UZ B-day

Last week we celebrated Uncle Zach's b-day with burgers grilled by me and his favorite brownies made by AK.  Uncle Jack and Shellie came down and we had a nice evening.

        

        

Make me a cake with extra frosting

Before Christmas our neighbor Wendy Sue gave us her old toy kitchen set that her dad had made for her when she was a little girl. At first it sat out on the north side of the house and collected dust until Christmas Eve when daddy started to sand and clean and begin the rebirth of vintage.



Christmas Eve... came and went. Christmas Day... came and went. Saturday after Saturday came and went till we decided that this kitchen would be for Margaret's birthday. Which has not happened yet, but somehow the kitchen is in the girls room and is the object of their affection. Ours too. "Mama, mama, mamammamamama" "oh hi honey go make mama a cake with extra frosting". And off they run providing me with an extra few seconds.

So daddy sanded, painted, and added a stain and epoxy to this beautiful piece of history. I added the pink lining and cleaned all the sets of kitchen ware.



                                              Look out Rachel Ray her come the Paul girls.



New Years Eve

We took the girls to the Great Race Place to see the ponies and watch some races.  But first, they enjoyed the playground in the infield.

        

       

Both girls really enjoyed seeing the horses in the walking ring before the race. We were able to snap this shot with one of the more famous statues at Santa Anita.



I was also surprised how into the race the girls were.  We let each of them pick one horse for the first race.  Neither came in, unfortunately.
 
 
 
 
 
That night we did our annual dinner at Northwood's, which was delicious.  We took home enough for a whole 'nother dinner the next night.  None of us stayed up till midnight.

        

Saturday in Tempe

MM has been hounding her dad to take her to the ASU campus, which she's waned to tour since she was born.  Mom was in Yuma today so she talked her Dad into it.

Hayden Lawn

MM wanted to hold the leash on the way to the MU.  Of course she mastered it.

Dad and Uncle Featha had a memorable class here their first semester.

Computing Commons, which Great Uncle Jack designed

   





We also made a quick stop to Ace Hardware to see AK, which was a big hit, until we left.