Over the Hill?

Last weekend we drove up to North Webster to see Rob's sister Karen and family for her 40th birthday surprise party.

Karen was much too busy *shopping* in Shipshewana on the distraction shopping trip to bother to show up for her own party...


Rob's other sister Denise finally managed to drag her home for the surprise. Better late than never!

Apparently, Karen has to keep all this stuff for 5 years until Rob turns 40 and give it to him. Or me, since I turn 40 first. I'm not sure.



The kids had fun in the pool that afternoon.

Sean did not want to get in. Last time he was swimming he jumped in without grownup or floaties and sank under for a few seconds until I jumped in (with clothes on) and dragged him out. So he was scared to swim again. He kept climbing up to the top of the ladder and then changing his mind and climbing back down.

Here I am trying to help him get over his fear. That's their cousin Bridget who was an awesome helper for the weekend. I tried to take her home with us but Denise wouldn't let me.

Here he is stomping away from me afterwards.

Guess that didn't work.

Later he joined Caitie and cousin Aileen for Rodeo Golf (or whatever the heck this game is called; apparently it's also ladder golf, hillbilly horseshoes, Polish horseshoes and a bunch of other stuff.... though I looked it up and Polish horseshoes appears to require a ski pole, a frisbee, and alcohol - we'll have to try that at the next party...)

He appears to have liked that a lot better than the scary pool.

We were making up the rules as we went along. I looked them up, too. Wikipedia calls it Ladder Golf. Our made up rules were pretty close (except the ones Poppy kept making up to keep Justin from winning). At any rate, it's pretty fun, and it looks like it would be easy to make. I suck at it, but had fun anyway.




Caitie and Aileen doing a fire dance.
This is one of the only times I thought to take a group shot. If anyone else took some can you email them to me?
I am pretty sure this is Sean's first ever s'more.

He liked it (obviously... who doesn't like s'mores?)


Lounging around eating a hot dog...



Here's Caitie, Aileen, and Molly sleeping in the tent for the first time. Sean wouldn't go to sleep for HOURS. Maybe he thought there were too many girls.











The next day we went to Central Park on Center Lake in Warsaw, which was really nice. We finally got Sean back in swimming. Now he says "I can't swim without water wings!" You're right, Sean.

I found Caitie and Aileen this way after swimming. When I asked them what they were doing, Caitie said "we're being manticores Mommy!" Duh.

If you're wondering, a manticore is a mythical cat/man creature with horns and a dragon tail (may or may not have wings). I don't know how I could not have known that's what they were doing.... Rob wondered if Aileen (who is 6) knew what a manticore was.


Denise gave everyone their birthday presents. Molly is in love with this fish thing, the fish swim by and it has a light. Sean got Kid K'nex which were used extensively on the camping trip when it rained, and Caitie got a write on mirror for her room. Thanks Auntie Denise!

Caitie and her cousin Christian playing Texas Hold'em with me and Christian's dad, Darren. They already busted out Bridget and Justin.

Those 2 are really funny and they have no idea what they're doing.
Caitie takes her poker very seriously....


She won it all in a final, winner-take-all hand!

More pictures to come of the rest of the trip but I have to go and do laundry!