happy birthday grandpa jack

My dad's 60th birthday was this past Saturday. We went to dinner the previous Saturday because my sis and her family were in town. This weekend, Grant, Vera, and I took his gift from Leah and me. Leah had a great idea - we mailed a letter to our extended family and asked them to write a brief note of well wishes, memories, or thoughts of our dad. We got a great response and put it together in a mini photo album. Grant, Vera, and I delivered it, and Leah was on the phone while he read through it. Vera enjoyed going to see her grandparents! :) We are thankful they live so close and have been more than willing to help us with Vera.

When we came home from my parents' house, our neighbor across the street was having a big party. This is an annual celebration he has... but we don't know what they're celebrating. He is a drummer and weekly has friends over to drum (you can hear it outside), and we think this is somewhat related. All the people are dressed in costume, they have drums and other instruments (trumpet/bugle?), and they parade around the streets for a few minutes. Here is a photo we snapped. It is very loud, but in a crazy fun way. And not so loud inside our house. And yes, they are juggling/playing with flames!





My time as a stay-at-home mom is coming to an end soon. I go back to work part time on March 7th. I think it will be okay... I'm sure it will be a lot of juggling and adjusting at first! I'll miss Vera! We've enjoyed our days, though, and will continue to enjoy our time when I'm not away at work. Just recently I've started putting her down for naps in her crib, and it is working!! She is also sleeping in her crib for at least part of the night now. YAY! Tonight we skyped for the first time with Grant's parents. It was a lot of fun and worked well! We'll be doing it again, I am sure, since Vera will want to see them lots!