explorium.

Another favorite gift was given to her the weekend before her birthday when we visited Ohma and Hampa. It is a modern version of the Big Wheel I had as a kid. It is the Mercedes of Big Wheels. Hampa had to add wood to the pedals because her legs were not long enough which means she will have several years to enjoy the new bike.