Underwood New Year's Family Selfie

We weren't there to take the annual Underwood departure photo this year.

So they did it themselves...without a selfie stick.

 

 

Christmas Countdown

7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

 

Landon's stocking is waiting for Santa,

Santa Brunch at Glen Oaks

The whole Jerdee/Underwood family came together Sunday morning for the annual Santa Brunch. Landon sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas as we arranged ourselves for a family portrait.

While we sat at our brunch table, Landon wrote Santa a letter: Dear Santa, I changed my mind. I would like to have Rogue One and two books So You Want To Be President and Scrambled States of America.  Love, Landon Jerdee

Shroeder came by today.

It's my pre-birthday party today and for my present I asked for:

          a cornbread cake, an hour to play with Landon, and my very own book written and illustrated by Landon.
 The Jerdees delivered it all.

Happy birthday to me!

Composing  my birthday song.

Grampa Zombie

It's Beggar's Night tonight.

Zombie Alert!

If you ring our doorbell!

 

 

It's Football Season Again

Time for the annual sandwich runs.

 

 Big John Little, no mayo, no tomato from Jimmy John's for Blake on Thursdays. Grandpa Al meets Blake at his school as it lets out for the day. The late afternoon sandwiches sustain Blake through football practices and the evening games.

 

Hunter prefers a foot-long Italian BMT from Subway for his pre-game protein and Grandpa Al meets him as he leaves classes at Valley High School.

 

The boys are Valley Tigers. A-Team players.

I go to the games but understand little of what goes on.

All I know is that our grandsons have ACTIVE roles in every game.

 

 

Blake Places First in Triathalon Today!

In the 15-and-Under Division, Blake is Numero Uno!! Congrats on winning

 this gig, Blake,  even with that sprained ankle!

 

Coming out of the water after the swim section.

 

Hunter's First Baseball Card

What?

Our grandsons pictured on baseball cards?

Like trading cards worth money?

Well, maybe we can't trade them for cash

but the boys themselves are worth millions to us.

Here's our first collector's card.

 

 

It's an Adam Sandwich!

We spent the afternoon celebrating Adam's birthday...a beautiful bit of weather

 with birds singing and breezes flitting through the leaves of the pergola.
 

 

Landon is 6!

Instead of a layered or sheet-style birthday cake, Landon's parents ordered cupcakes of various flavors for his Friday-the-Thirteenth party. If you'd been there, you could have chosen from

 Red Velvet, Wedding Cake,Sully (monster), Peanut Butter Cup,

 Chocolate Peanut Butter or Maple Bacon.

One big woof didn't take out the birthday candles as they were distributed among 12 big cupcakes.

Toward a Silver Cord

By the end of May, Hunter will complete enough hours of community service

 to qualify for the Silver Cord Award. Today he asked me to shop for the fabrics needed to make a tied blanket that will serve up warmth and comfort in a children's cancer ward.

 

He selected a fleece printed with the Monopoly game (he plans a career in finance) and a pastel blue for the fleece backing. Per instructions written for Pre-approved Silver Cord Activities, we proceeded through the simple process of cutting away selvages and slicing 1-inch-wide strips around the four sides of the soon-to-be tied blanket.

 

Tomorrow he'll bring it to the blanket mistress in the school office

and mark down two more hours of service. (We spent more time than that on the project but that's the credit allowed for this project.)

 

A few fun hours with my gorgeous, gentlemanly grandson,

 

College Roommates Reunited

Grandpa Al's Concordia College roommate, Denny, read Al's name on the local YMCA sign-in book five years ago and tracked him down. Ironically, Denny and his wife of Plymouth, MN winter every year at Pelican Pointe just blocks away from us. So coffee hour every Thursday at Panera Bread is something they have been doing ever since. They both like to talk.

 

Al and Denny

This spring, before Denny and Kay returned to Minnesota, they treated us to a concert by Minnesota's Barbary Coast musical group. It was a rockin' old-fashioned time with lots of

foot stomping and clapping. All a part of March madness in Florida.

This trio was just part of the six-member group.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grandpa Al is doing OK after another round at the hospital.

Infection.

Drugs.

Recovery.

 

It's another beautiful sunny day in Florida

 (after a long week of gray sunless hours)

We're about to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Our love to all of you!