Wanda, Becky, Brenda and I drove from Dunnigan down to Vacaville to John and Mary Kilpatrick's house. This house was the subject of a lot of Praise the Lords! since they were able to obtain it through a long chain of unusual circumstances and move from a rented house in Woodland. We drove Becky's Honda van shown at left, in which Roy and Mary had just driven her here from San Antonio.

This shot of Wanda, Becky and John relaxing in the living room was taken from the stairway while I was being given a tour by Dasha and Danielle, whose rooms were upstairs. The house was beautifully decorated with lots of photos and paintings.

While Becky and John went for Becky's doctor's appointment, the rest of us had time to play cards and other games.

The family gathered at the community center of the community in Dunnigan where Wanda lives. We were preparing for the celebration, and Mary has made up a nice bouquet and presents it to Wanda. Dasha and Becky look on.

Mary and the girls had done a fabulous job of decorating a special birthday cake with flowers and butterflies.

Dasha and Danielle had shown us some of the intricate flowers and butterflies they were making for the cake when we visited them yesterday.

They should be proud to be following in the footsteps of Wanda, who used cake decorating as a way to reach the women in Argentina.

They had made up beautiful floral centerpieces for the tables with squirrel figurines in the centers! Wanda is fond of squirrels and has lots of funny squirrel figurines around her house.

Everything had been well-organized, so we had time to just sit around and visit while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive. Kristi Rose, Emily, Wanda, Dan, Brenda and Becky.

Now it was time to enjoy the great celebration meal that had been prepared.

If you went hungry this afternoon, it was your own fault!

Wanda at the seat of honor at the table with John, Roy, Julie, Becky and Dan.

Dasha, Wanda Jean, Mary, Danielle, Kristi Rose,Tim

Danielle, Julie and Mary do a song with Danielle doing sign language and Julie playing very nice guitar.

Part of the fun and games was the presentation of the "squirrel award" to Wanda by Mary.

Dan presents a tribute to Mom as part of the birthday celebration.

Dasha does sign language as Julie and Mary sing another celebration song.

Wanda responds with words of appreciation and blessing for her family.

Everyone was appreciative of Wanda's words, as they are of her example.

We start the round of gifts as Becky brings a present to Mom.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the time of gift-giving to Wanda. I think we all felt it was a small way we could bless her, and it was a joy in remembrance of how she has sought to bless the family.

There were lots of laughs in the process as well. There are about as many skunk tales associated with Wanda as squirrel tales. She related the story of "Cologne", a de-scented skunk she kept in her classroom for a while. She was also fond of Pepe le Pugh from the cartoons and there were lots of skunk figurines around her house. This was a set of skunk salt and pepper shakers.

This was a handmade gift from Dasha. We had seen her working on the crocheting when we were over at their home.

Sherree brings a cluster of gifts from her and Bob with envelope addressed "to the Snake!". That has its history in the family's love of game playing, and when Wanda gets Bob in a game, he exclaims "You snake!". And she replies "That makes you a son of a snake!".

Everyone was having a great time with the funny gifts. It was just a great time of family fun.

One of Bob and Sheree's gifts was another skunk!

The last gift was one to which the whole family had contributed!

The family members had made up pages to contribute to a wonderful photo album/scrapbook to present to Wanda. Here great-granddaughter Dasha looks over her shoulder and great-grandsons Benjamin and Davin take great interest. Daughter Becky looks on from the background.