April 26th - Livi's Birthday Party and More

Sunday: The last week in April was busy with Livi's 9th birthday party at Leaa and Jesse's on Sunday, April 26th. Leaa set up a "craft", making a tie-dye shirt; it was a hit with everyone.
Tuesday: Ford took graduation pictures at the local college GED program, run by our daughter Leaa, on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday: We had an impromptu (last minute) cocktail hour with Kenny (recovering from his second knee replacement surgery) and Pam, Ralph and Sandy. We made some appetizers and had a nice visit catching up on their family news. 
Friday: At the end of the week, we attended Matt and Dawn's House-Leaving party, due to his Change of Command orders.
Here's some photos from Livi's party:

Kilee helped AA with tie-dye activities:

Kilee climbing through the trees; I caught her after she was warned to get back to safety!

The cake and candles:

Livi is all smiles:

Family and friends - Matt, Cathy, Angie, Ian J., Amanda E.

Dylan playing inside:

 Dylan dancing to the music:

Hubby found this (below) painted dresser on Craig's List, that is going to be used for storage on our screen porch, it is long and will be great for serving when we eat outside too. After picking it up, we ate dinner at Clark's Fish camp. We remembered it was nearby, we were within a mile of it, so decided to check it out; we hadn't been there in years.

 Dinner at Clark's and all the stuffed animals.....

Once at home, we were to rinse out the tie-dye shirt; it came out really well.

Late April Happenings - Citrus Trees and First Golf Lesson at OCN - April 19 - 25th

We occasionally attend our favorite neighborhood's annual renewal party and this year, Carolyn was available to sit with Alyzabeth while we were out. It is an early Sunday evening party (April 19th), 4 pm - 8 pm; so not a late night! The River House is a quaint gathering place, very low drink prices for members and a beautiful location on the river; their annual party is held at the Hilltop restaurant with a nice buffet and complimentary first hour drinks.
While we were out, AA swam with Carolyn but then the thunderstorms arrived. They had dinner together, walked Fayah and enjoyed a "birthday" cupcake together (Carolyn's birthday is the day after mine). Carolyn arrived with my birthday gift, a banana tree for our yard. Most do not live this far north, but somehow, on the Club's property, there are banana plants that we have actually seen bananas growing on!

AA lost a tooth on Monday at school while eating her homemade lunch (she said while eating an olive, yes, pitless!). It is the upper, her left side:

We also took her to the Doctor's as a bug bite on her head/scalp (center part, near back/top) didn't seem to be healing. A substitute Doctor, removed a stinger and hopefully it will heal now!

We purchased three citrus trees which arrived and were planted on Wednesday (April 22nd). There will be four eventually, lime, navel red orange, a "cocktail" tree and a ponderossa lemon.

Friday, April 24, after school, we drove to Orlando's Orange County National Golf Course; Saturday was her first lesson there with Coach Jason at 9:00 a.m. We had dinner in the Cafe and spent the night which was horrible for several reasons (one was the parting young ladies staying in the room next door/loud music and others yelling at them, and a trip to the front office again to get the noise down!). The actual golf lesson went well!

 Above, practicing Friday evening.

 Lesson on Saturday:

Lots of work on her putting, lots accomplished. We then drove straight home to attend a memorial/life celebration life for Wyatt at the River House (he was always friendly, lived in the Winterbourne big house, kept up a garden, and the crab trap).
Tomorrow is Livi's birthday party!

Christmas, Florida - April 18, 2015

We had plenty of time to drive to AA's final golf tournament, as our road was being blocked at 8 am for a Florida Strider's Club 8k "Run to the Sun" race. We needed to leave early so looked along the trip route for a long rest break and discovered Christmas, Florida. There really isn't much to this town but there is a park dedicated to the Seminole Indians. It is very nice with historic buildings and a play park.
Here's the historical significance, part of our not so proud USA history when Indians were being moved to relocation lands that they did not want to go to, thus many wars; a fort and "prison" was built: 
On December 25, 1837, a force of 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers and Alabama Volunteers arrived in the area to construct a fort, which they named Fort Christmas. The fort was one of over 200 forts built during the Second Seminole War.

A permanent Christmas tree:

The blockade house is very well made with many exhibits worth spending time to see and read.

The park has a baseball field, many pavilions to "reserve" for parties and a large play ground. All free.

The park was a good discovery, really out of the way, but a great area for the locals.

Orlando Local U. S. Kids Golf Tour - Spring Season Finale!

The final tournament in the Orlando Spring 2015 Tour was completed (Saturday 4/18/15) at Rio Pinar. AA had a great round with a big "except" hole #12 - a par 3 with water in front of it. She has hit this distance many times (about 85 yards) but today, with a strong wind and change of club selection, it faded to the left and into the water. If she had par'd it (the other Par 3 hole, she birdied), she would have had her first score in the 30's (a 38). Oh well. She is so close to "greatness" as we say..... She is an excellent golfer so always happy that she plays so well.
Practice putting:

Final hole with Ann Burel, Olivia Ikeda (#18: played the back nine):

Scoring table with Caddie Maria:

Scores:

Director Doug making awards:

AA finished third for the tournament and third for the season championship.

Most of the 8 - 9 year old girls (there were 14 total):

Missing is Natalie Q (5th place):

Trying to get Olivia to smile!

Proud of friends, Sammy Chao who earned second place and Bella D. who took the Championship!

Older sister, Kaitlin Chao, took third place overall; these Chao girls can play!

Coach Jason and AA; we have a May - July schedule for lessons so are being very intentional about getting AA more coaching:

A great big thank you to Doug and Karen who run the Orlando local tour; well run and very competitive. We may play a couple during the summer tour, but will concentrate on the State tournaments and a few NFJG tournaments. Then end of July is Pinehurst!