Camdyn *22 months*

I took this picture of Camo at the park last week. What a SILLY little boy!!!

Rockford Days

Last Saturday, my mom came to the booming metropolis of Rockford to take in The Parade. She was underwhelmed, to say the least- us too!!

This was the most interesting unit (enough said?!)
*Also, notice the vast amounts of people!!*

My dad came down later on in the evening for a cookout, and then we headed over to a field to watch the fireworks. We were pretty impressed with these!

Gwyneth, hanging out before the show

I took about 2,521 pictures of the fireworks. True story. And this is the only "decent" one!

We had a really great time together. It was like our own personal showing of a parade and fireworks. Now, when does that ever happen?!!

Haydn's Baseball Pictures

Baseball is in full swing (haha)! I can't believe how much Haydn has improved this year. He is a hitter, very into the game, and VERY aggressive in the sport.

Soccer Star!

Last Saturday, we went to watch Lainey play soccer. She did a great job!

I looked over, and Caleb was holding Camdyn and Gwyneth! (I think they like him!)

Fathers

I have the best Dad in the world! And, I have the best Dad for my children in the world! God has blessed me with two wonderful men in my life, and I am very thankful for each of them. And-I really like both of them(: I decided that I'm going to list some traits I admire in each of them...

MY DAD:

1. His sunny disposition! Mom said that my Granpda Kemp asked dad after they were dating if he smiled in his sleep. Yeah, I"m pretty sure he does! And-I'm glad that Gwyneth has seemed to inherit this outlook on life!

2. His friendliness. If you know anything about Larry, you know that he definitely is friendly!

3. His patience and level head. This makes him a great coach as well.

4. He's always "been there" for us. I don't think that my dad honestly missed ONE of my school functions. Ever. If we were involved in something-he was there. He would even go to things he didn't HAVE to!

5. His Christian example. He is a rock.

MY JOHN:

1. His hard work ethic. This man is a worker-both on the job and at home. If it needs to be done, John will do it!

2. His sense of humour. He makes me laugh. sigh.

3. His humble spirit. I am amazed constantly by how John is SO rockingly awesome, and yet with confidence, takes it all in stride.

4. His honor. John is definitely a man of honor.

5. His Christian example. I am so thankful to God that He has blessed my children with a godly father.

I LOVE YOU TWO! YOU"RE THE BEST!

Blaze of Gladness

Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks

~Samuel Johnson

Cousins

I'm watching Lainey and Camdyn (Tiff's kids) a couple of days this week. Yesterday, we went to the playground and I forced them all to sit still for a few pictures! I tried, with no such luck, to force them to all look at me (:

Garage Kids

You probably know that John is a "Garage Guy". I think he could seriously sleep out there! I just realized the other day that he fathered three "Garage Kids"! He was cleaning out a bunch of junk (he has all sorts of it!). He was going to throw away a whole bunch of really cool gadgets and stuff, but I had him save it so the kids could play with them (Haydn already has his own toolbox full of his stuff). I didn't realize that Gwyneth would love it sooo much! The kids sat and played for over an hour!

This is right before Hutch hammered his thumb!




Babies shouldn't have greasy shirts!

More Zoo Pictures

I thought this picture was cute of John and the kids looking at the "African Safari" animals
Gwyneth (and all the kids, actually) was a peach all day long. It was exciting this year, because she actually "got" it! She called all of the animals "Bill!"

We loved the jellyfish! (but it's hard to take a good picture)

The boys-being schooled on Lions. We cracked up because one of them was actually named "Bill"!

Could this be Bill? We were excited to get up close and personal (so were about 150 other people, so we had to hurry and snap a picture and move on!)

John and I found a little fixer-upper!

The boys got to "drive" a Land Rover. John didn't get in and pretend drive-as badly as he wanted to!

Zoo Day

Our zoo membership is about to run out for this year, and we wanted to get a few more trips in on it! John took Monday off, so we thought it would be a good time to check out the new Safari-thing at the Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo without having much of a crowd. We had a great time, but, everyone must have had the same idea! It was pretty busy! Here are some pictures from the day-I'll put some more up tomorrow probably!

*by the way, you didn't *really* think that I was done for the summer, did you?!!!

Done Blogging for the Summer

I will probably have to stop blogging for the rest of the summer because I don't think that my boys will be doing anything besides *this*....

...and I'm pretty sure you'll get tired of seeing pictures of it everyday!!! (;

Campfire

Tiffany, Lainey and Camdyn came down, so we decided to cookout and make a campfire!

We also broke out the "worms" for the kids.

They kept getting a little too close to them!




Gwyneth was a sleepy girl!

Swords for Two Boys

Haydn has been dying to have a pocket knife for a long time now. I mean, dying to have one almost to the point of obsession! John told him when he is x years old (not sure what the magic age is) he can get one. In the meantime, John made him and Hutch a sword-ish pocket knife! They love them! And, so far it's working to tide Haydn over!

I think they look magical edited like this...

...and just look at those dirty hands!!!!

Basketball Camp

Haydn finished Parkway Panther Basketball Camp today. He said that he had a lot of fun. The coaches completed an evaluation of the kids so they could know which areas they need to work on. Haydn was "Average" in everything, but was above average in "Pivots (Front/Reverse)", "Offensive Rebounding *Aggressiveness", and "Coachability"! That last one is what every mother wants to hear!

Her Very Own Petting Zoo

Gwyneth loves to feed Bill and Babe! She walks up to the fence saying, "Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!" On Sunday, Grandma Nancy helped her feed them for a long time. I'm not sure who had more fun!

Peony Parade

My mom & Dad took their horses through the peony parade this year, and everyone tagged along! This was the first year that I have ever gone through the peony parade rather than watching it. We had a great time! As tempted as I was to take pictures of everyone AT the parade as we were going through it, I didn't. So- these are all pictures of us while we were waiting (patiently for about 2 hours) to get the party started!

Done

Yesterday, Hutch had a tball game. During the last inning, we noticed that he had his glove OFF, and was yawning. He was definitely finished!

ArtRageous!

On Friday, Tiff and I walked our kids up to Fountain Park in Van Wert for the annual ArtRageous festival as well as Peony festival activities that were going on there. We had a great time!

Haydn heard that there would be "art" there for sale, so we had to count up some money from his piggy bank so he could purchase some! He spent a long time scoping out all of the possibilities, weighing the options. He finally decided on a hand-blown glass paperweight. Some of the selling points of this choice was 1-it's Parkway Panthers' colors 2-It's not easily broken (we hope!) 3-he'll be able to take it to college with him and put it on his desk (ha) 4-it wasn't a mosquito made out of metal to put on the lawn (I may have had something to do with this point!)

I think he made a good decision- and here is the proud new owner of art directly after his purchase!

There was an Exotic Petting Zoo. The kids enjoyed feeding kangaroos as well as other cool things!

Lainey got to go Mining for some fossils-and she found some! Here is Tiffany sorting them out from the rest!

We took a break at "The Fountain Park". Tiffany said, "I feel like a hood." -anyone from VW will know what I'm talking about. And, is hood even a word anymore?!!!!