Family gathering

This weekend my whole family got together to celebrate a bunch of birthdays. We were way overdue as we've had a terrible time finding a night that worked. We did pretty well this night and were only missing 3 family members.

Here's the whole clan after enjoying supper.

 

My Dad and step-mom.  He's feeling better, but not 100% yet.  He goes to the cardiologist on Tuesday.

 

Alaina and my niece Chelsea playing games after supper.

 

 

Great Grandpa with Alaina.  She is his only great grandchild and he loves spending time with her!

We had a nice evening, with good food and lots of laughter!

Look alikes!

Recently I saw these pictures of celebrities and people they looked like. Some of them are really amazing. Here they are. See what you think!

Ellen DeGeneres and Henry David Thoreau

 

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rose Wilder Lane

 

Justin Timberlake and unknown man in mug shot

 

John Travolta and unknown man from the 1860's

 

General George Patton and Donald Trump

 

General Douglas MacArthur and Bruce Willis

 

Vincent Van Gogh and Chuck Norris

 

Turkish revolutionist Mayir Cayan and Jimmy Fallon

 

Jack Black and the Barber of Seville

 

Nicholas Cage and man from civil war era

 

Jay-Z and unknown man from Harlem

 

Henry Ward Beecher and Jon Stewart

 

Charlie Sheen and John Brown

 

Alec Baldwin and Millard Fillmore

 

Keanu Reeves and French painter Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel

 

Hank Azaria and Rudoph Steiner

 

Benjamin Franklin and Jeffrey Tambor

 

Oscar Wilde and Hugh Grant

Andrew Johnson and Tommy Lee Jones

 

Rupert Grint and Sir David Wilkie

 

Interesting, right?

Cooking Thursday

Who doesn't like brownies? I've got a recipe for you today that uses a boxed brownie mix, but jazzes it up a bit.  I know you'll like these!

 

French Cream Mint Brownies 1 pkg brownie mix
1/2 c. margarine softened
2 c. powdered sugar
1 T. milk
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1 drop green food coloring if wanted (I do use this and the filling is a light green, although it doesn't show in the picture)

Frosting:
1/2 c. margarine
6 oz. chocolate chips

Prepare brownie mix for a 9x13 pan as directed on package and bake.
For cream filling, mix together margarine and powdered sugar. Blend in milk, peppermint extract and green food coloring. Spread filling over cooled brownies. Refrigerate until firm.
For frosting, melt butter with chocolate chips and pour evenly over filling layer. Chill approximately 30 minutes. Cut into squares and return to refrigerator until firm. Serve chilled. Chocolate will crack if cut before it is chilled.

Wordy Wednesday

We've given up on shoveling our front walk, getting the driveway done is hard enough!

 

 

Here's the view of the banks on the driveway.  If you look at the roof, you can see that Bob was up there, shoveling off the snow.  There've been too many roofs collapsing to take chances.

 The great lakes are now at 91.5 % ice cover.  They've only been over that amount once.  With the snow we got last week, we are now officially having the second snowiest winter in Michigan history!

Alaina'isms

We had Alaina overnight again this weekend. When I picked her up, Laura had her looking so cute with French braids in her hair. She slept with them in, and there was no saving them when she got up. After I took them out, this is what she looked like:

Look at that sad face!  I bet you'd feel sad with wild hair like that too.

I combed it all back and put it in ponytails, which looked quite adorable, although they don't show up too well in the next picture.

I told her that her hair was pretty, and then started to get ready myself.  My hair wasn't cooperating at all and I told Alaina that Grandma was having a bad hair day.  She responded with "Grandma ponies?"  Somehow, I don't think I would look nearly as cute as she does with ponytails.

 

Bob, Heather and I all have a water bottle that we keep in the refrigerator.  When Alaina is here, I put one in for her too. Whenever she gets a drink from hers, she also gets out the water bottles for whoever is home and brings them to us, so we can have a drink too.

Last time she was here, she had dry lips.  She wanted Bob's lip balm.  After he put some on her, she said "Grandma too?"  So I pretended to put some on.  Then she said "Oliver too?"  Bob said no to that one.  He's not nearly as good at sharing, at least not with the cat.

 

She has reached the age where she likes to do things for herself.  Laura had taken her outside to play in the snow.  When they came in, of course she had to take her coat and mittens off by herself.  Laura saw her struggling to get her coat off, then heard her mumbling "problems, issues" to herself.  When Laura asked if she was having problems, she said yes, and let Laura help her.

Where does she come up with this stuff?

 

It's no wonder we love to have her over and spend time with her!

What's happening...

This is my Dad and stepmom with Alaina at Christmas.  Those of you who've been around for a while may remember that my Dad had a lot of health problems last winter.  They ended up putting a defibrillator/pacemaker in and he did very well.  However, last week, the defibrillator (which has never gone off) went off 3 times. His medication was adjusted and he felt good for a few days, but then started having problems and passed out at home.  He went to the ER and spent a few days in the hospital, where they ran a bunch of tests and adjusted his meds again.  He's back home, but still isn't feeling great and doesn't have much energy.  He'll be going to his specialist next week.  Please pray that he starts to feel better and for wisdom for his doctors as they treat him.

 

In other news, Heather finally got the word that her car was totaled.  We feel the insurance company gave her a fair deal in the settlement.  Now we're on a car search, which isn't nice when you're in the position of needing one fairly quickly!

This week it's mostly about the kids

This is the last week of the random act of kindness challenge. I've really enjoyed looking for ways to spread a little cheer. To see what others did this week, visit Betsy at My Five Men.
Here's what I did this week.

(totes of cars, plastic animals and stuffed animals with dollars hidden in them)

I went to the dollar store and tucked some dollar bills in the toy bins, hoping that some kids would enjoy buying something with the dollars when they found them.

 

The Meijer stores in my area are known for their penny horse rides.  Sandy the horse has been around since my kids were little and it's one area that inflation hasn't hit.  The cost is still one cent!  I took a handful of pennys and put them where the money goes in.  It's such a small thing, but I bet it made a few kids smile.

 

I drove through a local restaurant that has such good food and paid for the car behind me.  What fun to think about what they thought when they got to the window! I told the girl that I paid, to tell them to have a happy day in spite of the never ending winter we are having.

 

This has been a fun thing to take part in.  It has reminded me that you don't have to do anything big to spread a little sunshine.  Thanks Betsy for hosting!