We've had a couple of bad storms this past week. There have been at least 6 confirmed tornado touchdowns in Van Wert County. The other night after the first storm, we drove around the block and snapped some cool sky pictures. It was so unreal.

There was a full beautiful rainbow that was so close to us, I could NOT get the whole thing in the picture! The sky was SOOOO purple inside the rainbow. It was amazing. I've never seen such purple vibrant clouds.

The Sunset was so eerie. Pictures never do the sky justice!

Saturday was Charlene's graduation party! Congratulations Charley! She had such a nice party, and it was great to see everyone.

Lainey and Gwyneth Papa and Nana's "two girls"!

Hutch snagging a gatorade

Jacob and Haydn in the pool. This was nice since it was SO HOT!

We were glad to see Aunt Frances there. Of course, the kids wouldn't sit still!! (:

Gwyneth got to play with Aunt Connie (I don't know who had more fun!) And Aunt Connie got to put her to sleep!

A cute one of Tiff and Camdyn

The next day, Bobbie invited us over after church to eat up leftovers. It was also mom's birthday, so we gave her a "birthday cake"!!! It oddly resembled Charlene's cake the night before. Papa staging a kiss with Hutch!
Eric, overly-excited to have his picture taken!!!

Good Luck Caleb!!

Our nephew Caleb (on the right) left last night for North Dakota for the summer (about 6 weeks?) to help his aunt Autumn and uncle Nathan on their farm. We are so excited for him, and know that he will have a great time. But-we still will miss him ): Caleb- you are a great young man, and have a super time! We'll see you soon! We had a little going away party for him Monday night, but I forgot my camera. This picture is from Mother's Day (with Camdyn). Last night when he left, Haydn WAILED for about half an hour, poor kid. He really thinks the world of Caleb, and doesn't really have a good concept of time. To him, it seems like he'll be gone Forever! To cheer him and Elliott up, we had Elliott over to spend the night tonight.


The two of them hamming it up!
After supper, we broke out a juicy watermelon on the front porch!

Digging in! They had a really fun and busy night running running running around! Notice that there's no Hutch? He crashed out early, and missed out on the watermelon!



Little Miss Ma'am, and The Hair!

Oh, and now there are two eggs! (there were three, but now one's missing?!)

Robin's Egg Blue

I have hanging baskets on our front porch, and we noticed this morning that there was a nest in one of them!! We checked, but it was empty. After running some errands today, we came home this evening and checked it out. Yep!! There is an egg!! Haydn wanted to get a better glimpse of it, so I just stuck my camera up in the air and snapped a shot. I intended on erasing it, but it looked so neat! It will be exciting to watch what happens.

While we were outside this morning, I thought I'd take a couple of the kids (while they were actually clean, which doesn't last very long!) Haydn was very cooperative. Thank you, Haydn.

Hutch, on the other hand, was not into pictures. I've learned that he isn't into pictures very often. Here is the best one of the two of them, and FORGET any alone! He covered his face and was out of there.

You can't tell very well, but Hutch has a skinned nose. He did a Petie on the blacktop at the ballpark last night while we were watching John's softball game, and Ouch!

...and Miss Gwyneth, getting sleepy before bedtime.

Doing boy things!

While Gwyneth and I were hanging out and taking pictures of flowers, (: the boys were outside doing garage things. John came in and asked for the camera, and this is what he came back with!

This is John's "project"! Sometime I'll post what it looked like (well actually the TWO trucks) when he got it! It has a long way to go, but it's definitely come a long way already!

Haydn digging a hole (which I later found was with an old steak knife...which I confiscated and replaced with a garden spade!!)

A very dirty Hutch!!! (this is right before he fell out of the tree out back, but is ok!) yikes!

"Garage Time" always scares me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But they love love love it!

Strawberry Shortcake

Gwyneth is wearing a little strawberry dress today, and she looks so sweet! (ha ha)

Whatever was ailing her last week is better, and she is back to Gwyneth!

happy tummy time

Spending time outside with Grandma Nancy

Do I see some ornery in my little girl?!!!

Oh, and on a totally different note, my peonies are blooming!! They are so gorgeous-despite the inevitable ants!

Family Fun

Yesterday when Haydn had ball practice, I told the guys that I was going to go home to make supper for us. HA! If only they knew what I was really up to! I made a birthday cake for Haydn (he chose carmel!) and ordered pizza from Chuffers in Ohio City, since they are the only ones around here who have Ham & Pineapple on their pizza. This happens to be Haydn's absolute personal favorite! I packed a picnic box and the stroller and waited for them to come home. When they pulled in, I told them to get into the van for a surprise. I drove them to Ohio City, and we had a little birthday party for Haydn in the shelter house and then played at the park forever!

I had to take this cake-y picture of Hutch

Of course, Haydn wanted one too. His cake is coming out of his teeth. yum!

I guess the "icing on the cake" was that Haydn's friend best friend from church was at the park playing, so they got to play together. They were born less than 2 weeks apart, so they've grown up together!

While Haydn was off playing, I decided to follow Hutch around and pester him with some pictures! He's totally into the fake cheesy smile.

This was SO cute. Hutch was playing with some little girl who had an upside down tiara, angel wings, and a big fake jeweled necklace on. What made it even more adorable was the fact that she was just as dirty as Hutch!

See the wings?!!
Hutch pretending to throw stones.

Of course, we have to get one of the little one with daddy.
Here are a few more of Gwyneth from the past few days. She hasn't been the happiest little girl lately. I think she's working on a few teeth.

I put her hair up in two clips. John said she looked like a little ant with antennae!! How cute!

Birthday Bash

Haydn chose a patriotic theme with soldiers for his birthday this year.

I thought it was very fitting for Memorial Day!

Grandma Shirley decorated the cake, and it was fabulous!!!
A closer look at the cake. It had soldiers and tanks on it. There were blueberries and strawberries around the bottom edge too. It's funny how we somehow incorporate blueberries into all of his birthday cakes somehow!!
The award for the Best Birthday Card goes to Aunt Amber! It's now hanging in his room.
Haydn has wanted a pinata for his birthday party since he was probably three years old. This year we decided that we'd get him one! They had stars with the American Flag on it! It was meant to be! The kids had a lot of fun, but I didn't get any photos of the kids actually hitting the pinata, because I was shooting video. Haydn went first, and then we had them go in age order. By the time we got to Tyler, it kept falling out of the tree, but not breaking! So we decided to pitch it (yes, you heard right!) to Jacob with a plastic bat. Finally, Caleb got a metal bat and candy went everywhere!!!! How funny.
The kids grabbing candy! We had to hold Jim back! (:
Memorial Day is typically when we have Haydn's Birthday Party. After the Memorial Day Services, all of our family comes over for burgers on the grill and a day of fun. I love having everyone over, but the only downside is that I am so busy "keeping things running" that I don't get to sit down and spend a lot of time with each person. The day was over and I thought, Hey! I didn't get to talk to so-and-so very much! Thanks to EVERYONE for pitching in and helping. Without you, we wouldn't have a party! It was great to see all of you!

If I haven't said it before, I'm an awful event picture taker. I get so wrapped up in doing things and watching my kids that I don't get many pictures snapped. After every birthday party I wish there were more pictures to capture the moments! No wait, one year I asked Amber to take pictures during the day, and I have a lot. I think that I'm going to start just passing my camera around to everyone and asking them to snap some pictures!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDN!!! You are a great kid, and we love you!