Grandpa is 60!- June.

Our trip to Ohio had a fantastic grand finale- Grandpa's 60th birthday party!

We decided to each create something incorporating 60 things. Henry made a poster with 60 stamps (green in the upper left). Mine had 60 sticker (give or take a few). Natalie's picture of Grandpa featured 60 pieces of pasta. Henry colored a picture of ice cream because Grandpa loves ice cream. And mama glued 60 mini snickers bars to a poster. She was awfully proud of it until the wind knocked it off the wall and all the candy bars fell off. It was like busting open a pinata. And the kids all came running when the candy hit the ground.

Henry also cut out and pasted 60 cars.

Mama, Oliver and Natalie spent one afternoon cutting and stapling paper chains. This is mama's.

This was the work of Oliver, Henry and Mama.

Natalie (with some help from Henry and Oliver) created 60 Perler bead creations.

Aunt Jenni made Grandpa's nut necklace and mama made some cool "60" sunglasses. I hope we didn't go over the top.

But Uncle Kevin may have topped everyone when he showed up with 60 ice cream bars. Awesome!

Grandpa requested that we have a big campout for his party. We set up the tables in the driveway and the tents in the back yard and set a few ground rules. No one was allowed inside the house unless you had to use the bathroom and NO SHOWERS ALLOWED.

After our first night we woke up to a big breakfast of pancakes and sausages. Thanks Grandma!

Georgie was allowed to break the rules of the campout. Grandma volunteered to sleep inside with Georgie so the rest of us could sleep outside in the tent. We didn't figure Georgie would sleep very well out there. Thanks again, Grandma!

Tessa must have slept well because she was rocking soem awesome bedhead.

Mama found this walker at a garage sale and it came in handy all weekend for corralling Georgie. It didn't do such a good job of keeping track of her socks.

Aunt Jenni put Georgie in the tire swing. Georgie loved it until she got tired and fell asleep in the air. (Why didn't she ever sleep in the baby swing we had?)

She snoozed for a couple minutes while Aunt Jenni snuck in a cuddle.

Uncle Kevin also scored a bounce house from one of his friends and the older kids spent hours having fun inside.

Next up- a Slip N' Slide! Of course, Henry and I didn't have the guts to try it, but everyone else had fun.

Mama wrapped Tessa up like a burrito so she couldn't get away.

Mama's maid of honor, Miss Elizabeth (Queen), came down for the night to celebrate.
As of the campout, she lived in Ann Arbor, but now she lives in Denver.

We were so glad she was able to come down, but will miss seeing her when we're back int he Midwest. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go see her in the mountains!

Back to the party- we had a carrot cake to celebrate.

Along with more kids! The Meyer clan showed up for a cookout in the evening. Mama organized a "Minute to Win It" competition and chaos ensued.

The day ended with frozen cokes, campfires, and even a twilight chainsaw exhibition as Jake Coolman and Brandon Meyer cut down a few ash trees of Grandpa's. It doesn't get much better than that.

National Threshers Reunion- June.

Here's a little known fact- there are still steam tractors from the early 1900s working and most of the people that own them live in northwest Ohio.

So on an exceptionally cool June afternoon (jackets?- this is why we come up north for the summer), we packed up and drove to Wauseon to visit the Threshers Reunion- or as mama calls it "Am I going to die when a 100-Year-Old Steam Engine Explodes?" Don't laugh- this is Ohio and it has happened. Lucky for us, no Seiberts were harmed. Well, mama did fall when she was walking in front of the grandstand and scraped both knees, but that's pretty normal for mama.

They name tractors after Oliver?

Because we skipped naps, things like Oliver tractors were enough to make Henry upset. We were so happy when we saw this tractor was names "John Henry."

We got to walk through a Redwood tree with a house carved inside. They said this tree was older than Jesus- until the cut it down.

We even got to see a beam from the Twin Towers. This Reunion really had everything.

We climbed the grandstand just in time to see the parade.

The tractors were pretty cool, but they moved really slow. It was hard keeping 5 kids interested very long.

The people who collect these tractors are a pretty close bunch. so the commentator would talk about who owns the tractor, who used to own the tractor, and what other tractors these guys now own. But after all that, we got to listen to the tractors whistle!

There was one funny car that kept crashing the parade.

And it was unrelated to the show, but we even got to see a blimp fly over. Add on corn dogs, deep fried cheese curds, and ribbon fries made with a drill and a potato and it sounds like my idea of heaven.

Up to Ney- June.

I had a great long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. As Grandpa says, I wasn't any trouble at all as long as i didn't have to do anything or go anywhere. But give me 15 minutes of being grumpy and I was fine and happy again. (Mama's main parenting credo for me is "Just leave June alone.")

Great Grandma Wagner came over to spend the day with us. Henry read us all a book.

And we all got a picture together. We were on the way to go swimming, so you can see I'm in one of my grumpy stages.

Grandma brought over a box of old mementos and I perked right up when I found this belt woven out of old cigarette wrappers.

And of course, Georgie was just happy to be there.

Grandma bought over a bunch of pictures. Grandma and Grandpa don't have a scanner, so mama had to take pictures of the pictures she wanted to post. Look at how cute mama was! And she still hangs that stocking up every Christmas.

Unfortunately for mama, her awkward stage hit hard. Mama says she LOVED that black and turquoise combo though, so she doesn't mind.

We were so excited to find a picture of Grandma Seibert as a little girl with a lamb cake just like we make at Easter!

The main purpose of all of these pictures of pictures was to find some awkward photos of Aunt Jenni to post on Facebook for revenge for the pictures Aunt Jenni put up of mama on her birthday. (Like we said, mama was awkward.)

Mama was so cute!

Aunt Jenni, what happened to your hair?

Visiting friends in Cincinnati- Mama.

After the wedding festivities were over, I high-tailed it down to Kentucky to visit my college friend Colleen.

And her brand-new sweet litttle guy Owen, who was nice enough to sleep on me during the whole visit, despite the fact I kept smooching him and squeezing his chunky little legs.

And then I got a hold of his brother, Logan too!

If the idea of twins is over-whelming to you (as it is to me), keep in mind that Colleen and Kyle also have another son, Connor, who just turned 3. And they are both in residency to become cardiac specialists and oncologists. And their days off only line up about once every 2 months. And they decided to throw Connor a birthday party on that one day off. AND Colleen just happened to throw together this fondant Thomas cake somewhere during her 2 free hours a day (along with tons of other food that could have served hundreds). She is seriously a super mom.

Also in town were our friends Leah and Olivia. Olivia is 5 weeks older than Georgie, and how do I put this delicately, could EAT GEORGE IN ONE BITE!

Watch out, Logan, she's coming for you! (Actually she was leaning in for a kiss. How sweet is that?)

Look at those rubber band wrists.

Try to keep them little until we see you again, Miss Colleen!

It stormed all morning long, but the clouds lifted (or at least stopped dumping water) long enough for some of the crew to cross the bridge from Newport over to the fairest city of them all- Cincinnati.

The rain held off long enough for the game to end for for Paul and I to take this adorable picture.

This makes the second 601 wedding that was followed up by watching a Reds game with the bride and groom.

It never occurs to us to take a picture during the game instead of afterwards when all you see is an empty stadium and rain tarps.

Even in the rain, the Great American Ballpark is a thing of beauty. We took Paul and Suze back to their place to get some rest before they jetted off to Mexico. Then we stopped at our second favorite place in the greater Cincinnati area- UDF. That's United Dairy Farmers for you out-of-towners, and it's a gas station that sells ice cream. Delicious ice cream.