At the farm

Besides living next to a major airport, Diggle & Family also live within walking distance of a little educational farm.  Our visit made a good opportunity for everybody to take him for his first rural exploration.  It undoubtedly won't be his last.

(The Millers Park Farm )

 

A virtuoso conversationalist

 

Any old baby can master a silly xylophone.  In our family, we apparently have a budding concert pianist, who gave us a magnificent performance.  In preparation, he managed to promote himself quite grandly in fascinating telephone calls to his potential audience.

 

On being Mamie & Papy

 

We just had the occasion to play Grandma and Grandpa to our second grandson, now 14 months old.  Not only is he currently the most adorable baby on earth, he's at an adorable learning stage.  We have so many cute photos, this will be the first of several posts in order to share as many as possible with all of you.

 

CCC - Another Tee!

Two down now, another two to go in the continuing saga of the Calvary Chapel Couturières and the four budding seamstresses who were able to trace out their T-shirt patterns.  While Lindsey has her own sewing machine, it's not properly in shape to handle her fabric, and she was getting rather discouraged.  As I'm going on a little vacation, then she's going back home for a month right after that, she came up to my house so she could get it finished in time to show her mom!

Petanque

Yesterday, our Canadian friend requested our help in cleaning up some property out in the middle of nowhere before a group picnic next week.  As we aren't part of the group, we'll have to find our own activity for Bastille Day; but in helping out, we got a day out away from all our typical responsibilities.  When the work was done, we played a bit.  A game of Petanque (the group's activity), to be precise, which I played for the first time.  So I thought I'd explain a bit about this very French game.

A rain check celebration

On the evening of July 4, 1978, bad weather in Allentown, PA, canceled the annual holiday fireworks.  It was rescheduled.  Three days later, our family ushered in a beautiful little baby boy.  Shortly after his birth, the whole town lighted up in a glorious pyrotechnical display.  We like to think they, too, were also welcoming the town's newest citizen.  Ever since then, July 7 has been a special day in our household.

Fourth of July: Sapphire Blue

Did everybody have a good weekend?  Did anybody (American, that is) have a more unusual holiday than is typical?  Did anybody not have some kind of barbecue?  Over here on this side of Pond, we had our typical international fete, and we continued our anniversary celebration one last time with one last group of friends, with exactly a one month delay.  I thought I'd share a pictorial of the event.

Happy Fourth of July

To all my fellow Americans, I hope you are having a festive day today (at least, those of you not being blown away or washed out).  It's a great opportunity to remember our heritage, no matter where we may be finding ourselves physically on this planet.  It's also a great day to barbecue with friends, provided you don't have to work.  Best of all, there might also be local fireworks to enjoy!

Holiday Preparations

For all you Americans out there, what have you all done to prepare for the big holiday tomorrow?  Anything?  Is everybody planning a traditional barbecue, either en famille or with friends?  As it's not a holiday over here, we'll be doing our annual thing on Sunday, so I still have a few days to get things spruced up.  And sprucing up is definitely what I've been doing the past few days!

When a pool party barbecue isn't

We have a new family in our church around the same age as all my other young-family friends, and we thought it would be nice to get to know them.  As we are not otherwise equipped in either house or terrain to accommodate active little people, we've had a date for about two months for them to come over with another young family once it was pool season.  Nature decided not to play nice the only day needed the whole weekend.