Lincoln Cooper's First Birthday!

 This was the birthday boy at breakfast.

 Of course, siblings then wanted breakfast portraits, too.

 It was marvelously chilly this morning, so they were wrapped up in blankets.

 As she is most mornings, Cheyenne was wrapped up in a blanket AND clutching a book.

 Cheyenne got to cuddle Lincoln on the sofa after school, and he wanted to read a book.  Unfortunately, the kids have fallen in love with the Barney book from their cousins.  It was supposed to go straight to Salvation Army, but they like the flaps.

 "Uh, hello?"

 "Hello, Mummy!!"  Yes, I feel like a rock star.

 Kind of hard for Rilla to go anywhere with Lincoln playing traffic cop.

 My orangutan, climbing trees.

 Lincoln, master of the Cozy Coupe, with his adoring subject.

 Four kids, all whom have loved this car!

 Cheyenne is all for photo sessions.

 To some, it might be the squeeze bulb for the blood pressure cuff, but to Lincoln, it is an awesome chew toy.  I just try not to think about the spit pooling in there.

 Green-eyed girl!!

 Sweet sisters.

 Elliott is fast on his bike!

 I love him exiting the car, like he's all big and grown-up.

 Despite taking some steps, he's still a crawler!  It's funny to watch him crawling on grass.  The exaggerated hand movements to try and stay away from that prickly grass!

 Trying to catch a tree limb.

 Captured!

 On Cheyenne's old scooter.

 Something interesting up there!

 We finally got to the birthday cake, after a late dinner (of spaghetti, of course!).  Evan had an appointment to look at a job for someone, so of course he ran into problems at his job today, and then had to go to the appointment... It's a good thing we get lots of Daddy time in the winter, because in the last three weeks, Evan's scarcely home for bedtime!

 He's not quite sure what this is all about.  I like Cheyenne's protective clutch.

 "Uh, whatever..."

 Cheyenne helped with blowing out the candle.

 A little more animated after the second lighting!

 Marilla and Elliott got to help snuff the candle that time.  And yes, that is a pout on Cheyenne's face because she wasn't allowed to do it again.

 Rilla's cheeks puffing up to get the job done.

 Not really sure about this cake yet.  I think he was looking for silverware, or someone to feed him!

 Getting into it a little...

 Yeah, he didn't hold back much.

 I can't edit out any of these pictures.  I love this smile...

 And the teeth in this one...

 And the about-to-talk face here...

 And the face he knows is guaranteed to make Mommy laugh!

 Dirty boy!

 A quick break for bathtime... and then bonking Cheyenne's tooth with his head.  He doesn't seem too concerned with Cheyenne's distress.

 Birthday present #1-- an authentic 1984 Cabbage Patch doll, new in box.  (Thanks to my Thrift Store Sister's shopping abilities.  She knows I will happily buy any Cabbage Patch she can find).

 Gift #2-- his own blanket.  All my other kids have blankets that I got for $15 at Wal-Mart.  I liked them because they were NOT emblazoned with Disney characters-- just nice blankets.  I had gotten them before Cheyenne started kindergarten, so they're almost two years old now.  A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted Lincoln to have one.  There were four different designs, so Lincoln's could be different.  Well, of course, Wal-Mart had stopped carrying them.  Today, I decided to wander through the Ollie's Bargain Outlet next to my dentist.  I had never been there before, and wanted to see what it was like.  Lo and BEhold, there was the blanket, and for $5!  I bought one for Lincoln, and bought a back-up airplane blanket for Elliott.  At $5, it seemed silly not to!

 Lincoln meeting his Cabbage Patch kid, after Daddy had freed it from 27 years of bondage!

 I wish we had video capability on my camera, he was squealing like crazy here!

 Happy growls, while kissing the baby.

 And, the final gift, a little piano.  I liked it because it has functional black keys!  It has a record function, the kids were blown away that they could press the play button and hear "Tell Me the Story of Jesus."  :-)

 Getting into pressing the buttons!  

 Singing an accompaniment!

Elliott modeling the doll's oh-so-fashionable bowtie and short overalls.  I never noticed, but it was a Preemie Cabbage Patch doll.  Fitting that Elliott should like it!

And, to top off the day, Evan decreed that Lincoln needed to be cuddled to sleep... so our well-loved and precious baby drifted off to sleep in Daddy's arms!  It was fun to remember his lovely birth today.  It sure is hard to believe it's been a year already!

Memorial Day Family Reunion

We spent Memorial Day weekend at a family reunion at Aunt Sally's house.  Despite the fact that not everyone was able to attend, we had an awesome time!  Such an awesome time that I pretty much forgot to take pictures, unfortunately.  But I did get a few!

Brooke is working on this quilt.  She hasn't finished piecing all the blocks, but she was just playing around with some of the possible permutations.  I had no idea there was so many different ways you could make patterns with the quilt squares!  The light is terrible here, but the colors are beautiful jewel tones.  Gorgeous!

A gorgeous little girl, reading.  Thankfully, Aunt Sally still has a large stash of kids' books.  I think my kids hauled all of them through the living room at some point.

Relaxing.

Sunday was Mammy's 89th birthday.  We celebrated on Saturday, because... why wait for cake?

My least blurry shot of Mammy with her three daughters.

The grandkids that were able to be there-- Evan, Laurie and Charlene!  Evan was beside himself with excitement, getting his picture taken with these beautiful women.

And, the great grandchildren.  Only one not able to be there, so it's a big picture!

Lots of fun second cousins for my kids!

One of the zillions of Nertz games.

Good thing there was a large table.

While the big kids played card games, the little kids got Duplo blocks!  They all loved them-- even my way-too-old for most kid things girl spent hours building buildings.

They came in this bus-shaped bin-- which doubled as a ride when obliging cousins would push!

Lincoln loved emptying the bin-- and throwing rolls in the bin, by the look of it here!

There was so. much. good. food.  This is some of Monday morning's bounty-- four loaves of cinnamon bread, and rolls for hot dogs and hamburgers.

Evan figured out that Aunt Diana made 239 rolls (15 batches) for the weekend.  That's an average of 11 rolls per person.  I will freely admit that I did not stint in my quota.  I think that's all Marilla ate all weekend.

Sweet potato fries, about to go in the oven.  YUM!!

Cheyenne had so much fun with The Big Girls.  This was supposed to be a picture of the girls who camped out in the living room floor Sunday night, but Marilla weaseled her way in, too.

The girls had a tent all set up to sleep outside, but the rumblings of thunder warned them, and they carried in the air mattresses and blankets before the torrential downpour and sizzling lightning storm hit.  We all huddled around the living room watching the flashes of lightning.  As someone said, "Better than T. V.!"

Elliott thinks Uncle Leon is pretty cool.

No pictures of the volleyball games, or the bonfire Sunday night, the mahjong games or the huge puzzle Sunday afternoon.  It was all good fun, though.

We got home latish Monday evening, and then spent all day in Syracuse on Tuesday for an appointment.  I finally got all the wash put away today, tomorrow is for tackling some of the mess around here, and celebrating Mr. Amazing Lincoln's 1st birthday!!