Sammy's party; time with Hernleys; dinner with Frank's family

On Saturday afternoon we drove down to Sam and Jenn's for a very important birthday party.  Sammy turned three!  Jenn's family was there, and he was having a wonderful time with all his boy cousins.  I managed to get him to stand still long enough to take a look at the cupcakes!

 The carport was the perfect place for a party.  The weather was amazing!!  We ate the delicious food Sam had gotten from a local barbecue truck, the kids painted pumpkins, Jenn's mom was doing some kind of a handicraft, and...

…..we held the baby!

Sammy was excited to blow out his candles after we sang "Happy Birthday", which he helped to sing, of course!

Then he tore into the gifts.  A drum set!

A piggy bank and some coins to put into it.

A bicycle!!

At some point in the afternoon we started the Bianca fashion show.  She has so many cute dresses, and so few chances to wear them, so she endured several wardrobe changes for all her crazy grandmas, aunts, and cousins!  The first outfit was this yellow and black one, but I did not get a good picture of it.

Outfit number two.

Outfit number three.

And our absolute favorite, outfit number four!  We kept her in it the rest of the day and took many, many, many pictures of her in it.  We just couldn't get enough of her cuteness!

I caught this beautiful moment.  This little girl adores her daddy.  She just lay there drinking her bottle and looking up into his eyes.  Gives me tears.

The biggest excitement of the whole day was when an ambulance parked in the athletic field behind their house, followed by a helicopter landing beside it.  They apparently transferred somebody from one to the other.  We were joking that they really know how to do a kid's birthday party - a helicopter for entertainment!

And then it was time to clean up and say our goodbyes.  Dick and I went to Grandma Mary's for the night and had a great time with her before we went to bed and again over breakfast in the morning.  We love hearing her funny shuffleboard stories.  I think she's a pretty popular lady in that retirement community!

From her place we went to nearby United Zion Campgrove for the worship service with Hernley Mennonite Church.  I led some praise and worship songs and shared some of the stories of God's faithfulness to us over the years.  It was fun to sing with my former student Hillary Snavely.  How I wish I had gotten a picture of her as well as Trisha Weaver, another former student.  Absolutely beautiful young women.  

Afterward we had a delicious potluck lunch.  Dick and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with a lot of people who have been so meaningful to us over the years.  One unexpected thing was having my dear friend Elta Nissley there.  I don't think I have seen her since her husband Jay's funeral a year ago.  Oh, it was so GOOD to sit down with her and catch up.  In fact, I was so busy catching up with everyone, I did not take one picture the entire time.  I'm disappointed. 

We then went to Grandma Mary's, took short naps, packed up and left for Reading.  Destiny was spending the weekend with Frank and Lauren.  We hung out at their place for a bit, then went to the Malibu restaurant in the Reading Airport for dinner.  Lauren works as a server there.  It's such an absolutely beautiful setting, and the food was really delicious.

Destiny (sporting her new hipster glasses!), Nikayla (Lauren's daughter), Lauren, Jada, and Frank.  I was disappointed that J'von wasn't there.  

And then it was time to head home.  We got into a huge back up of traffic on Route 78 due to construction.  That added at least half an hour or more to our trip.   But we did get quite a sunset show!

I really had a headache for the first half of the day today.  Apparently it affected my vision, haha!  I noticed when I got home this evening that I had worn two different earrings!!!  I intended to take the back off the little white one and use it for the partner of the orange one, but apparently I just put the white one in without thinking and never noticed all day!  Luckily I was at Anthony and Lori's most of the day doing food prep.  But of course, I went to Giant too.  They know to expect anything from me by now.  

I snapped this picture this evening when I went to close my sliding door.  I thought the red leaves of the bushes right outside the door and the geraniums on the stump where the evergreen used to be looked beautiful.