Crafting again

L's latest creation is a candle holder made out of clothespins. She posted a picture of it on Facebook and had two orders within a day from two women at church.

It did end up looking pretty nice. She's doing just about everything she can to raise money to go to another anime convention this summer.

L saves the day

I spent too much time this weekend looking for this 2017 confetti I plan to use as table scatter at B's upcoming graduation party. I saw it at Jewel shortly after the New Year, but couldn't remember whether I had bought it. And if I did buy it, where did I store it? (I've read that people taking tamoxifen experience memory loss and I think it's taken me over). Anyway, L was looking for glue and for some unknown reason, looked in the cabinet where I keep cupcake liners, and there the confetti was. Not even sure why I would have put it there. Maybe I thought I'd be making cupcakes for his graduation and then I'd find it?

Keeping busy

E has been keeping herself busy crafting so far this summer. My living room looks like a Michael's store exploded. She's been playing around with the crochet hooks she got from grandma and recently made a hacky sack and a cat toy. I texted the picture to Cindy who showed mom. Her response? "Bless her heart."

Decisions, decisions

So I finally went to the eye doctor the other day. It had been eight years (!) since my last checkup. Despite that, the doctor said I still only need readers, though she bumped up the prescription to 1.75 and said 2.0 would be good if the print is really small. Since our insurance would pay a significant part of one pair of glasses for me, I had the sales associates show me some reasonably-priced frames. (The doctor said the drugstore readers work almost as well.) I narrowed the frames down to these four:

But with Andy at work, B and L in school and E out with a friend, I had no one to help me make the decision. So, the other night, I took Andy and E back to the eye doctor, pulled the four frames and tried them on, but then found another pair I liked more:

It's similar to the frames I had picked out the other day, just has a little red in it. I should have my new prescription readers within a week.

Japanese class farewell

This afternoon was B's farewell lunch for the fourth-year Japanese students. The students showed up at 9 a.m. to prepare lunch and set the tables, and the parents and families arrived at noon. Here's B with sensei. He's going to miss her. She started crying when she welcomed us, saying what a great class this is and that she's going to miss seeing their faces every day.

I didn't any pictures of the food (it was the same menu that was at E's Japanese class farewell), but the table decorations were all made of origami, which the students made in class - cup holders, place cards, napkin rings and flowers.

Class picture. B's in the back, a little right of center.

Sensei was excited to see E and I had to get a picture of all three kids with her.

L volunteered to take home a box of doughnuts, as well as red bean and green tea ice cream. To prepare her to go to Japan next summer, sensei told L to cut back on the sweets and to try a new food every day. We'll see how that goes.

And B wouldn't leave until he gave sensei a hug. This picture makes me tear up. She said he's a very sweet boy and always the first one to help and the last one to leave.

'Jurassic World' at the Field

Andy and I went downtown last night for the Field Museum's private opening of "Jurassic World." It took some fast talking on my part to get Andy to pose for these photos, but I think they came out pretty good. And look at him hamming it up!

The bar was open during the reception and Andy tried the exhibit's special drink, a T-Rex Twist.

We thought we'd get food, but all they had were passed appetizers ... and we didn't get many of those. I had one, a tomato chopped up on a small piece of toast. Andy managed to snag a few of these "dinosaur eggs." I had to get a picture since I've never seen a deviled egg so small.

After the reception, we toured the new exhibit. It opens to the public today and runs through Jan. 7, 2018. It features dinosaurs that move and it's really well done. Not sure I'd pay extra to see it though.

Here's Andy putting his arm in fake (obviously) dinosaur dung.

This picture was taken on our way into the exhibit, in front of a green screen. We were told where to look and to look frightened. Andy did a better job than I did.

And since we left hungry, we stopped in Forest Park on the way home for some Mexican food.

Here's the list, mom

B needs me to pick up some items for his Japanese class' farewell seniors party on Saturday. This is the list I got. At least E will come to the grocery store with me so she can translate.

Housing assignment

B logged onto his computer after school today and learned he will be living in Snyder Hall next year at U of I. He's on the second floor and found a roommate through the accepted students' Facebook page. This whole "B is going to college" thing is getting very real, very fast.

Dinner by E

E took over dinner duty the other night and made a mozzarella-stuffed chicken breast. She stuffed it, fried it and baked it, smothered in spaghetti sauce. Served it with penne pasta. Pretty good. She even warned us not to eat the toothpicks that were holding it together. Nice tip.

