The Kids in Brown County

I simply couldn't narrow down my favorites so here are some shots of the kids. The weekend was awesome and the kids had a blast. When I surveyed their favorite moments, Ty said seeing the pretty baby was his highlight. She is gorgeous. Colby sited playing in the creek and Kate reported seeing downtown Columbus as her favorite.

Kate called dibs on holding Maggie first. If Maggie wasn't in her mommy's arms, she was in Kate's.

Why walk when you can always run? Ty and Colby haven't missed a beat.

I love this shot. Bubble baths with friends are special.

The old fashioned ice cream store had a pipe organ playing. Josie was not impressed. The parents in this group were happy to have our noise masked by the "charming" ambiance.

This is my favorite shot from the weekend. The sweetness of these little girls is just too much.

Christmas in July

One of my families is in the process of a move and they unearthed last year's gingerbread house kit while sorting storage boxes. It looked like a perfect activity to occupy busy hands yesterday. Several pieces were broken and of course it wasn't the freshest gingerbread, but everyone had fun designing their own sections.

We were mostly just happy to be outside enjoying a rain free day.

Six!!

I cannot wrap my head around it. He is six. More than a hand full of fingers. Already. He's matured quite a bit the last few months and is ready to tackle kindergarten.

I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner. His request? Chicken wings, mac-n-cheese, rolls, yogurt, pepsi, water, chips, bowls of cereal with milk, cake, chips and cheese, regular chips and ice cream. Is that all? Did I mention he is growing?

I took him out for birthday photos and lost him to the playground first. And a mud puddle second.

He is six years old. I am smitten.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

We play until we drop around here.

It's rained for days and days. We've cancelled more plans than we've kept. The kids are tired of being cooped up in the house. I am tired of the kids being cooped up in the house. It's been rough. I wish I could nap during the day since the gray and dreary days zap my energy. Some of us have taken full advantage of the circumstances.

These lashes are amazing. I am biased but seriously, they are awesome.

Take a load off little man.

Layla has been so good, we were able to eliminate her crate. Brutus got an upgraded dog bed and Layla happily accepted the other one. Even the dogs know how to tackle rainy days.

Independence Day

A road trip with teens equals the need for hearing protection. Makenna had control of the radio with Lauren and Kate making requests. It was a long three hour drive. Both ways. We thought they were loud when they were little.

Aunt Theresa doesn't set time limits on video games. Ty was ready to trade me in for a cooler model. The "Aunt Theresa" model, to be exact.

Oliver's sister, Cotton

We celebrated Ty's upcoming sixth birthday while we were with family this weekend. He was pretty stoked and seems a lot like a big kid lately. Two sleepovers with Aunt Theresa was not enough and he had to be carried out of her house Monday afternoon. Aunt Theresa has big kid toys and lots of boys to rough house with. Ty was never planning to go home.

The boys! Brennen, Mason and Ty. These guys are Ty's best buddies.

Taylor came along. We like this kid.

The funniest conversation was about crazy neighbors. As it turns out, both my mom and my sister has one in the same neighborhood. The teens thought about it for a minute and declared we didn't have any crazy neighbors. I had to break it to them, WE are the crazy neighbors. By day #2 of our visit, Theresa concurred.

It was a great weekend full of family, fun and relaxation. We can't wait to go back.

Blueberries

I took six of my favorite little people to a local farm to pick blueberries today. Thank God we weren't weighed on the way in and out or I would have paid for more than five pounds we brought home. Let me assure you the berries were well sampled in the field.

Cute field workers

We had a sweet time.

Random Updates

God showed off a lot this week. The only photos I took all week were incredible sky-scapes and did not edit them at all.

I text Greg, "I have good news and bad news. Good news: our son is not gay. Bad news: we already need to start 'the talk'. He is five!" I discovered our son climbing to stand on top of our deck railing to look at the young adults swimming in the pool next door. I instructed him to get down and stop spying on the neighbors. He responded he wasn't spying, he was looking at the girl. The eighteen year old young lady in question was wearing a bikini. She is quite pretty and apparently Ty noticed. He was removed from the deck and the next thing I knew, he and his little buddy were trying to lift one another up on the trampoline for further investigation. Lord help me. 

Erin called to invite Kate and Ty over to celebrate 6/26 as Lilo and Stitch Day. She took snack requests (Pringles) and hosted a sleep over. It was a fun surprise.

Lauren made some changes to her college career path. Instead of moving onto campus and pursuing substance abuse counseling alongside criminal justice, she is now attending a local campus for criminal justice only. We support her decision and are proud of her for looking at the student debt projections while making her final choice. She earned a $10,000 scholarship paid out over four years that will cover most of her local college experience and will pay the rest as she goes, most likely working for UPS who pays all hourly employees $5000 per year toward higher education. Some details remain to be settled but we'll tackle those when she returns from her final church camp experience on the fourth of July. We are just happy to not be moving another kid out of the house this summer.

"Mom! Look at this! Dinosaurs have been here recently! Like since Wednesday!" Ty swears he found dinosaur tracks in the road near our house. And they have arrived since Wednesday.

Apparently I am too old for technology changes. AT&T sent me a letter explaining they would no longer be able to service my old Blackberry phone because it only has 2G technology (whatever that means). They offered me one of three phone models for free with no service charge since I have stubbornly used my old refurbished phone for approximately five years now. I visited AT&T twice before making the decision to go without data I never use and chose the "simple model". I am 48 hours into the consequences of that decision and regret it immensely. I am avoiding the phone. It is just so awkward. There is a strong chance I will be re-visiting AT&T on Monday to insist they reestablish service on my Blackberry. I will acquire Greg's newer Blackberry in the future and he can upgrade into something post 2010. He is obviously more hip than me.

In other news, school starts back one month from tomorrow. No one in the Baughman household is impressed by this.