Bonnie Ballentine

Happy birthday, Suzy!

V = vegetables

O = onion

M = marinade

I = ice to keep the drinks cold

H = heat

A = acorn squash cooked on the grill

We went to the NC Zoo to celebrate our friend, Judy's, birthday. An amazing day from beginning to end. We were really looking forward to the Zoofari, an open-air truck ride to see animals in their natural habitat...up close and personal. All photos are mine. The text reads, " We visited the North Carolina Zoo to celebrate Judy’s birthday. The NC Zoo is the largest natural habitat zoo in the world. We were looking forward to going on the Zoofari. It was to be the big event of the day…we could hardly wait. As soon as we arrived at the zoo, we asked the first zoo volunteer we found how to find the Zoofari so we could purchase tickets. (They do not sell advanced tickets.) We were told that the Zoofari was closed. We were so disappointed…all our big plans and dreams…gone. Putting aside our disappointment, we began to visit and view the wetlands exhibit and were enjoying the cypress knees, alligators and such. We were taking pictures and talking about similar experiences in my childhood and we began to build a fun day. Suddenly, the zoo volunteer who had told us the Zoofari was closed appeared to tell us the Zoofari was open! The Zoo had changed the schedule. Johnny had come looking for us and also had several other volunteers looking for “3 ladies walking around”. He didn’t even use the word, “old”. Now this is customer service! Searching for 3 strangers while not knowing where they had wandered off to…just to brighten their day. Thank you, Johnny! We immediately went to purchase our tickets and had a wonderful Zoofari experience!" I used a template from Day 6, Journaling Challenge, August of 2022.

Crawdads are crayfish...river lobster is a pretty close translation. "Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as baybugs, crabfish, craws, crawfish, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, mudbugs, rock lobsters, signal crawfish, or yabbies." Wikipedia

R = respected

I was thinking the same thing also, Anne! Small dowels might work...or perhaps sewing needles and thread thin wire through them. Push/hammer them into the step as deep as you can without going through. Perhaps a small square piece of wood at the base of the needle...this might support it more and give it the look of a baluster/pickets/spindels. Wider at the bottom, more narrow at the top.

I seem to be drawn to circles lately...unusual for me. Digital Scrapbooking, Jessica Dunn, Summer-Ice Cream Mini for the background paper.

Since I wasn't in the above picture, I created another layout...I'm sure you will recognize Carole's latest frames.

Four of us had a Girl's Weekend recently. I have already posted layouts of the pickleball tournament and a beach walk. On our last evening there, we went to a local ice cream parlor, Sugar Shack. I got a bit carried away and created 3 layouts from the Sugar Shack. I love the please don't tap on the glass sign on one of the ice cream freezers there.

P = Poppa

N = nice

Thank you, Suzy. I have plans for them.

June 1 - 4 four of us went to the beach for a "girl's weekend". We had a wonderful time playing games, pickleball, walking the beach and eating ice cream. It was drizzley, cold and windy but they weather couldn't stop all the fun. 20 minutes away it was sunny and warm and we had a blast in a pickleball tournament. This layout shows us on the beach.

J = jolly

Two more...

I enjoy the fonts that have graphics within them. Carole used one for one of our challenges...April Font Challenge. I do not know how to create fonts so I decided to created an alpha with pickleball graphics. I used a different graphic for each letter except the graphic used in the N below.

H = hero

D = devoted

Z = zestful, filled with enthusiasm; having high spirits

Thank you, libera!