Red Hat Wahinies

Mom and I had our turn at being the hostesses of the June Red Hat gathering, so we decided to have a Luau. Janet arrived in style on her motorcycle, all decked out with her red hat stuff.

We had sloppy joes, Pork BBQ, potatoe salad and slaw outside in the warm evening breese..and I do mean warm! They look like they are enjoying it.
Everyone received a pair of funky sunglasses, along with their own ice cream sundae dish and a rubber duckie!...So we just had to strike a pose.
Ok, we finally really got into it....striking the pose that is!
What's a luau without a Piniata???? Rhae is completely lost...well, that's not really unusual, but she can't find the piniata...it's right in front of you girl!
Pat was relentless she beat it to the ground...
And then beat it to a pulp.....I think she has "issues"...:)
Never throw candy in front of middle aged ladies....

Everyone is making their own sundas....
Here's me.....
Here's mom, looks like she's have a great time too...*hugs*
This was one of the door prizes.....some people just have to show off!..

These are such a great bunch of ladies, can't imagine having anymore fun than with them...
hugs for everyone.

Greater St. Louis Renaissance Faire.

When entering the Renn-faire gates, the first thing you see are these musicians. The lead singer is announcing in a smoothe DJ voice."We are playing hits from the 1600's".....they were very good, most songs were foreign, but of course, this is the French Renaissance, and Europe was well traveled even back then. Many songs were in Spanish and French and a few English favorites were among their "hits".
This was the "Cardinal"...he was quite the character and was giving away little cards that said "Get out of Hell Free"...they looked like the monopoly Get out of Jail cards, with the same little man on it! This guy talked with a lisp and was hilarious.
These are the Limey Birds, a singing trio that told jokes and used members from the audience in their act.
They took quite a liking to Bill, singing about what a great lover he is....what do they know, they are from Toronto.......(seriously, they are).....

I entered the little fairy village. There was glitter all over the area and for some reason this tree is upside down....Here is a strange woodland creature that was wandering around the fairy garden, squeaking. I tried to get her picture a few time but she kept running away into the woods. Finally got her though.
Uh-oh...someone knows Bill has Turkey Legs.
This was a beautiful and interesting sculpture in front of one of the vendors. It is a globe and is made up of people....a close up is below.
Even all of the countries were made up of masses of people....
A monk.
This was a strange fox/pirate/person and another pirate girl with stripy sox.
I was giving him the rabbit ears....no comment from him
Just me winking at Bill...
It had rained alot and so the regular joust couldnt' be performed due to the deep mud and would be hard on the horses, so the jousters just rode on each others shoulders and did the joust which turned into a mud fight and was actually more fun thant he regular joust.
We ended the day at the "Dead parrot" tavern with some lively Irish music.

Baby Garret three months old and smilin'

Paging Dr. Garret, Paging Dr. Garret.........Mom had been in the hospital for a week when these pictures were taken. The good news is that she got to come home on this day and to see baby Garret was just an added bonus. Garret didn't want to give grandma any bad germs, so he wore his mask like a good boy.....
Here is Garret with mom and dad at Colonel Sanders, he got his first taste of mashed potatoes today too. Garret is a centerfold........he looks like he thinks he is the coolest baby on the planet.
It's all in the attitude, son!
I guess he thought that was pretty funny.....
Ok, I guess he thought that was REALLY funny...
He's trying to fool us by looking innocent, but I think he has a little twinkle in his eye!!! I can already tell he is full of it!

Garret's first taste of ice cream at grandma's ice cream shoppe on his 3 months birthday. He's not too sure

Sharp dressed man

I don't think this is what ZZ Top had in mind when they wrote that song.........

During Memorial Day weekend Kent came home to visit. He is such a nut case....he tried on all of mom' s Red Hats...I think this one is most fetching....the Harley Davidson shirt is a nice touch! Besides the "hat" eposide, we had a good time going out to dinner and then Kent and Bill went to Tony Smith's going away party and mom and I stayed at her house and watch movies!

The Never Ending Chicken Coop

Here's Lookin' at You Kid!


Now that we got that foolishness out of the way....ha ha....(and it seems like the blogger photo upload device is on vacation and I had to use Photobucket)...so anyway, back to the coop..

