First Day of School!

Can't believe it's here already!  The 2014-2015 school year. 

Praying our wonderful children learn a lot and grow a lot!

Domino Fun

Chad and Micah were at it again!

Book/Wingert Get-Together

Chad's Aunt Loine and Uncle Jeff pulled their trailer out to PA, all the way from CA. Since they were in the area, we had a get-together at Don and Anita's for the relatives nearby: Don and Anita, the 6 of us, Jer and Dani, Aunt Fran, Mike and Kay and their daughter Chelsea, and Jeff and Loine.

Fun time!  Wish we could have fit in more time, of course.  The beginning of school is always so busy for us.  Well, I guess life is busy for us. :) 

Micah and Jenna had fun with Jeff and Loine's dog

Rousing game of croquet-- the whole time I was behind, but it ended up working to my advantage when people became Poison.  I almost won!  He-he!  Wouldn't that have been funny?  The player with the least amount of croquet skill...

This was some argument or another.  Maybe that's why this family likes croquet-- another good chance for competition and argument

The winner!  Yay, Jer!

Still celebrating Katie's bday

Fran, Chelsea, Kay

Delaware

Last week, we had set aside much of 3 days (2 nights) to go to the ocean, since we've not been there in quite a while.  We ended up having a really wonderful trip, and we'll happily do this again.

On the way, we stopped in Frederick to get Katie's new phone!  (party bday present, part paid for herself)

Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake

New state for the kids

Beautiful seaside

We stayed in a hotel in Milford, DE.  Planned to go to Rehoboth Beach for much of Friday.  Started out for Rehoboth Friday morning, but so did the rest of the people in Delaware!  We weren't real excited about the 5 mph traffic, so we stopped to ask questions.  Chad talked to someone who recommended a different beach, so we ended up at Cape Henlopen State Park.  (Weird name, huh?)  Very nice!

Have you ever seen 3 prettier girls?

Obviously, Micah had fun!

After the beach, we stopped at Irish Eyes in Lewes for supper.  Had a soft shell crab and bacon sandwich!  Mmm.

Think they'll get many workers at that Arby's?

Funny thing, there was blacksmith's convention in town.  We decided to stop in on our way home.  Rather interesting experience.  Not one the girls want to repeat, tho. :)  We saw all the blacksmiths along the road at the fairgrounds.  Parked and walked toward a big building, figuring that was a good place to start.  Found out it was a casino!  The security guard came out and told us we couldn't go in because the kids weren't 21 yet.  He-he.  Then we found the blacksmiths.  Jenna was pretty worried about dying from smoke inhalation, and all the kids were complaining about it being too hot.  (They really should have blacksmith conventions in the winter!) There were a few interesting things to see, like the chair above, but we were ready to roll before long.  I suppose we didn't inspire any of our 4 progeny to be blacksmiths someday.

Then started driving home.  Supposed to take less than 4 hours, but it took many more.  Stopped traffic because of an accident by the bridge.  All the while, Jenna kept on talking about how she really wanted to stop at a Chick-fil-A.  Since MD has 54 of them, we figured we could work that out.  Finally managed to do that in the Baltimore area, and we all enjoyed that!

The Cake

Isn't this awesome??  Elaine Garrett (a friend from church) made this Sweet 16 cake for Katie.  Delivered it in a cake box and everything!

Katie's party

For Katie's 16th birthday, we wanted something easy and fun-- decided to have it at the church Outback.  Then we didn't know who not to invite, so we invited almost everyone, I think.  Ended up with almost 100 people.  Easiest party I've ever done.  Chad's mom and dad and brother Jer and his wife Danielle helped us with decor.  We brought a bunch of cookies and desserts, and a few other people offered to bring a dessert.  Then we just hung out for 3 hours!  Teens played soccer and volleyball and had a great time!  Little kids played on the playground.  Adults talked and ate.  I wish I had more pics, but you get the idea. 

It was beautiful weather, and I sure appreciate all the people who came out to wish Katie a happy birthday!!  She felt really blessed and so did I!

SIXTEEN!

I can't believe it!  Our sweet little girl has turned 16 years old.  It can't have been 16 years ago that we first got a glimpse of beautiful Katie.  How we have enjoyed her!  She is talented and funny and smart and loving.  I love you, Katie!

My parents and sister, Elizabeth, and her 3 boys arrived on the evening of Katie's actual birthday, so had baked macaroni and a Star Wars cake in her honor.  

It was a wonderful day... she and I spent 2 1/2 hours at the DMV, and she walked out with a drivers license!  Way to go!  

Big Walkway Project

This is one project I've been wanting for about 16 years and 5 months-- ever since we moved into this house!   I never liked the front walkway (concrete on a fairly steep slope, not steps) and was often concerned about the safety of all the people going in and out of our door.  

A couple months ago, for the first time, we had water in our basement when we had a really hard rain slanting in to the house.  My dad said we really ought to have a tile under the porch to drain the water; and the perfect time to put one in is when the porch is ripped out.  Thus, we did both projects at once... and boy!  are we happy with the results!

My mom and dad and sister (with her 3 boys) came to spend the week last week.  The first purpose was Katie's party, but we spent most of the time working on this big project.  It was a bear to get all the old concrete out!  Webbing and re-bar in the thick concrete.  We rented a concrete saw and used a lot of elbow grease.  Dad, Chad and I both were pretty exhausted that day!

The pavers and sand were delivered during the boys' rest time, but we let them come out to watch.  Logan and Micah got bored with it fairly quickly, but see who stayed til the very end, bug-eyed?  Caleb loves machinery and how things work.

Of course, they all liked playing in the sand.

Here's the best pic right now I have of the steps.  They turned out even better than I'd hoped!  Now I just have to finish cleaning up around them and then we'll plant some grass seed this fall.

These blocks are VERY heavy!

We had the perfect team to do this project: Dad has lots of experience building things and the muscle to do it, mom has great ideas and problem-solving skills, Liz did a terrific job helping us design it artistically and just making it look good.  

And a couple freebie cute cousin pics...