My Dad

My dad died yesterday. I am unable to access any pictures of him right now but I wanted to make sure I got this posted on here.

Services are in Pensacola on Tuesday at 10 am. We are leaving tomorrow night to drive down.

James Christopher (Chris) Sparkman

proudly AKA "POP"

September 17, 1944- October 16, 2009

At the Park

Caelan and I had Daddy meet us at the park one day after he got off work- we ate dinner and then played for a while.

The smiles on the swing didn't last long.... he was ok at first but then started fussing. We thought he would really like it since he loved his swings so much as a baby but..... not quite!

So on to the bouncing horse they went!

This didn't last long either. Once down the slide was more than enough in his opinion....

so on to the....

chimes?? They make different pitches when you hit them. THESE he LIKED!

Then we just played in the grass for a while- he liked that too!

Ready? Set......

GO!!

A Handful....

I slept out on the porch a lot through the summer when it was warm. One night Caelan woke up fussy and wanted to sleep with someone- so I took him out on the porch with me. Matt came out and took this picture before he went to work. It is a bit difficult to see (picture taken in night mode- it was still dark outside) but Caelan has a handful of my hair. He often plays with my hair- especially if he is sleepy. So he got all comfy, had a handful of my hair and went to sleep.

Entranced......

oooooooooo.......

....... it's sooo....

COOOOOLLLLL!!

I HELP!!!!

We keep cases of canned cat food on a book case near the back door- Caelan often sits there pulling them all off the shelves..... well one day he pulled off a can of food, crawled into the kitchen over to Ries's food bowl and put it in there!

He was quite proud of himself!

Picnic at Interlochen

Ok.... I have to explain this one- as we were walking down the path to the deck, I looked up in the tree and there was this spoon..... yes, a spoon. It was bent perfectly and draped over one of the branches. Wonder how many people notic it there??

Canoers out on the water (to the left)

Caelan waved at them-

Garden Fresh...

PEAS PLEASE!!!

Caelan enjoyed LOTS of fresh veggies from our garden this year- peas, green beans, beets, zuchinni and squash!

Faces.....

..... and no he is not crying in them...

I think it was.... happy jabbering, high-pitched screaming, the stinky face and.... dunno.

Sittin' in My Truck

Pat and Lee gave Caelan a dump truck for his birthday... he has a great time with it on his own but of course it is even MORE fun if he can sit in it and get pushed around! These were just some really good snapshots of Caelan and... yep... Grandpa!!

Birthday Pictures Part III

PART 3

Last but not least of course...... we had an "open house-cookout-birthday party" a couple of weekends after his actual birthday. It was just grandparents and us on July 1st; then we had an open invitation to folks to stop by to say Hi, grab a burger, have a cupcake.... sit and visit. The downfall of Caelan having a July 1st birthday is that it falls almost on the 4th of July AND the Cherry Festival.... lots of tourists, activities, and people out of town. Not to mention that the 4th of July is the ONE time of the year that our boss mandates all of us to work.... understandable though!

So... there was still a lot of people unable to make it but we had a GREAT time and were thrilled to see people!

Tom Bonhoerst (sorry if I misspelled it Tom!)

Ya'll have probably seen Tom in other posts- he is our social worker through Catholic Human Services. He and his wife stopped by to say Hello and drop off a nice card and a GREAT book for Caelan. Thanks Tom! It meant a lot to us!



THE Cake!! Witzy the Duck!
Matt Ansorge (my friend from work- also seen in previous posts)- anyway- his mom made the cake and it was AWESOME!! Absolutely beautiful and tasted wonderful!! She also made a couple dozen cupcakes.


Rhonda (another friend at work) helped me make the posters for the party....(I just realized that for some reason there is a picture missing of the 3rd one)

I also made a little "banner" for his highchair!


We had lots of little rubber duckies everywhere- they were in all sorts of themes or outfits- I had a whole row dedicated to the military and there was also a set of medical personnel. I forgot to take a picture of them lined up. Anyway- Caelan loves to put them in his mouth by the head and crawl around.

Here is an attempt at a picture of the 4 grandkids (remember the attempt at Easter??) It is getting better! So here is Caelan with Samuel, Erin and Grace... and no one fell face first onto the floor this time!

THE Outfit....

I wanted to have a "special" birthday outfit for his first birthday... I was thinking Jon-Jon with smocking..... I definitely cant smock... and I did want a hand in the making of it. So Mrs. Ansorge (who was very patient with me as I tried to explain what I had in my head...) made this for him- it is BEAUTIFUL!! I almost cried when I picked it up! I cross stitched the duck that is on the front and I knew Mrs. Ansorge was going to sew it onto the front. She ALSO made the outfit reversible and embroidered his name on the other side!! It is sooooo awesome! It is sooooo special!! I just love it!!Don't worry.... he brushes his teeth after all the sweets!

Playing with his balloons the next morning....

Umm.... yes, I'd like a bath with those ducks please.........lots of ducks!! These are some of the ones left over from his party...