Lincoln's Big Day

Well...the third 5 yr. old grandchild finally turned 5! Sure had a bunch of grandkids arrive in 6 months, five years ago. Lincoln sure enjoyed his day. It was a very nice family get together...and lots of cousins to help celebrate his big day. You can see that this smile says it all.

And here's the proof that all the cousins really enjoyed the day, too. They played for the longest time in the wonderfully huge back yard. And it was a beautiful day to be outside.

The birthday boy is on the left and, going clockwise from there, big sis Madison, Jozelynn, Josiah, little sister Reagan, Charlie and Dawson.

Everyone got into the back yard play, even Nora, Yvonne & Kevin's black lab. Everyone knows that a lab takes to water like a fish....and here's proof.

Waffle Farm Campground....1 Hour from Home....BUT a Million Miles Away

We searched and searched for a campground close to home where we are able to keep the boat close to the camp. Chris is very fixated on keeping it in sight when we are camping. We found this huge and awesome lake just north of Coldwater, MI. Most of the folks there are "seasonal" campers...like, they live there 6 months at a time; but there are some places for over-night campers. And they have a few sights that are right on this chain of 7 lakes. It is totally beautiful.This view was right from our camp. And there were lots of trumpeter swans with signets swimming around. The daddies were quite protective and hissed at me a lot. It was often that we saw the little family units swimming around.

Josiah and PaPa did lots of fishing. They even traveled 2 lakes away. Got loads of fish: last night we had a dinner of fried fish. There was even good fishing right from the shore....as you can tell from the little fisherman below.

This morning they got another huge mess of fish. We tore down camp, loaded the boat, and then went and cleaned the morning's fish. Josiah was right there watching and learning. He baited his own hook every time. He just didn't like touching the fish...so he used a towel to hold the fish.

To show how much Josiah fished....here he is at sunset still fishing. Grandpa took this beautiful picture last night.

And here is our traditional campfire picture...I even mastered the delay exposure on my new camera, finally.

And a good time was had by all. I can't wait to come back to this little piece of heaven.

IS IT A POOL YET??? YES, IT IS !

This is how the back yard looked at 8 a.m. this morning.... Then all of the ground work and leveling began....

Josiah & Jozelynn had the best seats in the house to watch all of the excitement.

Ahd then came the water fill: 17,000 gallons! And it took only 3 hours from the two huge "super tankers" that backed right up our drive way. It was awesome!

And here is the finished product, with Chris hooking up the pump.
It looks so huge compared to that little 16 foot pool that was in till last year. This one is 28 feet and 4.5 ft. deep. Lots of water for lots of fun! Now it just has to warm up!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a wonderful day; Charolette and her kiddies came from Granger and b rought a totally yummy breakfast casserole. Loved it. Then we all went to church together. The choir loft was a bit like "romper room", but the loft did not shake enough to fall down....tee hee.
Then we all chilled out on the deck in the sun and had a BBQ
Below is the little "farm girl", Kennedy. After the wonderful and dekadent deserts, BBQ chicken and baked potatoes we went over to Andrea's place for the little ones to see the baby chicks. Jozie and Lincoln petting the chicks. Andrea and David are working on the outside pen for the chickens.

...and the little "farm girl", Kennedy being introduced to the chicken.

ooooh....out of place picture. Lincoln doing the "man-thing" of brushing sauce on the chicken.

Seems that Kennedy was more intderested in Pip than in the chickens....yup....she's a budding farmer. Baby Charolette had to join the petting time.
Then last night we drove to Adrian, MI to see Mel, Josh and Brittany in their end of the school year concert with their violins and coelo. I wasn't able to get close enough to get a picture of the twins playing...not good.

Here Mel was playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"....he just fiddled away. Very nice....and like the last home game of the season, the last concert of the season also honors the seniors. And here's Mel waiting to be introduced.Afterward we had a moment to get a picture with the stars of the night..... It was a long haul to get to Adrian and back. But it was really worth it to get this picture with the kids. They all had worked hard. And the hard work that Mel has put in really showed when the orchestra played "Jesus Christ Super Star". It was wonderful. The orchestra took 1st place at State competition this year, too!

What a Week!

This week has been so very busy...since Dean has gone to Wisconsin for turkey hunting. I am Stephanie's "back-up" for when she is "catching" babies....and this week yielded a bumper crop of babies! So here are some of the wonderful hi-lights in the life of GaGa this week.
Yesterday our extra little "hitch hiker" was baby Charolette (in the green). This is the biggest sandbox in the world.....where the old pool was taken down. And the kids are thoroughly enjoying it. They got so dirty yesterday that I washed off the top layer of dirt a few times and we had several changes of cloths over time. What are these kids going to do when the new pool is put up?????

"Fill er up"....Josiah had to fill up the Tonka truck so that it could keep on truckin'

After Josiah and Jozelynn were down for a nap, Charolette crawled up on my lap and rooted around for a comfy position and then passed out....tired baby....

On Wednesday, Josiah, Jozelynn and I headed to Granger to have a "sleep over" at Aunt Charolette's and Uncle Julio's. On Thursday I was to grandparent those kiddies while Mom had a depo in Chicago and Dad had to do his CPR training at work. We had a good time. Above is Madison....in her school uniform. She is so grown up (at times).

And this is why Kennedy is called "Danger, Danger"....

Today brought Josiah's second T-ball game.....this kid is never without a smile....batting, fielding, running....whatever....a smile is planted on his face!

and more smiles...

fielding....more smiles....

It was so cold and windy that we almost froze! But it was such fun....

Then we took Josiah and Jozelynn to Burger King to run off some more steam before we headed home. Seemed as though it was grandparents day at Burger King, too.

Now, I'm going to play chaperone for 14 yr. old Jacob and his girl friend. She is comming over and mom is still at the hospital. So grandma will keep these two young-uns in my sights till mom shows up....Oh, the perils of being a grandma. I remember these days when all our kids were young and we were bouncing from one baseball game to the next, one activity to the next....and just collapsing in the evening. The generation just changes, that's all.....and we love it!