Kiera is 11!

Our girl turned eleven! We celebrated with the family. Friday birthday fun with Grandpa, then a weekend celebration with Mimi, Papa, Tyler and Kate at Sangria, one of Kiera's favorite restaurants. 

Check out her amazing cake from Mimi...a tribute to one of her favorite things...SLIME! This birthday was extra special for Kiera because she got a phone! I was still on the "no" fence, but joined the rest of the family on the "yes" side because she has been biking/walking to school this spring and having a phone would make it more safe. 

 The waiter brought around a round of celebratory shots.

Kiera's was a Shirley Temple!

This gift bag had boxes of slime in them...

but one box had the phone box inside! 

 Kitty loves bags and tissue!

Math Competition

Fifth grade has been one of Kiera's favorite years of school! She loves

all of her teachers and she's especially enjoying reading and math class.

She was selected to be apart of the fifth grade math team. They met

Monday mornings from 8-9am to work on problem solving. The

competition was on Saturday morning, and while they didn't earn 

a trophy, they learned a lot and had a great time. 

Long Weekend at the Farm

We enjoyed a long weekend at the farm, thanks to President's Day. Kiera and I both had Monday off from school and Dave took off too. We spent our time being relaxing and working...and driving to Walmart. If you know Dave, you know he doesn't carry his wallet in his pocket. We were having wifi issues and we couldn't watch Netflix, so we decided to drive into town to get a movie from Redbox. Guess who forgot their wallet? So we had to drive back to the cabin to get his wallet then drive back to town. A gang of turkeys (can also be called a rafter of turkeys, thanks for that info, Google!) came to the feed pile on Sunday morning. They were spooked off and we wondered why. A few minutes later, Kiera said she spotted deer on the hill off in the distance. At first we didn't believe her, but then we spotted them too. We love our time at the farm!

Gang of turkeys 

 Cleaning out the old nests to make way for new

ones come spring

 New bunk bed lighting!

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day tradition continues...

Each February 14th, the three of us sit down after dinner 

and draw Valentines for each other.

We go these cute mailboxes from Target
years ago and they've delivered lots of love!

 Hard at work! Kiera's really gotten into quotes and
handlettering lately.

 Already have my pjs and my glasses on!

 A whole lot of love!

Happy 100th Birthday, Gram!

The matriarch of the Dragan Family turned 100 years old! We celebrated her birthday with the family and breaded pork chops, at the birthday girl's request. She proudly sported her diamond studded "100" tiara and enjoyed having her family by her side to celebrate her milestone birthday!

Showing off her cake!

A little help from Kiera to get the candles in the right spot

Gram can't have dessert with out coffee...

and just the right amount of milk!

Singing Happy Birthday and

May the Dear Lord Bless You!

She blew out her candles, albeit one at a time

Taking off the candles so we can enjoy the cake!

The great grand kids!

The kids!

Happy Halloween from the "Bloody Bridal Party!"

Kiera and two of her neighborhood girlfriends came up with the idea to be a "bloody bridal party" for Halloween. While it made me miss her younger years and "sweet" costumes, it was fun to see the girls do this on their own...not to mention the fun they had dirtying and bloodying their costumes!

Winnie the Pooh and Crew with the B.B.P.

 More neighborhood friends

 Every year Dave walks with Kiera around the neighborhood

and I stay home to pass out the candy. This year kitty "helped."

Sorting her loot is her second favorite Halloween activity...

The first? Eating all the candy!  

 This took about twenty shots to get the candy to fall gradually,

not in one big lump...we laughed so hard! 

Block Party 2018

 This year our annual block party was bigger than ever...we invited the three blocks south of Wolf Road! We had it in October this year and dubbed it the "Block-Tober Fest." The weather was unseasonably warm and it was supposed to rain. It didn't rain all day during the party, but there was a five minute down pour just as we were starting to clean things up. One of the neighbor's friends had a big smoker and he cooked all kinds of delicious meat. We also had a corn hole tournament, a sidewalk chalk coloring contest, games and we projected the Indians play off game outside. We love our neighbors and our neighborhood!

Dave entered the sidewalk chalk competition

No party is complete without a chalk board sign!

 Lester cracked us all up when he busted out 

the microphone!

 Kiera and co. hanging out

Ron and his behemoth smoker!

 Let the games begin!