Weekend in Cincy

Part of my vacation was spent with family in Cincinnati this weekend. Geralyn's son, Hunter, was celebrating his first birthday. It was a big bash and Tammy and I were recruited to help out.

The pictures are in no order. Here's Nela.

Nela and Hunter on our trip to the mall.

Tammy and Nela

Me and Hunter

Grandpa John and Hunter
Grandma Marianne and Hunter
Great-Aunt Mary and Hanna

Mary, Janie and Marie

Here's the other trio, mom, Marianne and Mary

Hanna and a little girl from the party show off their treat bags.

Hunter and the hat he wouldn't wear

Hunter and Geralyn with the cake

Hunter and Hanna

Hunter and daddy Jamie

Brad and John on cornhole
Twins Caroline and Emily
Hula Hoop King Conner

Hanna hitting the pinata
Hanna and Brad

Look! I'm famous

Your eyes aren't tricking you. That's me on the billboard leaving Coshocton at Ohio 16 and 83. I've become a little famous .. no autographs, please.

Water play

While on vacation I treated the kids to waterplay outside. Von got quite a few outdoor toys and we played with them all. Here's Josie after running Nela through the sprinkler ball.

Here's Nela enjoying the bubbles from the bubble maker.

And Von wearing his new helmet to ride his new scooter from Ann, James and the kids.

Three wasn't enough for Tammy

When I told Tammy I had a photo session with Jacey the other day and for her to check out my blog to see what I got, the response I received was "there were only three." Well, here you go big sister. More than three shots from tonights session. I can create a photo package for $99.99.

More today

We had a pool party for Von's birthday. It was more of a slip n slide party, but we did have a pool and we all got in for this picture.


Earlier at home, Von enjoyed a good bit of time with the Playdough from Leonard's family.

Slip sliding good fun

We took Von's slip n slide to grandma's for his birthday party. It works a lot better going down a little hill than it did in our flat back yard.

All the kids had fun.
Yep, Brayden busted through it.

Grandma pushed Nela down it.

Von couldn't wait his turn and crashed into Hanna a couple of times.

Party with the family

Tonight we celebrated Von's birthday with the whole family (minus Dan and Wendy).

Here are the cake pictures.

Nela ate about all of Great-Aunt Barb's dessert.

Here's sweet Jacey Kay.

Then Nela moved on to Great-Uncle Larry's dessert.

Uncle Brad and Aunt Tammy made Von homemade ice cream for this birthday (all I had to do was make two trays of lasagna)

Making lasagna

It's July 21, a day after Von's birthday, but we usually spend a one on one day to celebrate, and that day is today. We got up, dropped Brayden and Nela off where they needed to go and we stopped by Buehler's for a quick breakfast and shopping for lasagna ingredients. After that, we came home, unloaded, put a load of laundry in and started our day of visiting and picking up presents. First stop was at the Tribune where Leonard's family bought Von a nice bag of gifts. He's excited to get the Spiderman squirters out and play them with Hanna.

Next we headed to Zanesville to have lunch with Josie at the Olive Garden. At the TR, he got $10 from Kathy Thompson and is ready to spend it. Josie got him a nice puzzle book. Lunch was great. It was a great afternoon.

When we got home, we started assembling the lasagne. Von did most of the work. He placed the noodles and spread the cheeses, layer after layer. I took care of the sauce.

He even helped put it in the oven.

Von's big birthday

Today we celebrated Von's 4th birthday. It was a family day with Kujo, me, Brayden, Nela and Von. We went to let him pick out his gift which was a Cars slip n slide, then we came home, cleaned up the yard and got the pool filled and the slip in slide ready. I also made cake and grilled out for supper. Here are some of the highlights from the day.

Nela was walking all crazy in the yard. I'm not sure what she was trying to be.
Here's Von's birthday jammies which he couldn't wait to put on.