Backyard Camping for Cameron's Birthday- 5/2013

Cameron's birthday is in July, pretty close to Caelan's.  But Cam goes out to his dad's in Oregon for the summer and wasn't going to be here.  So we celebrated it early- we had the Bradway family over as well and we cooked our meal on the fire pit, had sparklers and fireworks, and finally a sleepover in the tent!  Pastor Joe was sick so he and Joshua didn't spend the night.  It was a great time all around though celebrating Cameron's 6th Birthday!

Party Favors for all 3 boys-  I bought balloons and put stickers on them to personalize for each boy.  Cameron's had a 6 on it as well.  They each got a sand bucket, pinwheels, inflatable ball, and a handful of other things to start some summer fun!

The sandbox.... always a hit.

Pastor Joe starting the fire

Cameron's chair and Joshua's

Joshua with Erika and Kendra

Above-  DINNER!  Matt cooks literally the entire meal over the fire!  That foil is full of veggies, and there are hot dogs and brats down on the other end of the table.  Delicious!

Cameron was very interested in all things Titanic at the time so the cake is from the movie.

Opening his cards  

Mr. Dan throwing the ball with Caelan

FIRE!

 .... and out come the sparklers- the boys LOVED them!

Kendra trying not to die from smoke inhalation

Aaannd the big boys bringing out the actual explosives

 Caelan, Cameron (middle) and Joshua

Round two of cake- perfect bedtime snack, right?

Into the tent

lanterns lit, everyone gets settled in....

Cameron and his Papa/Dan 

 

 Caelan and Daddy... and Bear of course

 

And then Dan read "Curious George Goes Camping to them"

 

 

I took the video while standing on the porch- they were all settled into the tent and I had been ousted by then.  But I thought the whole moment was so sweet!

 

They made it through the night really well... even through the rain! Well until it finally made it INTO the tent around 5:30 in the morning.  Then they all came into the house and slept for a couple extra hours.  

Church of Philadelphia Memorial Day Picnic- 5/2013

We had a picnic on Memorial Day and one or two others through the summer.  I am only posting a handful of pictures of the first one-  I tried to focus mostly on ones of Caelan.  Because that IS what most people who look at this blog come for!

Two of our cooks- Thomas Shield and Max Wolfe

Matt is usually at the grill as well

 Cameron and other kids playing with parachute
then Caelan joined in

 A little volleyball-- here are the COPS (Church of Philadelphia Sisters) playing against some of the guys

 Bocce Ball
Matt is helping Caelan play

There was softball going on as well.... sometimes, the ball games crossed into each other!



Caelan playing with Cameron and Isaac

The above picture I am posting for testimonial purposes-  Rhonda (on the left) was formerly a drug and alcohol addicted prostitute; Donna (right) is a girl in her 20's who literally gave away all of her belongings so she could genuinely experience and minister to the homeless.  Our Lord at work!

Hansen family-  Dan, Danielle with Eli, Val and Cam, Matt

Great Wolf Lodge Trip in February 2013

The first thing is... a link to an album on Face Book. 
Each year, we donate toys to Toys for Tots and get tickets for the Great Wolf Lodge the following Spring.  Our friend Matt Kinne had not been up there before and so he took some toys in with us one day and we all had tons of passes for the water park.  Matt Kinne passed away on December 20, 2012.  So he did not make it to the water park with us.  Sort of...
Here are photos of the whole group of us that had been planning on going to GWL... and we included Matt Kinne!!  He was an amazing man and greatly, greatly missed by many.  Enjoy the pics!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4947491318611.1073741826.1038643382&type=1&l=bf7995a869

Yep... That time of year Again

Yes.. I know. 
I say this and do this about twice a year.  I have, yet again, fallen behind in blogging and keeping things updated.  For what it's worth- I didn't post things on Facebook either.  I kept debating whether to post them here or there and then didn't post them anywhere.  AND in all honesty-  I thought I had posted stuff here from May and June and thought I had only 7 months of stuff to post.  Then I skimmed through here and realized I don't have those here yet.  So I have about NINE months worth of stuff to post.

So I have spent a LONG time for the past 3 days going through 10 months worth of photos and videos.  And yes, I am going to post a TON of stuff.  Seriously... there is about 25 different posts coming up of various events.  And most of those have many, many pictures.

I knew we were busy all summer and fall but I kept thinking of 3 or 4 major things.  When I went through pics... we were BUSY.  There was a lot going on!!

In summary....
2 Garage Sales - May and August
3 Church Picnics
Cameron's Birthday and Campout at our house
Cherry Festival
4th of July
Caelan's Birthday
Grand Rapids Zoo
CHS Picnic
Summer Bonfires with friends
A surprise Going Away Luau
Friday Night Live
Bayside Festival
NW Michigan Fair
Boating/Fishing
A Wedding Reception
Baseball Games
Fish Boil
And that was just summer....
not to mention Fall brought us
School, Fall Festival and of course Christmas soon after.

So yep... I will overwhelm you with things in an attempt to catch up.   I won't get it ALL done tonight- it will take me a few days.  I have to prep for a Bible study and also my friend Danielle is in town for a couple weeks.  YAY!  But I have the list of dates and photos so it is just a matter of posting them here.