The 30th of June, a Thursday, found Kent and I flying to Houston for the 4th of July weekend. We were able to attend Kiera's eighth birthday party the next day, which was held at a skating rink.
Jason was a good dad and went out with both Kiera and Savannah to help them skate.
The skating rink had "walkers" made from PVC pipes that really helped the beginners have the confidence to try to skate.
Kiera had cupcakes instead of a regular birthday cake.
The cupcakes had little rings on them with pictures of roller skates on them.
On Saturday morning Kiera was baptized. Adrianne created a beautiful baptism invitation.
She was baptized in the same building where she was blessed. She wore the same dress and slip that her mommy was baptized in twenty-six years ago!
I made her confirmation dress, and did some smocking on it. The best pictures of it were the ones on the invitation.
Lissa had some CTR cookies specially made for the refreshments. I made some snickerdoodles and mint brownies, too.
Lissa brought Kiera's blessing dress to display, which I thought was a neat idea.
It was a special day for our family. I played the piano and said a prayer for the service, and Kent gave a talk.
That evening we went to the Houston Temple with Lissa and Jason.
We've never been inside, so it was nice to do an endowment session with Lissa and Jason.
It was smaller inside than I expected it to be, but of course it was very lovely.
Here are Kent and I in our patriotic clothes on the way to church on July 3rd.
Kent had to fly back to Virginia on the 4th, but the rest of us went to watch the fireworks by the Katy Mills mall. I stayed in Katy for nine days.
In the following days I helped Kiera with some sewing projects.
We also went to the mall and did some fun things, like ride the motorized animals.
I thought I'd take a turn, too! Kiera got to be pretty good at steering it.
Savannah wanted to jump on the trampoline.
She was very brave and especially went high when the worker bounced her.
At the end of the week it was time for Savannah's birthday party! She had a My Little Pony party, because she's currently obsessed with My Little Ponies.
Lissa and Kiera did a great job of decorating for the party. Note the drawings that Kiera did and put up on the walls.
Lissa ordered fancy pony cookies for Savannah's party.
The kids also played with a bouncy parachute and had a pinata.
For dinner we went to a restaurant of Savannah's choice, which was Texas Roadhouse. She got to ride the birthday saddle while the servers sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
My Savannah's birthday I made her a pink pillowcase with kitties on it and a skirt with kitties on it.
Kitties are the other thing Savannah is obsessed with at the age of five!
Another fun thing we did with the girls was to take them to a special Lego club meeting where they had motors for the children to use to make simple machines.
The girls thought that was really cool!
Kent and I are blessed that we're able to attend many of our grandchildren's special occasions!
