Spring Comes To Snowflake

Our lilacs and apple tree are in bloom so we know spring is here. I wish I could publish the good smell on my blog. We haven't even had much wind this spring.

Hamburger Treats

I talked to LeAnne today and told her about some little treats I was making to take to Kaylee's blessing tomorrow and she said I needed to take a picture of them and put them on my blog -- so here they are.

To make them -- you'll need vanilla wafers, small peppermint patties, coconut tinted gree, seseme seeds, honey and white frosting. Put a little glob of frosting on the rounded side of a vanilla wafer, put coconut on top of that, put a little glob of frosting on a peppermint pattie, place on top of coconut, put another glob of frosting on top of the pattie and top with another vanilla wafer rounded side up. Dab a very small amount of honey on top and sprinkle with a few seseme seeds. I bought everything at the dollar store so they were pretty cheap. I got my coconut a little dark so it doesn't look as much like lettuce as I would like, but I thought they turned out cute.

Gettysburg

The dogwoods and red bud trees were in bloom and there were beautiful trees everywhere. Here is a picture of one of the dogwoods.

There were also lots of barns similar to the one in this picture. Dad took a picture of this one because he thought it looked just like the painting of a barn on the wall in Will & Rachel's kitchen.

Bruce and Donna are big Blue Grass music fans with Bruce playing the banjo and Donna the bass so Friday night we attended a Blue Grass jam session in a local music store. It was great fun! Here's a picture taken there.
We ate lunch right on one of the battlefields and here are a couple of other pictures -- the town square and Mother, Donna with one of the cannons.

After the graveside service and luncheon there was visiting at the Riding house and then Dad and spent the night at Grandma Nena's and left the next morning for our annual Farm Bureau trip to Washington DC. Jay took us (and Grandma) to the airport and Donna Gair (Grandma Nena's sister) and her husband, Bruce, picked us up at the airport.

We got there right a rush hour traffic time so rather than fight the traffic, we went to a restaurant (Phillips) right on the Patomic River. Most of us enjoyed crabcake sandwiches.

We spent the night at the Gair's in Haymarket, VA and left the next morning for Gettysburg. Sommer, the Gairs granddaughter, went with us and Lisann, Donna's daughter met us there. We spent the day sightseeing. Dad had the stomach flu Thursday night and threw up several times. I got it on Friday and was sick off and on for most of the trip.


We saw and electric map that shows very vividly the position and movement of the troops in the Civil War battle at Gettysburg. We also saw and movie called "Field of Freedom" that was en excellent portrayal of the battles.

We took a night carriage ride around Gettysburg and saw many of the sights. We spent the night there and spent the next day touring battlefields and looking at the hundreds of monuments that are there.

Graveside Service

On April 22, Kelli gave birth by C-section to a stillborn baby boy that they names Gerald Lynn Riding. It was a sad time for all of us, but we're grateful that he will still be part of our family. These pictures were taken at the graveside service that was held for him on April 26 an at the luncheon at the church after the service. (I can't get the pictures to upload -- I'll try them later.)

One More of Kristen's Shower

I thought this was a really cute picture of our twins and I didn't get it in the post I did about the shower.

LeSueur East Gathering

The Saturday before Easter most of the LeSueur family gathered at Grandma Nena's for our annual Easter gathering. We ate a great breakfast (sausage, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, milk, juice and pancakes.)

After breakfast the big kids hid the eggs while the little kids played musical chairs. In these first pictures you can see some of the grandkids.

Grandma Nena rented a huge inflatable slide and everyone had a great time on that all during the morning.

The last picture is of some of the kids looking for eggs.

There was lots of visiting and a good time was had by all!