Dancing on the Ceiling

Lionel Richie's All the Hits Tour 2014 landed at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel on Friday night.  And, thanks to my beautiful daughter and most wondcrful son-in-law, I was there...

...with Jackie. WE HAD A BALL!

Lionel is a great entertainer - likeable, funny, involved with the audience - who kept us going the entire evening.  We laughed, we danced, we finished his sentences, we sang.  Did I say we danced? He was dynamic and backed up by very talent musicians who were also entertaining (especially his saxophone/harmonica player).

Here is a picture of his arrival on stage, "Hello," he said. "Is it me you're looking for?"

Jackie was up dancing and screaming right away.  She grew up listening to these records. Lionel said that he had two kinds of fans, the ones who had been with him throughout the journey and the others  who knew his music and called him "Mr. Richie."  He promised us the hits and he made sure that he sang them all.

Oh, and let me not forget that Ce Lo Green opened the show and warmed up the audience for almost 50 minutes before Lionel came out.

IT WAS A GREAT EVENING!!!!!!!!

Grace's Sixth Birthday Party

Another photo slideshow by Smilebox

No Words

No words can describe the joy I feel seeing this baby.  I felt the same way when Grace was born. So I will just make some notes about these photos.

Days of waiting are totally forgotten when the baby finally arrives. Hannah is about 1 hour old in this photo. Adam was leaving the surgical suite with her to take her up to the nursery.  Jackie was going to the recovery room.

Jackie took this photo in her hospital room after the nurse showed her how to swaddle Hannah like a burrito. She calls this one the "baby burrito" photo. :)  It was taken several hours after she was born when she was brought to Jackie's room.

As of today, Jackie, Adam and Hannah are at home.  Adam sent this photo of Hannah in her own clothes at home.

I made a little vintage dress...

...for Hannah Frances.  It was Simplicity pattern #2629, "Baby's Vintage Layette." 

In 2008, when Grace was one year old, I made her some little outfits. It was a joy to make this little vintage dress and petticoat for Hannah. It will probably be the first many more "little outfits."

I gave it to Jackie and Adam yesterday when we met them at the Franklin Steak House for lunch. 

We were celebrating Jackie's birthday.  It was modest this year because Jackie is very pregnant and more focused on Hannah's birthday than on her own.

Rob and Kathryn gave her the complete "Jurassic Park" series on DVD. She and Adam almost jumped with joy when they opened it.  It was a new one for their collection.  They will enjoy the many additional scenes that didn't make it into the movies as they wait for Hannah to make her debut.  (Did I mention that Rob's face is full of hair?  He is growing his "baby beard" reminiscent of the beard he wore when expecting Grace.  I wish I had taken a picture of him.)

 And, I gave her the book "Little Knitted Creatures" with new sets of knitting and crochet needles to inspire some small projects that she can tackle when her leisure time becomes less available in a couple of weeks (welcome Hannah).

Making donuts in the morning, enjoying a birthday lunch in the afternoon, seeing Adam, Jackie, Kathryn, Rob and Grace all on the same day - LIFE IS GOOD. ;-)

Rob's Birthday

Rob's Birthday is today!  We had a nice family get-together yesterday at the Cheesecake Factory in the Menlo Park Mall.  With everyone so busy, we decided to meet there to reduce the travel time for everyone.

Reading the cards and opening the gifts are always fun.  It was a very pleasant afternoon.

I have a feeling that Rob is going to have another great year :-)

Van Riper House Benefit Street Fair

Yesterday the street fair to benefit the Van Riper House was held on Franklin Avenue between Harrison and Centre Streets. Jeanne Van Steen and I set up the League of Women Voters table and the tent (a tricky project) with help from the Spencer Savings Bank crew ( a neighboring table). It was breezy, cool and clear, a beautiful day for the event.

Rob, Kyle and Grace met me on the Avenue.  After pizza and soda at Belle Paese's sidewalk concession, the kids had a great time playing on the inflatable attractions.

Later, I met Rob, Kathryn and Jackie at the Salt Creek Grill in Rumson for Rob's birthday dinner.  Seated next to the Navasink River, we chatted and enjoyed the restaurant.  It was a good day.

Birthday Weekend

Previously I wrote that I entered a quilt into a tri-state competition.  It was accepted for the juried show.  My wonderful son-in-law, Adam, took the required photographs for me in January. The acceptance letter was received in mid-February.  The judging was conducted this last Wednesday and the show was open to the public on Thursday through Sunday.  For my birthday on Sunday, Jackie and I had some time together at the show in the morning.  We shopped at the vendors for fabric to complete placemats for each other.  The challenge was to select a fabric palette that the other of us would choose and make the mats as gifts to each other.  I thought that this would be a lot of fun for us to do and give us an opportunity to see how well we knew our quite opposite tastes.  The mats must be completed by June.  We will use them when we visit each other for coffee, tea and chat. Adam, Rob and Grace joined us around lunch time to view my quilt.  It did not win a prize.  I am anxiously waiting for its return with the judges’ comments so that I will know how to improve.  My sister, Jackie joined us and we all went to lunch together afterward. It was a great day. 

On Saturday, we celebrated Grace’s upcoming birthday with a trip to the Museum of Natural History.  We thought that it would be a quick visit for her to see the big blue whale and walk through one of the dinosaur rooms.  To our amazement, she loved the museum.  We were there for two hours!  The run-up to the visit involved bedtime picture books about a dinosaur who went to school and an octopus who thought he was the king of the ocean until a blue whale made an appearance.  She was ready to  go see the whale and the dinosaurs.  Using the museum map in “Dora, the Explorer” imagery, we visited North American Mammals where she was speechless and saucer-eyed viewing an Alaskan brown bear, two of the dinosaur rooms and the ocean mammals.  Her interest was more than I had hoped it would be.  By the way, the new butterfly conservatory inside the museum is well worth a visit when you are in the city.  We will follow up with more science activities.

Rob took Grace home late this afternoon.  I needed a nap before preparing dinner.  And, I was in my pajamas by 7 p.m.!  She is a joy and she is exhausting.

"The Silent Hour"

The Silent Hour by Michael Koryta


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The audio book version was not kind to this complex mystery.  Its many plot turns and twists are rendered laborious by a plodding, melodramatic narration.

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