Playing chicken

Grandpa and Caleb have big fun on the lawn and are joined by others.

Craziness during monster tag

Sherwood lawn provided lots of space for monster tag, piggy back rides, and shoulder rides. All of the children were just adorable. And there was a LOT of giggling......

Family reunion photo

This is the entire gang that came to the reunion for Netsy's funeral. A Chautauqua newspaper photographer was out on a mission to find people outside enjoying the grounds and get some shots for the first issue. Originally, he was going to use a few pictures of the kids playing, but then he stayed for quite a while and ended up taking a bunch of photos of everyone. We took up a collection of money for him and he is going to burn a CD for us. It'll be awesome! In the meantime, he used my camera as well to get a shot of the family.

Front Row: Uncle Jim, Aunt Sally, Uncle Roger, Aunt Jean, Susan, Doris (my mom)

Middle Row: Lin, Molly, Taylor, Shannon, Aunt Carol, Meredith, Odin, Granddad, Potter, Maddie, Uncle Homer, Pokey (my dad), Tom (aka CCT)

Back Row: Caleb, Dave, Mike, Robin, Doug, Buddy, Doug, Courtney, Che, Angie, Alan, Jim, Bill, Holly, Anderson

Friday night crazy stuff

Jumping over the rose bushes, some young, some adults. Eating pizza and just hanging out. This was a fabulous evening!!

Luncheon after the funeral

Moonbrook Country Club for lunch. The big hit was the chocolate fountain!!! We tried to rent that for the rest of the weekend, but no one could afford it!!!!

Mom's Funeral on Friday

On Friday morning, the entire group of 35 of us met at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown to attend Mom's funeral. It was such a lovely service that Pastor Paul officiated, with so many family sharing remembrances of Mom. I hope to have copies of some of the things that were shared about Mom. Some photos of the grave and the group of people who were there.

'Puff the Magic Dragon.'

Dave and Meredith played this very late on Thursday night. Lots of beers. I went to bed.....

Meredith and Dave play the strings

Meredith and Dave were playing guitars and mandolin and playing 'Puff the Magic Dragon.'

Video pig piles

The title speaks for itself.

Pig piles with Dave and Doug

The kids started to jump on Dave and Doug.....then Dave and Doug started to jump on each other!!!! This was amusing!!!

Anderson's 4th birthday party

We celebrated Anderson's birthday with cupcakes and ice cream in the big basement on Thursday night. There were lots of happy kids and adults with sweets around!! Anderson got a neat shirt from Odin and some toys from his uncles. Smiles for him!!!

First night in Chautauqua.....

Our first night there, we had a lot going on!!! First, Molly and Caleb raided the toy bags with Odin and they were so happy sitting in our room playing with the trucks and cars. Later on, the entire Sparks clan arrived and so our kids and Odin met their cousin, Anderson, who was turning 4 that day. The quickly became pals all around and were running each over with die cast matchbox cars and buses and heavy machinery!!! Also, Molly got some alone time with Aunt Jean and they looked to be discussing some serious issues (probably Molly telling her about us watching Aladdin or The Little Mermaid!) Lastly, Molly LOVES LOVES LOVES when Odin squinches up his nose, so she kept repeatedly asking him to do so and surprisingly (he is 2 after all) he kept complying. They both think they are hilarious!!

Trip to Chautauqua

Last Thursday, we left in the afternoon to head over to Chautauqua for Netsy's funeral. We were so full of anticipation for all of the relatives we were going to spend time with for the next several days. The car ride over is always fun (our family LOVES taking car trips, long and short) so the kids were in high humor. Caleb decided to fool around with his blankie (I hope we never lose this blankie or it will get ugly, not to mention dog dog) and I shot him playing peek a boo with me.

A quick stop in the avairy, to see the tigers, and the lemurs.

The second portion of our visit was with a well-traveled woman who volunteers at the zoo. She spoke to us about habitats, nearly extinct animals and the trade of animals. The children were all quite expert in regards to what makes a good habitat for an animal, how we the people are wrecking their habitats, and what we can do to reverse this. The children were appalled at the trading of animals for money or for using as pets. We got to see a real sea turtle shell, a coat made from 7 leopard skins (ugh), pet an alligator, and pet a ferret. The hands on stuff of the animals they really loved!!!