Celebrations!

Hi, everyone!

We’ve had a lot of occasions to celebrate recently!  When Grandma was getting ready for Mothers Day, she decided to make a chocolate pudding cake.  I got to help!

It’s fun to make, because everything gets mixed in the pan where it’s going to bake!  First, I helped stir all the dry ingredients together.  Then I helped stir in the milk and oil.  Grandma adds chocolate chips to the recipe, so I got to add them next!  After that, brown sugar and cocoa get sprinkled on top.  Then Grandma added the hot water and put it in the oven to bake.  When it’s done, there’s cake on top and pudding underneath!  It’s yummy!

The Saturday before Mothers Day, there was snow on the deck when I woke up!  It melted off, but then we had snow squalls off and on all day!

Uncle Steven’s family brought Grandma a Mothers Day bouquet with notes attached to each rose.  Uncle David’s family sent a bouquet, too!  After the flowers faded, Grandma took all the notes and wove them together to save them!

The Tuesday after Mothers Day, my groundhog friend came back!  The groundhog spent a lot of time on our deck and sat up on the edge.  Grandma said the groundhog was probably auditioning for a role as a prairie dog!

That same day, I had a nice surprise!  Joe-san and Nancy-san brought Moose-san and Tilly for a driveway visit!  It was fun to see them!

Before the bad virus started changing things, Grandma and Grandpa sometimes got burrito bowls for lunch from a local restaurant.  That restaurant isn’t open for lunch right now, so Grandma figured out how to make them herself.  There are a LOT of ingredients!

Because we are all being careful about staying away from other people, Grandma and Uncle Steven agreed that it would be safe for us to have family gatherings again.  Uncle Steven’s family came over for pizza last Thursday and it was fun to see them again!  Thomas found a sword to take home.  James used the sofa cushions to make a hurdle for jumping.  Grandma and Grandpa’s dishwasher had stopped working and needed to be replaced.  After dinner, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara helped Grandpa take the old dishwasher out.

Friday morning, the new dishwasher arrived!  I helped Grandma and Grandpa unpack it and get it ready to install.

The weather is getting warmer and the trees and shrubs are leafing out!  My first apple blossom friend opened last Saturday and the crabapple tree is blooming, too.  My white trillium friends bloomed and there are lots of dandelions.

Last Saturday was also James’ eighth birthday!  I was happy we could go over to help him celebrate!  Because the bad virus kept him from having a birthday party with his friends, Aunt Kara asked everybody to send him birthday cards.  He got a lot of them!  Of course, I gave him a new book about me for his birthday present!

On Sunday, Thomas and James stopped by to share another celebration.  They both passed their tae kwan do promotion tests and got their blue belts!  Since the weather was nice, they climbed the apple tree, too!

Grandma has made a lot of jigsaw puzzles while the bad virus is keeping us home, and she usually can finish one in a couple of days.  She started a Japanese jigsaw puzzle two weeks ago that was really hard!  Most of the pieces were sky, and Grandma couldn’t always tell whether a piece fit or not!  She finally finished it on Sunday.  On Monday, she used some cardboard to make a jigsaw puzzle sandwich and flip it over.  I helped her number the pieces on the back.  Grandma says that if she ever decided to do that puzzle again, at least she could tell whether she had a piece in the right place!

Today was Thomas’ birthday!  I had another new book about me to give him as a present.  Thomas got a lot of birthday cards, too!  After a while, he got tired of reading them for himself and asked Aunt Kara to do the reading. I’m glad I was able to help both Thomas and James celebrate their birthdays!  It feels good to be able to see them again!

Love,

Lion-san