For several years now we have turned the chickens loose and let them run around the countryside. They have gotten very brave (which I guess means they are not "chicken") I know, groan, groan!!....so we decided to keep them home, and BIll built them a large pen, larger than our house! They are having a grand time and we don't have to worry about them getting eaten by foxes, dogs or whatever! What do you think is next....a winter condo? A Spa...who knows!

Mother and daughter Red Hats

We had a mini-meeting of the Red Hatters on May 18th. We had pizza and lots of fun. Mom and I got new summer hats, don't we look spiffy???
These are Janets two grand daughters, they dressed for the meeting too in their hats and gloves, they were just adorable playing video games in their Pink and purple hats!?
Here is Janet and her daughter with her "adopted" mom, June.
Thanks for another fun evening, ladies!

The Pumpkinizer

Ok, so nothing exciting happened today. One of my friends sent me this link to the pumpkinizer.....so I generated a pumpkin with me and mom and our Red Hats.

We have been Pumpkinized....is that a good thing and is that even a word?

Slowly, step away from the camera.......

First of all, Shelley and Cary, forgive me, but you know the story about these pictures is just too funny and must be shared with the world! These pictures were taken weeks before the serpia picture in my last post, So little Garret has changed quite a bit since these were taken. I really like this one with him sleeping in the clouds...This one is precious too, little Gattet smiling happily.........however,.let's zoom out........because .little did he know..........
That he has a mushroom growing out of his cute little head!.....
So while Shelley was visitng, she told us the story of Garret's first professional photograph...................... She went to pick up the pictures, and she sees this picture, she can't help herself, right in front of the photographer she says " He has a mushroom coming out of the top of his head", the photographer (and I use the term loosley) tries to distract her by pointing out the shafts of light coming down from the sky.....You can not distract Shelley, the shafts of light did not impress her, her baby boy has a mushroom coming out of his head!....she complains and says she has a bizillion of this one picture......and she's laughing so hard when she is telling us that we are cracking up too! She is no dummy, she managed to get all of the extra pictures free, so now this picture of Garret Yandell will go down in history, a permanent reminder of his first day in front of the camera........someday he will threaten to kill us all for even subjecting him to such embarassment!......Welcome to the family, Garret!...this is your life, better get used to it!.....love, Grandma

Baby Garret Returns

Shelly and Garret came to stay for the weekend. It was so nice to be able to hold him and feed him and give him lots of grandma-love! Mom had a nice long visit with him too! We just love him so much. He is starting to smile now and has a beautiful grin, a smiling baby is always a beautiful thing. Shelley, Bill and I had lots of laughs! She is definately her mama's daughter!
(Oi Vay)...Shelley that's for you...ha ha. She goes back to work in the ER Wed. so this will probably be the last visit for a long time....:-(..., but of course, we will make some trips up to Decatur too, as soon as we can!

Shelley wanted a picture of Garret in a serpia color, so we took a few pix and I made her this one. She took a copy home to frame.

We love you Baby Garret......

Now when will that baby Caleb be coming to visit at Grandma's house so I can give him lots of grandma-love too????

But First a sick chicken joke

Halterman's Chicken Ranch

Kim and Sylvia....these are especially for you. I know I promised pictures weeks ago, but I finally did it.....this is George (as in Clooney) the rooster, because he is so beautiful and cocky and is quite a ladies man. Here's something you don't see everyday....5 chickens symetrically spaced...yeah, I know, only I would notice that!.
This is my little buddy "Bugger", we call her that because she will follow you around like a little puppy at your heels, waiting for you to lift up a board, or a stone to see if there are any tasty morsels underneath, like worms or rolly pollies.....she talks to me the whole time. Here are some random chickens, one of them is named "Gimpster", because the dog scared her one day and she hurt herself and couldn't walk or anything. I just kept her in a nest and kept little feeding and watering bowls by her. Then I would hold her on my lap when the other chickens were out running because she couldn't walk or I would put a little wire pen around her and sit her in the sunshine, slowly she got to moving and now she just runs with the rest of them. Yes, I hold and pet my chickens....so what!!.....lol.
These two are Blondie and Baby. Blonde is blind in one eye, so you can sneak up on her right side and pick her up, she doesn't mind anyway, she talks to us too and follows us around. If she gets lost from the rest of the flock, she just gets on the front porch and starts making a distressed noise and the rooster comes and finds her.....he is a really cool rooster and is not mean.

Don't guess I'll be holding my breath waiting for PBS to show up and do a chicken report...ha ha

Fuel Costs suck!