Fab Five

My sister and I had all of our children within 5.5 years.  These cousins remain as close today as when they were children.  I just ran across a batch of photos with the 5 of them.  The top 2 photos were taken when the Provosts lived in Pana, IL---a wonderful place to visit small town America with a soda fountain, a town pond to ice skate on and beautiful Victorian homes.

Trip to Arthur Illinois

 

 We left St. Louis around 7 AM, arriving in Arthur, IL several hours later.  Our first stop was the quilt festival which were the earlier posts.  Outside the quilt festival showed the horse and buggies indicating Amish were at the festival.  On our way in, we'd seen several Amish farms---the clothes on the line, the propane tanks, the neat farm houses, no electric lines or satellite dishes were all indicators.

Quilt Show: Traditional

I love quilts, have bought and made several (Click here).  I especially love log cabin and wedding ring.  Here are some of my favorites from the Arthur, IL quilt show (Click here).  But there were some creative uses of traditional patterns.

Quilt Show: Contemporary

 As part of an Amish tour of Arthur, IL, we went to a quilt show.  I was expecting more traditional quilts, so was surprised at the contemporary look of many of them.  The note on the one above said her daughter-in-law wanted a black and white quilt, but the quilter thought it needed the dragonflies for a little color.  Her daughter-in-law did not agree, so the quilter was able to keep this one for herself!  I liked the use of vintage handkerchiefs in the "tea" quilt seen in the photo below.

 Sadly, many of the quilts were quite close together, so it was hard to photograph them in their entirety. We liked how the edging was "broken" in the above quilt and the trapunto design in the one below.  I loved many of the black and white quilts, but also enjoyed the whimsical snow man and chicken quilts.

Visitors from Down Under

Long ago, a family moved across the street from us with 3 young children almost the same ages as our children.  We all became fast friends sharing many laughs and good times.  After a few years, they moved back to Australia, but every 5 or 6 years Helen and Ralph would come back to visit.  Their daughter Deb came with them on one trip, but this was the first time Robert had returned.  And he brought his wife and 2 beautiful daughters, Ocean and Summer.

Roselawn Cemetery

 Some family reunions are cousins happily getting together, sharing stories, but funerals and burials are another kind of family reunion.  Relatives from California, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas came together to bury one of our cousins, Toni.  We all met on a cold, windy day at the Roselawn Cemetery in Crystal City.  In addition to several Waltons and Huskeys and of course Andrew, there were a lot of Longs:  Carol, Lowell (Joe), Van (Alen), Margie, Clyde, Billy, Bill, Eileen, Christine, Virginia Lee, Curtis, Ann and myself.

A Baby-Baby Shower

 After a delicious lunch, we all decorated "burp clothes" for Eryn and Matt, and of course Eryn got to open a few gifts for her bundles of joy!

Easter Part III: Post-game

 After the hunts, the kids found all of their treats (some from Uncle Jim and grandparents were upstairs), ate candy and then, needed to expend some energy.

Easter Part II: The Hunts

Last year, we somehow came up with the idea of throwing popcicle sticks off the balcony to entertain the kids (click here for previous Easter activities), but this year we sent them on a scavenger hunt/woods clean out.  They had a great time, exploring in the woods, but maybe flip-flops were not the best foot attire.

Hunt #2 was for Easter eggs hidden in the basement because there had been a threat of rain.  As in the past, we color-coded our hunters making the hunt a little more fair with the vastly different ages and experience level!

Easter Part I: Pre-game Entertainment

 Sometimes my grandchildren invent games I am not so crazy about like battling with pool noodles on 15 foot walls.  I think I finally persuaded them that it was a fun game on the driveway but not on a wall.

Meanwhile, inside we were preparing Easter dinner:  asparagus, pork loin, potato casserole and rolls.  The deviled eggs became appetizers.

Davis and Roman then took our beverage orders while Libby just looked cute.  Brett wasn't particularly excited about the menu, but the rest of us really enjoyed it.