Sam Turns 12!

More on my birthday later but we need to get back to our trip to Kansas!  Sam celebrated his 12th birthday while we were there!

He had a very fun party that I will blog about tomorrow.  At the end of the party he opened some presents!

He got a lot of cool things including Lego sets and a Minion!

And this interesting book?!

After the late afternoon birthday party, he had a Court of Honor!

He conducted (above) and received some awards (below):

Then on Sunday he was ordained a Deacon by his Dad!

We are surely proud of him!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I've had a fun week celebrating my birthday!

First, we had special treats with two families in Kansas!

I found out what all the little numbers were on our walls.  Those were markers for surprise decorations for my birthday!

There were balloons and streamers and gifts as well!

A favorite gift was this bottle of 65 notes about me!  I have been enjoying it so much! But there are two I am wondering about that affect my reputation:  One said "Giraffe Tongue Toucher" while I prefer to be known as a "Giraffe Carrot Feeder"* (picture at the bottom of this post) and another one said "Book Maker."  Does that mean they think I am a bookie?  

Thanks for all of your kind and generous thoughts, McClellans!

We had a Pizza Swim Party back at home!

 Even Nathaniel likes to paint with water!

 For dessert: Push Ups just like Grandma Ricks used to serve!

I have been receiving some special art work!

Saturday I got treated to lunch by Amanda and MaryAnn at one of my favorite places:

 And finally the whole family has been in on a special surprise for quite a while:  Each one has been memorizing a scripture or scriptures for a total of 65 scriptures memorized in honor of my birthday!

I just received this poster for me to keep track of their progress!  I love the scripture at the bottom: "I have not greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." 3 John 1:4

They will be calling me over the next day or two to recite their scriptures!

(I will post an update after everyone has reported in!)

Maybe it isn't so bad to turn 65 after all!

*Tongue Toucher or Giraffe Feeder????  You decide!

Peter's Baptism!

Peter got baptized last Saturday!

It was a great event!

There were grandparents and cousins from both sides of the family!

He was one happy and excited boy!

Room Decor!

There are always elaborate decorations by the girls when we visit!

This was a very large and well-done sign:

Over the bed were the four corners of a puzzle.

We had to find the rest of the pieces around the house!

Several walls had these mysterious items on them.

Hmmm?  We tried to figure out what the numbers meant.

But we had to wait to find out!

And then there were lots of 8's and 12's in honor of Peter and Sam!

(There's even a puzzle piece hiding among the 8's!)

Putting the puzzle together!

What a great decoration!

Lean Green Driving Machine!

We had some weather-related delay problems on our recent trip to Kansas.  This caused us to arrive at the Wichita airport around 

2 a.m.  Dan was waiting for the luggage and I went to get a rental car.  The lady at the counter said we have only 2 cars left.  I opted for the smaller Dodge Challenger thinking in my mind it was a Dodge Charger which we have rented before.

She happened to mention that it was a green car and I distinctly remember saying: Oh, I like green. That will be fine.

Imagine my surprise when we saw the car:

I was mortified to be driving around in this.

It's so flashy!

Heidi took a picture of her girls when they discovered the car before they left for school:

They were so excited!

They wanted a picture of themselves with the car and insisted that Grandpa pick them up after school in the car!

Who knew a car would be so popular?!  Everywhere we went people were looking at us and at the car.  People made comments: Is that your car?  Cool!  I bet it goes fast!  Nice car!   And from the grandkids: Please, please, please let us ride with you!

But I was mainly worried we were on the police radar sticking out like a sore thumb!

More posing...

That car really had some pick up!  I know Dan loved driving it!!

Attention grandparents: Cool and Flashy makes points with the grandkids!  VROOOMMMMM!!!!