Independence Day Party

We had our annual Independence Day party this past Friday. We had a fairly small group, but hey, small groups are fun too. :-) Folks relaxed and chatted, Tara took the little ones on boat rides, I (with "help" from Emily and Joanna!) escorted some kids (mainly the Gould clan) down the path (where we discovered a mulberry tree...yum!). Croquet, badminton and the ever-popular egg toss filled out the afternoon.
The main attraction this year was a game called Sjoelen (pronounced "Shoo-len"), which is Dutch shuffleboard. My Opa had our cousins bring this game over from Holland when they moved here. Nearly everyone tried their hand at it, and since that is mainly what we have pictures of, I thought I would post each person's photo with their score (prepare to either be embarrassed or exalted, if you were there!). Sorry, some of the folks toward the end didn't get photographed, we didn't mean it!! :-)

Note that all (most) the men are totally focused and serious, and all (most) the women are smiling and having fun! LOL!
Husbands and wives are paired together to compare scores... he he he... some men were mortified that night!

Just so you know, 80 is a good score, above 100 is very good, highest you can get is 144 (I think...)

The Guys...

Jonathan - 1st try, 68, 2nd try, 120.

Joseph - 91

Josiah - 124 (way to go!)

Seth - 1st try, 89, 2nd try 111

Ethan - 58

The Girls...

Unpictured:
Emma - 94
Tara - 73

Joanna - 1st try, 94, 2nd try, she scored the highest score of the day with 126!

Sokea - 88

Emily - 93

Robyn - 51

Gracie - 55

Me - 105

Ok, the big showdown... Husbands & Wives...

Mr. Erber - 1st try, 66, 2nd try 91, 3rd try, 110 (progressively better! :-)

Mrs. Erber - 115 (beat him in one fell swoop!) LOL!

Mr. Webb - 101
Mrs. Webb - 1st try, 85, 2nd try, 105

Mr. Gould - 87
Mrs. Gould - 97

Mr. Chidlow - 1st try, 79, 2nd try 118
Mrs. Chidlow - 109

Mom & Dad (no pics)
Dad - 85
Mom - 105

Amusing conversation after Mr. Chidlow's first round (Mrs, Emily & Sokea already went):
Mrs. C: Sokea beat you!
Mr. C: Aww!
Mrs. C: Emily beat you.
Mr. C: EMILY BEAT ME!?!?!?
(Emily is the non-competitive, non-game-savvy daughter)
Mrs. C: I beat you.
Mr. C (utterly defeated): YOU beat me...
I think that hurt to have all his women beat him... sorry, Mr. Chidlow!! :-)

The egg toss, as usual, was a lot of fun. And amazingly, we had the same winner from last year! Though not exactly the same, since instead of Josiah, it was Seth.

I think this photo is kind of funny because Mr. Chidlow is in the exact position of the previous picture (maybe it's his egg throwing technique? If so it didn't work...) and because I am making a ridiculous face. :-)

Poor Mrs. Erber had it the worst out of all of us and got egg all over her shirt and arm. We joked that she got high-end skin treatment.

Ethan and Joseph won the second toss (Jonathan & Seth won the first) and then Dad had the two winners play each other for a "championship" you might call it. He also made them do it with the opposite hand to the one they were used to throwing with.

Picking the perfect egg...

The winners and their egg :-)

I would have you know that we bought 7 1/2 dozen eggs and all of them were gone by the end of the day. Rumor has it that the young men had an egg fight, and the remainder left from that Naomi Gould threw against trees.

A few other random photos from the day:

Adelaide picking the raisins and M&Ms out of the trail mix.

Mrs. Webb not wanting her picture taken, but Mom took it anyway.

Fellowship

Thanks everyone for coming... it was fun!

Slip n' Slide at the Hills'

I have to apologize for not posting sooner, I have had a bunch of ideas for posting but haven't gotten around to actually sit down and do it.

A few weeks ago, Wendy had us and the Beatty girls over to go "slipine an' slidine" (as Justin says) on their incredibly fun and unique creation. TOO FUN!!! There's a video on Dawn's blog HERE . You'll see some of the same pictures on all of our blogs since everyone has a copy of my pictures :-) (thanks Mrs. Hill for taking them!).

We arrived about an hour to an hour and a half before the Beatty ladies, so we went ahead and slipped and slid (slided??) for a while.






Then we got tired after a while and were sitting in the puddles of warm water at the bottom, so Mrs. Hill put us to work picking strawberries. :-)

Then the Beattys arrived... and here's Dawn, all pretty with her hair up and her make-up all nice. We all laughed inwardly and made an extra big puddle at the bottom of the slide (aren't we nice?).

Wendy giving Dawn a lesson on slip n' slide preparation... first you poke 2 holes in the corners of a black garbage bag, put your feet into them, and then knot the bag and tuck the hanging end in (it's more fashionable that way).

Next, get sprayed down with water.

And lastly, get your hands soapy and "soap up" your...um... ;-)
(*lots of laughter*)

~~~
Dawn's First Slide:


~~~

Ok, isn't this absolutely HYSTERICAL?? Justin's bag is a plastic shopping bag, with holes for his legs and then he wears the handles over his arms like overalls!! LOL!

Love the facial expressions...

Beth grilling burgers in the rain!

Thanks SO much, Hills, for having us over!!! We had SOOOO much fun!!!!

Beau Soir

We haven't gotten the video yet, but there you can listen to the audio of the song Tara and Emily performed for Emily's voice recital back in May. The piano is a little overpowering because the voice students didn't get to use mics, but you still get the idea and it's still beautiful. :-)

CLICK HERE to listen...

