Annual Hamilton Family Easter Picnic

Easter was late this year and it had turned so warm too that I just knew we would be sweltering sitting under the cabana with the family. Lucky for us we had a cooling spell and a nice day in the low 80's. We had a nice visit with family and had very tasty food. The kids, 12 thru 4 in ages,  seemed to mingle among themselves better this year and all had a good time. The kids bring their bikes and scooters and have a fun time. There is also a stream that seems to attract them and so far no one has fallen into.

Of course we have out easter egg hunt  by hiding the eggs among the cactus and dry brush. Many of us got cactus pricks this year and perhaps because of the dry winter we have had. Gretchen hid 143 filled plastic eggs. Eliza found the golden egg this year which is filled with a $20.00 bill.

I have a pretty good extended family. I have four siblings and we all still get together for Easter and Christmas and most generally everyone comes. This includes the five of us and our kids and grandkids. It is a big effort to accomplish these events but so necessary.

Our trip to Milwaukee!

It is the time of the year for the annual Ceramics convention held in a different city each year. Now that is pretty nice since you see different parts of the United States that you probably would never see. We have been to places like Baltimore, Houston, San Antonio, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, Flagstaff and others.  I wasn't so excited to visit the city of Milwaukee this year because of the severe cold weather they were having. We arrived and it was windy and only 23 degrees. It did warm up daily and by the time we left six days later it was in the 40's.

 This first few days before the convention started Alvin and I of course visited museums and galleries and took in a few sites of the town. It is actually a very pretty downtown and Lake Michigan was breathtaking.

 I wanted to see the Milwaukee Brewers ball field. It was out of the downtown area sitting by itself with a parking lot full of ugly dirty snow. But, the stadium was lovely.

When the conference starts I never see Alvin until time for him to go to bed at night so Gretchen always arrives and we check out the area. We drove an hour away to Oshkosh to go to the American Girl Outlet Store but it was not worth the drive. I always like traveling outside of the city because you really see what the state is like. In this case, not so exciting. Because of their harsh winter this year we saw nothing but frozen over ponds and dead grass fields. I would of liked to have seen some dairy cows and the big barns.

Having seen all of Milwaukee I cared to see we took an hour drive to check out Chicago and I am glad we did. We did not do anything but just drive down Michigan Avenue where all the shopping is. The streets were packed. Of course we checked out Wrigley Field the home of the Chicago Cubs and that was cool. We ended the day with a recommended pizza place for the deep dish Chicago style pizza. It was yummy. We will definitely return to Chicago for a longer visit in the future.

Next year we head to Providence, Road Island. Now that is city we are all looking forward to see.

Chandler turns 12 . . .

Chandler is growing up too fast. As I see him grow I see these qualities in him. What do you think?

the protector, 

the enforcer,

the organizer, 

and

the example.

 Plus he is becoming extremely good looking!!!

An interesting conversation!

I picked Chandler up last Saturday morning after an "overnighter scout camp." He smelled smokey and he was tired but he said he had fun. He proceeded to tell me he and another camp buddy had a pancake cook off among themselves. He said he won because the other kid burned his. He said, "I know how to make pancakes because I always made them with you Nana every since I was little." Cooper in the back seat said, "Yea, Nana and I make pancakes all the time." Then Tatum also said, "I have been cooking with Nana every since I was a little girl."

That is what Nana's are for that is for sure and it made me feel good that they remember the things I do with them.

Atomica Ceramics: Redo

Alvin was in a art show entitled "Atomica Ceramics: Redo" at the Chandler Center for the Arts and the show was where you showed two pieces. The first being a not so good piece that just didn't seem to turn out. The second piece was to redo the piece over by correcting mistakes to make it better. This was Alvin's pieces.

The red dot means it "sold." He was pretty proud of himself!

All through the years of our children growing up we always took them to galleries, art openings, ceramic shows and etc. They did not appreciate it at the time but now say they are glad they were exposes to the arts. So, Alvin invited the kids and grand kids to this opening. No pictures unfortunately excel this one. I really do think they didn't mind looking at the ceramics. They likes the cookies for sure.

Finally a kitchen cabinet redo . . .

Every year we do an update to something in our home. This year it was time for our kitchen cabinets to be redone. It was a hard decision to decide to refinish with a stain or to paint them. We decided to paint and that meant another  hard decision to come up with the right paint color. We purchased 12 different paint samples. The final look is just perfect.

This is a before but not very good picture. I always wait until almost to late to get the before picture.

Now this is the finished look after one week.

We love them. Picture actually show more silver. They have a little more green I think.

Tatum's Birthday

Tatum turned six this year and she celebrated at Chipolte!. That was her choice. We than went to a play called, "Hairspray" at  Perry High School. She doesn't like movies but she loves going to live performances.

Tatum has really changed this year. She has lost her teeth and most of her curls. She is no longer a little girl but a big girl. She got her ears pierced for the second time and changes her own earrings quite often. She still likes her American Girl dolls and got the newest one for her birthday. She is pretty social  and yet picky in ways of dressing. Nothing tight for her it seems. I am not sure how she feels about school. I first thought she liked it but not so sure these days. Maybe she is just too smart for the rest of them.

Tatum started cheerleading in school. She was pretty excited about her first performance.