Cullen's Birthday at the Firestation

Cullen Gaves hosted his 3rd birthday party at one of the local fire stations this past weekend. Nate was front and center and hanging on every word of the demonstrating fireman! The kids got to sit in the cab of the truck and even spray the hose! Cullen got to ride in the front seat of the cab and sound the siren. It was a nice hot day and a very awesome party!

Bus Village

Holy Schnikees, our little man in going to kindergarten. And, he will be riding the bus! We visited Bus Village this morning to let Nate check out the bus that he will be riding and meet the bus drivers. We learned a lot. Not as much as we would have expected though. Having come from a family full of teachers I have an understanding for the chaos of the beginning of the school year. However, Troy and I are feeling very in the dark about everything! And, it just so happens this year the bus system is going through major changes and of course our kid has to be a kindergartner. He and we will survive, I know. He's very excited and we are too!

Chelsea Community Fair.

Well, Troy and I have figured out what is the quickest way to blow $80 in less than 2 hours? Answer: take your kids to the fair. And, I will have you note that we all had eaten before we went to the fair so we didn't even eat dinner there! Geesh. This fair, mind you, is no Henry County Fair, for all you northwest Ohio folks. There is no circular midway that you can walk with your wooden cane, there is no awesome milkshake stand,there is no one calling peoples names over the loud speaker to the hog barn, there is a very small barn each for your standard farm animals and sometimes they even double-up and have the pigs, goats and sheep all in one. Of course it is chock full of those particularly interesting carnival folk. And there is a tractor pull. That is where we found ourselves after blowing 80 bones on unsafe rides and rip-off games.

Miss T was too short to ride many of the very unsafe rides. This train ride was her consolation prize.

Tractor pulling.
Yes that man has one arm. His job is to hook up the weight to the tractors. Of course I wonder how he lost his arm?

The kids clutching their ears during a pull.

Black smoke. That's when the crowd gets all excited!

Look at our little dairy farmer milking a pretend cow!


This is her realizing what she was doing and thinking, "Was I just milking a cow?"

Nate driving a combine.

Summer Vacation. Yeehaw!

Spent a week at the lake. No work, all play. Lots of eating, drinking, lounging, fishing and boating.

Tessa at the Quincy Park.

The kids playing with all of their treasures that Daddy brought them after a day at one huge garage sale otherwise known as Shipshewana.

Troy would want me to brag that the raft was $2 and the gardening gloves were $1.

Zack, Nate, Sophia Miller and Sophia's buddy Kylie.
Carly's teeth are notorious for falling out of her head when she's at Archer Lake!


Speaking of garage sales. Kendall's babysitter let her purchase this fantastical hair piece at a garage sale. EEEWWWW!

Troy hot doggin' on the wakeboard.

Troy and kids catching dinner. Not really. But Nate would like to think so.
Miss T loungin'.
Handsome little guy.
Tessa's buddy Allie came for a visit too!

Thirty Five Years Ago

Happy Birthday Troy! Nate was the genius that announced his Daddy was his age and his sister's age. Not mathematically, of course. But the number combination of 3 and 5 makes 35 and that, my friends, is how many candles are burning for Troy! Geesh! It seems like yesterday I was making him a football shaped birthday cake with 17 on it. The kids picked out some balloons that insinuated he is old but that we are happy for him. And, they picked out some age-appropriate cupcakes with football, basketball and soccer ball rings buried in electric green and yellow frosting. A couple rounds of Happy Birthday. And, that was it. Pathetic really. Any superdad such as Troy deserves much more.

Please notice Nate doing a Heisman-esque pose in his Mike Hart jersey in the picture below!

If it ain't one gramma...

Let's be clear. Not all the fun is had at Gramma Gayla's. To make things fair in Grammaland there must be some e-quality time. So, after Gramma G's, the kids were off for a few days of summer vacation at Gramma Char's. More and more swimming and playing with cousins. Nate was astonished at himself when he jumped off the diving board in the deep end all by himself and without any life jacket or flotation device of any sort. Tessa, well, she was pretty proud of perfecting her "back flip." Some folks might argue that she is really putting her hair in the water and then flinging it backwards. But, the girl is convinced she's flipping. Her eyes do seem to roll into the back of her head with the flinging action so maybe that counts as doing a turn of some sort.

Goodtimes as Gramma Gayla's

When the parents are away the kids will most certainly play. This is especially true when they are at Gramma Gayla's! Mom and Dad took off for an overnighter with friends and these kiddos didn't stop! First was the monstrous water slide surprise from Uncle Todd when they got to Napoleon. Hours and hours of sliding and swimming ensued. There was a trip to the Fort Wayne Zoo that involved feeding the giraffes. More swimming. Some serious games of Bango (otherwise known as Bingo), as Tessa calls it, that usually involves the kids acquiring numerous prizes to tote home. Some tree climbing. And, more swimming of course. Thanks Gramma Gayla.