A Little Update

There hasn't been too much excitement here at the Yen home the last few weeks... Dad, it seems, got salmonella poisoning from tomatoes (apparently there's been an outbreak of it recently) and was sick in bed for a week; thankfully he's better and the rest of us didn't get poisoned (we were fortifying ourselves with garlic & apple cider vinegar - yuuuuummmy... or NOT).

We had a pretty terrific windstorm a week or two ago. We were getting ready to go to piano lessons and realized we were about to kill ourselves if we went out - the trees were getting mighty close to being horizontal. There wasn't much damage, just one big tree that came down by the road.




On Sunday after we got home from church, Dad and I (K) went to the old house to haul away some branches from tree trimming the day before. When we got home, the fluff from cattails or some other plant was flying through the air so thickly that it looked like it was snowing! I was able to take a photo of it, although it doesn't really show how much there was.



Saturday we spent the day cleaning the old house; and as of yesterday it is officially "on the market"! Finally! We kept waiting for the market to get better but finally concluded that it wasn't going to and we might as well put it up. So we did! Anyone out there want to buy a house??? :-)

Other than that the only other occurrences have been normal, everyday type things... life is never dull when you have an elderly gentleman who takes you up on your offer to drive him places (very much takes you up on it), sewing projects, gardening troubles (i.e. too many weeds, too little time to pull them) and yes, even an occasional mouse to liven things up (who, by the way, now lies in a jar outside decomposing with a nail-polish-remover-soaked cotton ball - with which he was gassed to death and we keep forgetting to throw it away - why don't we have some brothers who have the guts to just kill the thing the easy way? We were what many would call too humane and yet, I still feel a twinge of guilt. It is one of God's creatures after all....and why am I telling you this?....). The cats sure enjoy it.




And... I think that's all I have with which to update you!

The Girl's Song for Opa and Oma's 50th

Here's the video of the song we did for the party. There's also the short "speech" given by Michelle & Kerry right before we sang it. Megan, Anna and Raeanne - we admit it, we copied you on the Brady Bunch "sound effects"! :-)

Hope you enjoy it! Lyrics are below.



Here’s the story of Truus and Albert
Who were only just twenty when they met
At a party he tried to woo her
But she played hard to get.

They decided to try a date
But he punctured a lung and couldn’t go
So his friend stepped in to escort her
Poor Albert was so low.

But Teresa was so kind she went to visit
For the six weeks he was laid up in bed
That’s when Albert knew that they should be together
They postponed vacation plans for rings to wed.

For rings to wed, for rings to wed
Then he asked her dad for her hand to wed.

***

Trijntje, get your shoes on,
For the organ will be playing soon.
Oh, no, they are broken!
Tell the organist to stop his tune!

First I had to go and rent my dress.
Now my shoes are broken, what a mess!
I’ll go call my good friend
She has shoes that likely will fit,
I bet they will fit,
Oh, yes, they do let’s go!

***

The wedding bells are ringing,
The birds are sweetly singing,
And Albert’s proudly beaming,
The wedding day is here!

The courthouse made it legal,
The church, it looked so regal,
It was stuffed full of people,
The wedding day is here!

The reception was a banquet,
So fun they’ll never forget!
Looks like her daddy’s in debt,
The wedding day is done!

***

America’s the place to be.
The land of opportunity.
I can’t wait to see my sis and bro.
Pack you bags right now ‘cuz it’s time to go.

With Mother’s where I’d rather stay.
I’ve no interest in the U.S.A.
On dykes is where I love to roam.
Albert, I love you, but don’t make me leave my home.

The jobs!
They’re slobs!
The thrills!
Windmills!

I get to choose.
Goodbye wooden shoes!
America here we come!

***

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a seasick wife,
While Albert, ‘cuz he’s on a boat,
Is having the time of his life!

And as they sailed a storm blew up,
The sea began to roar,
The wind picked up, the clouds rolled in,
And it began to pour.
Yes, it began to pour.

Poor Truus, she was so sick
She could’ve fallen off the boat,
So Albert strapped her to a chair,
And ran to get her coat.
He ran to get her coat.

He met the captain on the way,
He said, “Sir, that’s my wife.
Please don’t think I’m nuts,
I’m really trying to save her life.”
“I’m trying to save her life.”

But she survived (as you can see)
They arrived in New Jersey.
Standing on the docks,
With two suitcases,
And eighty-two measly bucks.
It was hard at first
But they pulled through
And it had nothing to do with luck.

Since fifty years ago they wed
A lot they have been through.
But God’s grace has them sustained
His love is ever new!

Opa & Oma's 50th Anniversary Party

Though their real anniversary was February 19th, they were in Florida and had no intention of coming back until the warmer weather arrived... and hence, the celebration of this great event happened this past Saturday.

The party almost got canceled because on Thursday (?) Opa had a huge kidney stone trying to pass and ended up in the hospital and getting a surgical procedure done to make sure the stone wouldn't come down. But the doctor said it should be fine to go on with the party and that's just what we did.

It was a lot of fun even though Tara, Dad and I didn't really know anyone and there was a lot of Dutch speaking :-). The food was delicious. We had people come up and share a quote or memory to make Opa kiss Oma (and he welcomed the opportunity!) and many people shared some very thoughtful things.

Welcome table

Our table... clockwise from bottom: Kerry, Ben, Michelle, Lauren, Matt (L & M are our second cousins), Me & Tara

DESSERT!

Michelle and Kerry (our cousins) and Tara and I, along with Michelle's fiance, Ben, performed a song about Oma and Opa to the tunes of popular old TV shows. I'll be sure to post a video at some point.

Oma & Opa - laughing at the song I think

Our aunt and uncle made a nice photo slideshow of old (and new) photos which was also much enjoyed.

On the whole I think Oma and Opa had a great time and were honored for their commitment to each other over the past 50 years.

We love you, Opa & Oma!

Lilacs!