Blystone Family Reunion - Slide Show Edition

After our swimming fun we met in a hotel conference room for dinner, cake and a slide show.

While from my side of the family's perspective this was a small gathering, for the Shadle side, it was HUGE!  Although Mike and I kept laughing about the noise level in the room.  It was quiet.  At points we were whispering, so quiet.  

As for the slide show, I loved seeing all the pictures.  Apparently there was a memorable picture of Grandma and Bo from their junior prom that I missed during a bathroom break.

How in the world did Carter get a piece of cake the size of his head?

Sleepy Cousin - BIG yawn.

Yummy Cake Mom!

Blystone Family Reunion: Swimming Edition

Carter, Ava and Dawson,

This weekend we had a Blystone Family Reunion and you were able to meet most of your extended family.  The Blystone Family is Grandma Sue's family.  It all began with Grandma Marjorie Blystone and Grandpa Paul Blystone, your great grandparents.  This reunion was to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary!  What an amazing accomplishment and journey!  They have four children: Paul Blystone, Randy Blystone, Susan Blystone {now Shadle} and Scott Blystone.  

Your Great Uncle Butch {Paul} lives in Montana and he has four children:  Kristin, Josh, PJ and Tim.  Kristin is married to Kevin and they have three children your ages: Riley, Elliot and William.  Josh has a wife named Joy.

Then your Great Uncle Randy lives in Virginia with his wife Kathy, and he has three daughters named Lindsay, Kelsey and Jessica.

Finally your Great Uncle Scott lives in New York with his wife Lisa and he has two daughters, Emma and Meg.

So, I just wanted to give you that little bit of genealogy for the future, so you will know all these people in the pictures!

We had the reunion in Jefferson at Grandma and Bo's house.  Due to a large amount of rain, their backyard was a complete washout.  So we journeyed over to the hotel where everyone was staying to eat dinner, swim and enjoy a  picture slide show.

Here are some pictures from the swimming pool:

Daddy and Dawson

In the background, Kevin, Riley, Carter and Elliot

Daddy taking on two babies: Dawson and Ava

In the background: a sliver of Tiffany and Andrew, Emma, a chilly Bo, William and Carter in the foreground

Bo taking the Roover for a ride

Aunt Tiffany and an interested but cautious cousin Andrew

Uncle Jason and Andrew

He did not enjoy the temperature of the water!  Poor little guy let out a howl the minute more than his toes were dipped into the water!

LOTS more pictures to come!

Busy, Crazy, Sick, Scared, Funny Week

We've had some thunderstorms this week, which means everyone ends up in our bed.  Even at 3:30 in the afternoon!  They were all scared and wanted to cuddle, so this is where we ended up.

Poor Dockie Doodle was stricken with a little virus.  He was running a high temperature {102.6!} but luckily is fine now.  Carter and Ava were at vacation bible school every morning this week, so we cuddled on the couch.  I was shocked that he fell asleep at 10 in the morning.  I was even more shocked when he took TWO naps on this particular day.

My little mini-me wearing my glasses.

T-Ball

This week the kids had their first t-ball game.  

Carter and Ava are on the same team, the Red Sox.  Luckily Carter has recovered from his "I never want to play t-ball again because I got dirt in my eye at Smart Start."  Instead he spent the entire time in the outfield diving into the dirt, even if the ball had already been picked up.  He came home with so much dirt on his face he looked like a racoon! 

Carter hitting the ball

Ava hitting the ball

We need to practice with our little Avaroo a little more.  She pulled the classic first time kid mistake of running to third base instead of first.  But after that she got the hang of it.

Ava is a fast runner!  I'm pretty sure she could beat her big brother in a race.

Playing in the dirt, because nothing could be better!

What did dockie doodle do during the game?  Played in the bird cages, of course!  He loved these weird space ship looking things, and he pretended he was a bird.  It's nice to have a playground so close to keep him occupied.

I'm sure there will be many more t-ball pictures to come!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had the Shadle clan to celebrate Daddy's birthday.  We ended up going to an Aeros game in Akron.

But not without snuggling our baby cousin first.  Yeah!  I'm happy he was finally content to sit with his cousin Ava.  Mike was just commenting that we have so many pictures of the two of Ava holding Andrew, but not any with Carter and Dawson.  Well, honestly the boys really don't ever ask to hold Andrew.  Dawson was really cute and did enjoy tickling Andrew's toes.

Daddy with Roover and part of Carter's head.  It was pretty sticky and hot when we arrived.

Bo's complimentary veggie platter.  We were pretty excited to be sitting with such royalty.  We ate and ate and ate veggies and barely made a dent in that thing!

Slush Puppies mean BIG SMILES!

Thankfully the sugar helped keep the kids going during the very late night.

Grandbo got all his grandkids foam fingers.  Dawson thought they made excellent hitting fingers and also tried a little bite.

Grandma, Dawson, Bo and Ava

We even do yoga at the baseball park.  Chair pose, mommy?

The kids were really well behaved during this very long baseball game.  Of course we got up and stretched, walked around and checked out the kids zone.  We wanted to stay to watch the fireworks afterward, but the game went into extra innings.  At 10:30 Carter started crying "I want to go home and go to sleep.  I never want to come here again."  At that point I called it and said let's go.  Maybe next time we go, we will be able to see the fireworks.  Thank you to everyone who came, we had a great time!   

Summer has {finally} arrived!

This afternoon we filled up the pool and took a little dip.  The pool was wonderful, they all played together relatively happily for two hours!  These three have kept me on my toes this week.  Usually it seems like we will see challenging behavior from one child at a time, but this week nobody is holding anything back.  I've seen behaviors that I've never seen before: eye rolling, name calling {stupid! we don't say that!} spitting on the floor, eating paper, lots of talking back, complaining and tons of potty accidents from a child that should have been trained a long time ago.  Some days I just can't help thinking where did I go so wrong?  

But enough of the negativity, sometimes I just have to vent a little.  I know that overall they are really good kids.  But they are still just kids, not little adults.  

Wild Roo Face

Dawson practicing his boat pose

Nap time in the pool

Beautiful weather predicted for this weekend, I guarantee we will be enjoying every last second of it.

Silly Stories

Just some silly stories for the grandparents........

• The terrible twos have been coming to a head with Dawson.  Recently I went over to him to talk and he hit me on the face!  After a little talk about being gentle I told him to apologize.  Well, he spread open his little fingers about two millimeters and said "this much sorry."  
• Carter has been hilarious lately.  He gets so angry because Dawson is copying him.  One day Dawson was wearing a blue Diego shirt clearly copying Carter wearing a brown shirt with airplanes.  Carter's explanation?  Diego is inside the airplane.  Then it happened again!  Carter gets so exasperated and angry.  Dawson was wearing a red shirt with surf boards and Carter was wearing a plain green shirt.  Clearly copying!
• Carter was complaining to me this morning that Ava made him stay up to watch the sun set.  Ava was so excited that the sky was so pretty and pink.  Carter said sadly "I think Ava must be nocturnal."   I think Carter is right!