Kales' Birthday at Hogwarts

Here Harry Potter (Kale) opening his present from Grandpa and Grandma Poulsen. Legos Harry Potter set with Hagrid's Hut and Giant Spider....just what he asked for....HOW DID WE KNOW??????????
Here is the teacher for the Transfiguration Class (Hannah.) The kids loved acting out an animal for the others to guess. The party was held at Grandma Brinton's house.
Potions class...Keira was the teacher (that's my famous purple wig.) Each child had a notebook for class that was "stamped" at the end of class. These are all of Kale's school mates and Eli, of course.
Grandma Gigi pauses from photography to pose with Harry. We have an electrician here today fixing the pool light and putting in new fixtures outside for Will's reception next Saturday. Let the count-down begin......

Halloween

Sonia hosts BUNKO just once a year....the kids come over to have a "sleep-over" at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We decided, for the first time, to make a Haunted House of Gingerbread.
I found a recipe to make molding chocolate. The kids AMAZED me with their artistry especially in making these realistic-looking pumpkins and cute ghosts, Frankenstein head and a bat. Lara contributed the candy-corn cookies on the side of the house. Ryder and Kendra came over too.
Our version of "Children of the Corn." BTW ....I have not seen that movie...just heard ALL ABOUT IT. Happy Halloween everyone.

New York

Had a FABULOUS New York week-end. Main purpose: Attend Kristina and Kellen's wedding in the Manhattan Temple.
Kristina is a singer-dancer on the New York stage. She actually started a dancing club in Cardiff to off-set her education expenses. I played for her to sing at church and elsewhere. I also accompanied her dance recitals at the University of Cardiff. Good times! Here is our table...Kristina is a "detail" person. Every table was labeled as a part of New York...we were Central Park.
She designed this "faux" ceiling to hide the basketball scoreboard, etc... She had one friend with a sewing machine who sewed the seams and then they wired the fabric to the walls. I love purple too!
Here is the radiant bride. She finished her Doctorate in Bio Chemistry while we were there. Her husband is working on his Doctorate in Math. She asked us to be her "other" parents after we helped her through some rough times over there. She will fly in to Phoenix Sky Harbor...just to say "hello and I LOVE YOU." She regularly commutes between Cali and NY. Kristina is a professor at NYU and Columbia. She is one of the most humble, kind, loving, generous, thoughtful people I know. You would never know she is so talented and smart....you won't ever hear it from HER. People flew in from around the world to be with her that day...we felt honored to be there too.

Melvina and Elihu Vinson

Here's the marriage license for my Great grandfather Elihu Vinson and his wife, Melvina Elizabeth Tippet. These are my father's maternal grandparents.
Melvina and Elihu Vinson. My dad used to tell me stories of how he spent his summers with his Grandmother down in Missouri. She took him every Sunday to the Baptist church. He said she made the most wonderful breakfasts. Fried chicken and biscuits and the "works." She had been playing a game with some children when she was a child and was carrying a stick. She fell down and the stick poked her eye out. She married Elihu when she was 16 and her mother gave her signed permission, as is stated on the license. I am told he was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. I will have to research that. I am so surprised every time I find a picture that SOMEONE else has posted on Ancestry. This picture I found in a Jones family group.