Thanksgiving borrows Aunt Nancy's Birthday

This year Thanksgiving borrowed Aunt Nancy's Birthday.  We gathered Oma and ventured to Topeka Country Club where we joined Bev and the Gs for a yummy Thanksgiving lunch.  The place was packed.  We saw tons of fun and interesting people.  We laughed, smiled, ate fabulous food and then ... we left.

THERE WAS NO CLEAN-UP INVOLVED.

Despite the solemn expressions on Oma's and Granny's faces, we ALL had a good time.

In the evening we went to the Gs' for Aunt Nancy's Birthday Party.  We joined the Gs, Heidi, Jerod, Stacy, Regan and Carly in the celebration.  The choir sang Happy Birthday to Nancy.

 Here is the choir.

It was a double fun day ... but we sure missed seeing Mark, all the Missouri Crows and many dear friends this Thanksgiving.  We also missed hugging SRQ, JRQ and BQ but enjoyed thinking of them as they celebrated Ted (the turkey) Day together in California.  Love to all.

PS.  Check out the contents of just one rack in the Gs' freezer door.

The main supply is stored on the freezer shelves.

Washburn University and Hope

Yesterday SACII and Cheryl came to Topeka to join us in the kick-off celebration for Washburn University's sesquicentennial.  It was promoted as the Bow-Tie Ball .... so, the guys bow-tied.

 The ladies disclaimed us.

I don't know why.

After celebrating 150 years of Washburn University, we hurried home to celebrate 23 days of HOPE ...

Hope is adorable!  Helen and I got to hold her.  And hug her.  And shower her with kisses.  Oh yes, Andy and Donna were there too.  

Today we celebrated an early Thanksgiving and, as you might imagine, I took some pictures.  They all happened to include Hope.  Hope with her Great Granny ...

Hope with her Great Aunt Nancy ...

Hope with her LOVE ice cream cake ...

Hope with 4 generations of Crows ...

And Hope in her first traditional group shot.

Happy 150 years to Washburn University.

Happy fortnight and a half to Hope.

Crow Mountain Farm in the Fall

The corn is harvested ...

the colors are golden ... 

CMF helps feed the world.

Potwin Halloween

A week before Halloween, our neighbor Tom decided to replace all of his landscape lights with ORANGE glow light bulbs.  Holy Moly ... night time around here has been really ORANGE.

Tommy donned some shades to protect himself.

The neighborhood party was kid-happy.  There were tons of kids ...

playing fun games like donut-dangle.

Halloween night was amazing.  Beautiful weather brought out record numbers of kids.  According to Tom (who counts by the candy bags) we had over 2,100 Trick or Treaters.   There were some really fun kids ...

and some fun grown-ups too.

Happy Halloween 2011.  Hope yours was Happy.

Hope is here!

Today is Hope Elizabeth Crow's birthday!  

6 pounds, 1 once ... not counting the cool hat.

Mother and daughter are doing fine.

Congratulations Andy, Donna and Anthony.

Surprise in Menlo Park

Displaying excellent organizational skills, Jake was able to orchestrate a fun and colorful surprise Birthday Party for Samantha.   With Mayumi as an accomplice, the party was a great success.  Below is the aftermath of "SURPRISE" after Samantha walked into her apartment.

There were balloons ....

lots of fun party-goers ...

pizza, Choco-Tacos, a beautiful dessert by Ryo ...

and lots of smiles.

The next day Jake gave us the Zillabyte presentation ...

and we got to see where Samantha hangs.

Throw in some fun times with Beth, a yummy milk shake from the Palo Alto Creamery and my own Zillabyte t-shirt

and you've got a Zilla-teriffic 48 hours.

Thanks, Jake for including us in all the fun.  

Happy (early) Birthday Samantha.

SRQ visit, Hope Shower, Sailing into the sunset

After attending Robin's wedding in Washington DC, SRQ came home for a visit.  She was mostly here to help her mother organize and host a baby shower for Hope Crow at SACII and Cheryl's house in Springfield.   It was fun to see lots of people we love.

Based on the photos, they apparently had a good party for Hope.   Sam, Andy and I helped set up for the party then bailed out to do some male bonding.  We started with a juicy burger at Galloway Station and then off to Saddlebrooke to view the building site Sam and Cheryl bought at auction the week before.  Nice view.

Except for Sam's LBC (little blue car) getting damaged ($2,338.68) by the neighbor's bad driving ...

it was a great trip.  Unfortunately, SRQ went home the next day.  

To fulfill one of Helen's life-long dreams, Friday night we joined fun friends Bill and Julie on Lake Perry for a sunset cruise on their 30 foot sail boat.    

  It was wonderful.  The weather was perfect.  Only 30 minutes from Topeka in time but worlds away in relaxation.  Thanks Bill and Julie ... it was a blast!

We waved goodbye to September as we sailed into the beautiful Kansas sunset.