Shopping injury

Ouch!

L at Anime Central

These are pics of L and her friend, N, from Anime Central on Saturday. Yep, that's L in the black wig. She's cosplaying Yuri from "Yuri on Ice," an anime show she likes to watch. Her friend is Viktor from the same show. She said other people recognized their characters and one person yelled out, "You make my life happy." P.S. There was no wine in that bottle.

L and N and possibly another friend have plans to attend a three-day anime convention in July and want to stay near the event in a hotel, with parental supervision, of course. We told her she better start saving her money. Andy has already begun teaching her how to mow the lawn. That could boost her savings if she takes over that job this summer.

Our Sunday dilemma

Andy and I thought this was pretty funny. Our church bulletin divided the congregation into two groups for a responsive prayer - those under 50 and those over 50. Well, we're both 50 so what are we supposed to do? We joked that we didn't have to participate at all. However, in true Pilgrim fashion, the minister said if you're over 50 and feel younger, read the "under 50" response, and likewise if you're under 50 and feel over 50 read the "over 50" response, or read them both if you're so inclined. Whatever works for you is pretty much how things go in our services. We decided to round down and go with the under 50 response.

And B gave me another picture from the prom. This is B with his friend, B, who's a year younger and lives about three doors down from us. They got to know each other in Japanese class. B's group met up with him at the 19th Century Club where many students had chipped in to rent the space so pre-prom pictures could be taken inside because the forecast predicted rain all day.

Donuts, prom and bread

Andy was up bright and early this morning for his first donut-making shift of the season at the Farmers Market. Of course, he brought home some fresh donuts. It rained all day so the market didn't do too well. I've been told we'll be eating donuts during Fellowship Hour tomorrow at church.

And here's B all dressed up and ready for prom. He went with some of his guy friends. It was at the Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. Here are some pics he sent, taken at his friend D's house. Another guy friend met up with them later to join them for the ride downtown.

This picture has D's sisters in it - they're triplets!

And B and D with their statistics teacher.

L has had quite the weekend so far. After school yesterday, she went with two of her friends to Anime Central in Rosemont. According to its web site, it's the "largest anime, manga and Japanese popular culture convention in Chicago and the Midwest." She wore the Totoro dress Allison made. She got home about 10 p.m. then left with her friends again this morning to go back for Day 2, dressed some other anime character. She came home with this plush loaf of bread. Apparently, it has no meaning or purpose other than it's pretty cute. She asked to go back for Day 3 tomorrow, but she has an event already planned with the youth group.

New bench/glider

So I ordered this bench/glider from Amazon to replace the dirty plastic storage bench that's been in our yard for years. It arrived the other day and I took it to the back yard, laid out all the pieces, looked at the directions which were horrible and figured it would keep the kids busy for a while. I'll supervise. They worked on it for about 45 minutes before Andy came home and jumped right in ...

Somehow, they figured out the directions and got it together within a half hour.

B tests it out.

It's still an ugly box

This was Andy's weekend project - using leftover edging bricks to create a gardening space around the ugly municipal electrical box on the side of our house. He did all the digging and I did the planting, a grass, two perennial flowers and a columbine. We'll see if they grow and spread like they're supposed to. Didn't want to plant too much because the village can dig it up at their will.

Game faces

B tries to explain his new Tetris game to Andy.

Lovely lilies

We never planted these Lily of the Valley, but it is nice to see them every spring. We cleared some weeds out of the garden and there they were.

Card from the kids

Yup.

Mom's Day

Andy made me breakfast and gave me a nice Mother's Day card!

I bought myself my gift from the kids - this KEEP necklace that uses the same charms as the bracelets I have. I can switch out the charms and play around with it. Here it is with the sunburst charms and the pave infinity charm. To church today I wore the sunbursts with the mom charm, cause it's Mother's Day, of course. I got a silver necklace because most of my charms are gold so I figured they'd show up best on silver.

Here I am with B and L after church. It was Youth Sunday so the youth group plans and leads the service.

B did a lot - the introduction, prayer, benediction, announcements. The worse part, for him, was sitting in front of church through the whole service so he couldn't nod off. Everyone said he did a great job.

L's part of the service was reading the scripture. After church, the kids called grandma to wish her a happy Mother's Day and later in the afternoon, we visited the other grandma:

What a busy day!