Happy Birthday Bella

This morning we had a nice time with Phyllis and a second game of Hand and Foot, the card game.  This time it looked like I had the game won until the last hand when Jo came on like gangbusters and beat me for the win.

Yesterday I posted pictures of Phyllis' kitties and now here are pictures of her fish tanks.

her koi, she has plans for a much larger tank in the near future

 her betta

I regret that I didn't think to take a couple of pictures while we were visiting with Bella and her mother but she gave us this picture to display back at home and think of her.  Her only family she has now is her mother so she calls us grandma and grandpa, which we are happy for, Phyllis is her aunt.  She is now seven years old with a birthday coming up in three weeks.  She let us celebrate an early birthday today with Jo giving her an afghan that she crocheted this past winter plus a rag doll that Jo had made some time ago.  Also with Phyllis' help we gave her an android tablet.  She was extremely happy with all, especially the tablet.  Jo had also made a larger afghan for her mother Toni.

Phyllis met Toni as a server at the diner she often used.  Toni now has changed jobs to a local Cracker Barrel but remains friends plus she helps Phyllis with care and cleaning of her house while Phyllis is Bella's babysitter at times.

sweet Bella

 These are some of Bella's art work that she gave us.  She made the drawings and then had them reduced and mounted on refrigerator magnets.