Happy 80th Birthday, Grandma!

On Tuesday my mother turned 80 years old. Alice Marie (Rodde) Bishop was born in a farmhouse in Kenyon, Minnesota. We celebrated her birthday by bringing food, dessert and ourselves to the house. I brought a chicken lentil dish and we stopped by the 50's diner and picked up a Key Lime pie.
One candle represented 80 years! We thought about putting 8 candles on the pie but didn't want anything to melt.
After dinner rest with Skippy Lu. Skippy Lu always enjoys a visit at Grandma and Grandpa's house because she is the only dog who gets to go and as a result she gets 100% of the attention. It was a very enjoyable evening!

Xavier performed at Woman's Club of Minneapolis

This spring Xavier was a 2nd place scholarship winner in the Thursday Musical Young Artist competition (http://www.thursdaymusical.com/id13.html.) The scholarship money gave him the opportunity to work with local guitar masters Alan Johnston (MacPhail), Chris Kachian (St. Thomas University), and David Crittendon (Bethel College). It has also been a wonderful opportunity to perform. Earlier this summer he performed for the American Association of University Women and on Tuesday he was invited to perform at the Women's Club. He played Villa Lobos, "Prélude Guitare no. 1." We were both invited to the luncheon and we got to sit at the head table and talk to some of the other young artists (including Argentine celloist, Ramiro Alvarez) and the leaders of the club. All of these women are very supportive of all of the young artists in our community.
Xavier received star treatment at the club; he had his own parking space!! It was so much fun to find this parking space after coming into the parking lot expecting to spend some time looking for a spot. What a GREAT day!

Ferrets take a peek at our world...

Selena has four ferrets that rarely venture out of her room. We have three dogs plus 3 foster dogs, so it's a bit precarious for them out here. Although her ferrets are curious and fearless the dogs and ferrets aren't used to each other, so we keep them segregated. When I visit Selena in her room I get a chance to spend some time with them, but otherwise this is how we make contact... under the door!

Minnesota Native Flower??

What is this??? Is this a native plant to this area? To Minnesota? If you know, please let me know.

About 5 years ago I put down native prairie grass and flower seeds in my "back yard." The back portion of my property is almost 2 acres. Every year I see new flowers and plants. I assume that some of these are from seeds that were part of the native seeds that I left there years ago. It's always fun to see something new spring up. For example, we started seeing Butterfly Weed about 3 years ago and now there are 3 separate plants.

Happy Birthday, Paulina!!!

Hugs and Kisses
from
Selena, Xavier and Ahna