Happy Birthday sweet Finn

It's hard to believe that Finn is already a year old. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming him into the fam. Finn is an incredibly fun and funny guy that does everything at hyper-speed. He cut several teeth at 13 weeks, rolled over way ahead of schedule, and walked at 11 months. His determination is becoming legendary and his approval/disapproval/joy/frustration and every other emotion is obvious on his beautiful little face. Truly, I have never seen a more expressive baby/toddler. There is never a doubt about where you stand with him. It's hilarious and delightful! Happy Birthday, Finn Boy. Grammie loves you!

The Playroom is Done!

After several months of planning and painting and shopping and ordering, the palyroom here at home is done and I love it! During the school year, I have the priveledge of caring for my grandkids 3 days a week. Porter is 2, Finn is 1 and Maggie is 2 months old. I knew that keeping 3 little kids at the same time was going to be a challenge so Al and I decided to eliminate 1 guest room and create a fun and safe place to contain the g-kids.We chose the downstairs guest room so there would be no stairs involved plus there was a connected bathroom. It was hard to come up with a decorating scheme that was winsome for the kids but also somewhat sophisticated as it's the first room you see when you come through the front door. I finally found a rug in the Pottery Barn catalog and I had my inspiration. We refreshed the yellow paint that was already on the walls, painted the brown on the bottom half and painted and put up the red chair rail. I bought the workbench in Redding last summer, we've had Dakota the Wonder Horse for years, JJ donated the easel (the chalkboard was green so I painted it brown) the table and chairs came from Costco, the little windsor chairs were picked up at a street sale in Silverton, I ordered the alphabet letters on-line and the rocking chair was ordered through Goodnight Room at Bridgeport. The last project was to clean out the closet so all the plastic toys could be put out of sight (someday the closet will become a fort or secret cave, a space ship or maybe an enchanted castle for Maggie). I'm so happy with the finished project and the best part is the kids LOVE it. And for this grammie, knowing that the kids are safe and contained and well entertained is the icing on the cake.

Uncle Phil's Palace

Last weekend, Al and I met dear friends Nancy & Curt Kendall in Eugene for a basketball game at the new Matthew Knight Arena. Let me just say, WOW! The entire facility is first class. Other than the size, you feel like you're in an NBA arena. The exterior of the building is beautiful and much like Autzen, the long stairway to the entrance gets you revved up for fun stuff ahead (and we went in the back door). Inside there are a couple of things that are baffling. The first being the floor. As you can see from the picture, it's brown and has trees and they are brown. Oregon's colors are green and gold. Don't you think green trees might have been a better choice? Also, our $41 seats were three rows from the top of the bottom level which was fine. However the next tier up, hung over our heads and impeded our view of the stats board. Some architect goofed I'm sure. On the plus side, the Knightvision scoreboard was fantastic, the food was good, the seats were comfortable and the place was rockin'. There's nothin' like college sports if you want to have a good time. Alas, the Ducks lost to Stanford but that was the only downer of the day. Thanks N & C. for makin' it happen. Love you.