Birthday Bookend Weekend

Friday we joined other members of our breakfast group for lunch instead, to celebrate Jeanne's birthday.

Jeanne is in her mid-eighties, and has been in poor health for a long time now. She is no longer able to join the group for breakfasts on Fridays, so once in a while we come to her, where she is hostess for our potluck salad lunch, and the celebration of whoever had a birthday for that quarter of the year. 

This time we celebrated Jeanne, on the left, and Mavis, on the right. However, Mavis will be turning 90 in May, so we will be doing that one up big on her actual day. Jeanne is trying not to show her black eye, the result of a fall just the day before. Fortunately the doctor checked her out and declared her OK. 

These are all women that Tom worked with at Des Moines Elementary School, where he taught PE and then Kindergarten. He retired from this school, and most of these women had their retirement parties in our garden. That's why they had to adopt me too. 

I don't have  picture of Jan, who was taking all the photos, but she got me.  

 Tom and I had managed to get in our walk before gathering for this lunch. Then we spent all afternoon visiting. 

On Saturday we were assigned to meet Isaac and Irene at the airport on their flight back home from spending spring break with their dad in South Carolina. They had stories of a wild storm that crashed and boomed overhead while they were tent camping on the Atlantic coast. 

Later that day we walked and then Tom went over to Jill's house to begin installing some cabinets as part of her remodel. Jill was in the mountains again, teaching ice ax arrest with The Mountaineers.  I stayed home and worked in the yard, cleaning up after our last wind storm.

Sunday morning Tom and I diverted from our usual walking route and went further down the hill to Crystal Springs Park.

This is a mostly natural park, a bit of a walk on the wild side, in a greenbelt along a freeway. 

 Things are blooming - salmon berry,

 Oregon Grape, 

 Trillium!

 Fern fiddle heads. 

 There really are springs here in Crystal Springs. 

 Everything is going green!

 In some places, moss is easier to grow than grass. 

We spent most of the rest of Sunday finishing the wind storm clean up in the yard, and filling yard waste bins. 

At 5:00 we gathered with Jan, Jill, Isaac and Irene, and Jake to celebrate Jake's 42nd birthday.  We had dinner at a brew pub in nearby Burien, and then came back to our house for birthday pie. 

Jake's real birthday is Tuesday, April 11th, but all the young 'uns will be at school and work that day. It was good to get the family together. 

Happy Birthday to Jake!