March 22, 2010

Dear Children,

We had a fun surprise Sunday afternoon. As soon as we arrived home from church, we received a call that Angie and Ron were on their way to Beaverton to go to the Nike Outlet and did we want Meeja to spend the afternoon with us. That was a nice treat. We were just getting ready to make omelets so she had lunch with us; she even tried a mushroom.

Besides playing games and working on puzzles, she jumped on the tramp (one of her favorite things to do). She also told us all about Klaire’s birthday party on Saturday afternoon which she and Sunhee attended. She was all excited about the piñata and the tricycle races. She plans on having a butterfly piñata at her birthday party in June.

Hey, did you know that you can get 80 birthday candles in a pack at the Dollar Store? I checked it out after Kyre told me about that deal last weekend. They are cute ones also. I have been paying way too much for birthday candles all these years; imagine the number of candles we have gone through!

Katie was away for part of this week. Meg’s baby died (Mallory’s sister) so she traveled to Utah at the last minute to be there for the funeral. She came home just in time to be dropped off at Mt. Hood Community College for the annual YSA March Madness basketball tournament in Gresham.

She did a great job speaking in our ward sacrament meeting; her topic was Finding Joy in the Journey. She gave lots of life experiences plus quoted President Monson several times. My favorite quote was his from the Music Man, “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays”. At the end of her talk she reminded even me that her middle name was Joy!

Along with Klaire, Bryson also had a birthday this weekend. He is the Big One! Here is a one year old picture in his new church clothes. Another milestone in Shawn and Aubrey’s family this week was Gregory getting his first professional haircut; he was so excited about it.

As we march ahead with more of our March birthdays this week, we celebrated Dad’s tonight with a BBQ with six couples, Katie and Grandma. It was a nice, sunny day when we made the plans but this morning was kind of drizzly so, even though it turned out good weather, we set up everything inside! Katie made some beautiful black forest cupcakes filled with a pastry cream and cherries! Those are daffodils from our yard in the picture of Dad!

Bill and Heidi spent the weekend in Mesquite with their friends to start their birthday week for Bill and Rebekah. Grandma Bitter has big plans for a sleepover with the girls the night before Rebekah’s birthday this weekend.

Last, but not least, Adrianne will celebrate her 21^st by flying to Spain on this Friday! At least, we hope that she will. We are on hold with the British Airways strike. We hope we hear today if our flight is canceled. We are fairly sure that our flight to London won’t be canceled but the flight from London to Madrid is in jeopardy. As soon as we hear, we will try and find out what options we have to be rerouted. We all don’t want to give up on this dream trip.

Adrianne also had a bonfire in the canyon this weekend and took sausages to roast. She went with her roommate, Kenna, and several of the boys in her ward. None were successful in getting a good fire going so she rearranged in log cabin fashion and that did the trick. She said the boys didn’t give her the credit but she said she didn’t need any acknowledgment from them since the personal satisfaction was enough.

Have a great week ahead and cross your fingers for us! I love you! Love, Mom