What an Honor!

We Smiths have been hitting the banquet circuit this week. Our middle child was chosen to receive an award, or two, or three, at her school. Hooray for not having to cook dinner two nights this week!

Liesey posed with her mentor, Dr. Nichols. She serves as a "student instructor" for two of his classes. Dr. Nichols is largely responsible for inspiring our girlie to be a history professor, too.

These two look so polished with the "bag thing" going on. Yes, they were being silly on purpose.

 And then there's Sam.

These two friends are going to miss each other next year. Sam will be studying at Univ. of Texas at Arlington, and our daughter will be -- who knows where! She still has not decided where she will be attending school this fall. Decisions, decisions...

As we left the campus, our youngest found an "inflatable" chair to sit on. Although it looks like plastic, this sculpture is made of metal. It's a good thing the weather was cool, as I cannot imagine sitting here on a 90º day. That would bring new meaning to being in the hot seat, for sure. :-P

Easter 2014

I so very much enjoyed seeing friends and family post Easter morning family photos on Facebook and/or Instagram. Happy faces, colorful spring attire, egg hunts, and candy-laden Easter baskets certainly make for memorable photo ops. Our family didn't have any of that going on. Well, we did have the happy face thing going on. I think!

Our family's Sunday morning looked like this:

This was the first time in twenty-six years of married life that we did not attend Easter church services. That felt really weird.

After spending 47 fun-filled hours in Indiana for my dad's birthday, we loaded up in the car to drive back home to Texas at early-thirty on Easter morning. We had "church" (Sunrise service?) on the road. Have worship, will travel?

Nonagenarian Celebration

My daddy is ninety! 

Birthday celebrants should be honored -- especially when they become a nonagenarian. Yes, I had to Google that term. I knew that someone in their eighties was called an octogenarian, but had no clue what terminology was used for a ninety-year-olds. Now you know, too.

My sister planned an amazing party for our dad. There were over 100 people in attendance, so the First Baptist Church's fellowship hall proved to be the perfect venue for the celebration.

There were two other April b-day celebrants present. Bob is a decade behind my dad, and Ruth is 39 and holding.

Old friends are near and dear. Well, they aren't OLD, they just have known each other for a long time.

This is one of the handful of "people" pictures that I snapped. I got sidetracked from taking pictures of the party attendees, as I was enjoying talking toooooo much. I saw people from my hometown whom I had not seen in thirty years, so there was a lot of catching up to do. The Thompson family members had a photo shoot prior to the party, so I didn't bother to take many pictures of the immediate family. Oh, well!

These two manned the guestbook table, quite handsomely.

A table filled with memorabilia and pictures from Dad's nine decades provided a sweet stroll down memory lane. Our middle child (the history major) especially loved seeing all of the treasures from WWII.

The uniform may not quite fit anymore, but Dad is still a handsome soldier.

 See... even his granddaughter is swooning!

Does this qualify as a photobomb of my daughters' selfie? I think so.

 These two obviously got the denim jacket/dress memo.

 Despite a helium shortage, there just HAD to be balloons.

 At the end of the day, we had one happy birthday boy.

Say "Cheese!"

It is next to impossible to get our large-ish family together for a family photo shoot. There were a few faces absent, but here's what we got:

Three-fourths of the Houston Thompsons were present and accounted for. Yay!

 There was 100% participation from the AZ Birds.

Seven out of the nine Thompson grandkids got to pose next to their "pretty"grandpa. 

 All eyes are looking at the camera AND people are smiling. Remarkable.

We may have been missing the St. Louis boys, but the "Gateway to the West" girls still found something to smile about.

We Smiths are definitely not "out standing" in our field -- we are sitting and squatting!

The Washingtonians certainly are looking well. (Sorry. I just had to get one more bad pun in...)

Double Nickels

Mr. Smith is now solidly in his fifties, as today he celebrated his 55th birthday. 

I'm so romantic... Here's what I gave to him:

It's a joke. Really, people, don't take things so seriously.

Our middle child has had plans for her daddy's birthday for months and months. She was able to get two tickets to see Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Ft. Worth Symphony. The two of them got all dressed up and went out on the town.

Happy Birthday, Smitty!

Dinner is Served

I don't think I've ever posted about cooking on my blog, but this meal of curried veggies was just too pretty not to document. And it was so simple to prepare, too. 

 I love all of the color that the peppers add.

 Po-ta-toes: boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew

What photogenic carrots!

Voilà! The finished product tasted as good as it looked.

I'm glad that there are leftovers.