Not Enough Hours in the Weekend!

So, I had a lovely lunch and shopping spree in Valley Junction in West Des Moines Iowa with my cousin Shannon...I was bad and didn't take one single photo! But we did go to several quilt shops and a paper store too! Such a great time! And we also had lunch at the General Store Eatery in Valley Junction. Delicious!
Then it was over to Mom & Dad's to visit a little. Dad was out in the garage, of course!

 I visited with him and his anvils for a little bit.

 He's getting a pretty big collection going again. But he'll sell you one any time!

 This one has been abused-are those bullet marks????!

 And before I left town I had to stop for a maid rite. SOooooo good!

 Marshalltown still has a long way to go to be back to normal after the tornado hit them last month.Coming along on 3rd Ave, you can see all the tarps on roofs, and the trees are just totally torn up. The entire South East side was really hit hard.

 Even out on West Main street, which has some of my favorite old houses to look at, there is a lot of damage. Trees are just gone, roofs are damaged or missing, and windows are broken everywhere.

Main street through Downtown is mostly open, one lane in places though. The rainy weather is sure not helpful to get work done. Next I'll get to the Family Reunion on Sunday!

Aunt Francie's 80th birthday celebration

So my Aunt Francie celebrated her 80th birthday with a really fabulous party organized by her children. My cousins did a wonderful job of organizing the whole thing!

There was a fun lunch of Maid Rites, cake and Cedarcrest Ice Cream and I was lucky enough to have my kiddos there!

And see there?  Mom is working the paper.....There was an Aunt Francie crossword puzzle, and I WAS IN THE PUZZLE!!

AND, as if there needed to be any more good things, Lovely Jean got me a SELFIE STICK!!!!!

Look see there, the stick is a thing of wonder...wonder where to point it! HAHAHA

I keep trying, but I can't seem to get my SELF in the picture, LOL!

DD took pictures while we were visiting and mingling.....

Poor Ben......

He just plays along.....

One of my cousin's grand daughters was especially interested in Dannie's big camera.

How cute is that?

The future photographer!

It was such a fun party. So many people stopped by to wish Aunt Francie a happy birthday!

I'm getting better with the stick here...see!!!

Ben & his Grampa, we all love their sense of style, it must be the blue plaid gene pool!

I imagine Dad looked pretty much like Ben when he was that age.

Here's my wonderful cousin Robin, she and her sibs did such a great job getting this party together!

It was held at the Fisher Community Center in Marshalltown, Iowa. One of my favorite places when I was a kid. I hadn't been there for many years! But I remember this sculpture very well! One of my all time favorite works of art.

I didn't know it was a memorial, but now I do. I took a selfie with my sculptural friends!

Gosh, you'd think I would have had at least one picture of the birthday lady! What a miss!