Saturday, September 13, 2008

The Benefit of a Good Party

I am doing a dismal job keeping up with things lately . . . so this post is mostly pictures of some fun things the kiddos have gotten to take part in the past couple of weekends, including 2 benefits, a birthday party/reunion, and a car show.

Last Saturday we went to a benefit hosted by Caleb & Jackie Threewits at Caleb's parents' farm. Featuring a pond with a large dock and 2 diving boards; a huge tree house; turkeys, cows, pigs, kittens and horses; it was a kids' paradise and then some. All of the kiddos have been looking forward to riding Jackie's horses, so this was a real treat for them.

Way too cool


The swingset was handmade and perfect for giving underdogs


Too bad we didn't bring swimming suits!


About 5 minutes after this picture was taken, Malachi took a dive trying to grab the 2 fish in the water.








Karis was scared to death to even get on the horse, but after riding with Caleb for a while, she became so courageous as to insist she ride by herself.


Saturday night, we went to the classic car show, and the kiddos had a great time playing in the fountain while Danny admired boxy 80's station wagons and I admired Model A's.








Sunday we had lunch at Danny's parents' house with his grandparents from Florida; his aunt & uncle, Sandy & Brian; his aunt and her 2 daughters, Hillary and Hannah; and his sister's family - Robyn, John, Quinn & Ian. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the kids all came up with some bizarre games, which kept them happily occupied for most of the afternoon.



I was quite proud of the cake . . . until Rachel sat on it when we stopped at the church to pick up Danny on the way up to the party. Oh well, you can't really mess up chocolate cake.







This weekend we attended a benefit hosted by Tammy and Jeff Dietrich, which included a kiddie tractor pull (Zekers came in third in his age bracket and won a trophy - yippee); relay races; a corn hole tourney (we could have won a trophy for "longest match in the history of corn hole"); and a spaghetti dinner. Unfortunately, I discovered when I tried to take a picture of Kari Bou on the tractor, that my camera batteries were dead. But a good time was had by all - especially after we took the kids home for a nap and came back for dinner!

In other news . . . Rachel just started playing soccer this week. Since 81 kids signed up in the 5-6 age group, they split them up into 12 teams, and Danny will be coaching Rachel's team. Hopefully this will be a fun venture for both of them.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

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~~anna~~ said...

So, does that make you a 'soccer mom' now?
I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing all the pics each time!

Chris said...

I give up - what's an "underdog"?


I will talk to you later about posting my picture............

Anonymous said...

Chris, WE called them 'undertakers' when we used to swing at school, back in the day. mm

Charity said...

Ma - the next time you come over, just sit on one of our swings and I'll show you. :D

Jessi said...

Ha ha, charity! what a title! did you use "benefit" because you went to two benefit parties, or am i just reading far into something that isn't there! (it's happened before) ;) The pictures were great!

oh, today during our lunch conversation, Vaughn told me "karis hurt her foot!" i said "she did, didn't she." he said "ya, Bou-Bou hurt her foot!" they crack me up with their pet names! I'm tell'n ya, the day is coming when they either 1) realize they both have "real names" or 2) they're both old enough to be weirded out by the cute names they've given each other!

Charity said...

Jesse - yes, the title was my lame attempt to be clever. That's so funny about VJ and Kari Bou - they make quite a pair. I feel bad for all the sunday school teachers who will have to deal with both of them together!! they are pretty darn cute, though.

Jessi said...

oh, charity, i didn't think it was a lame title at all! I thought it was incredibly creative! ;)

Anonymous said...

please let me know when rachel's soccer practices are. i want to see danny in action :):)

marissa finch said...

i love the picture of zeke, karis, and rach by the fountain....it depicts their personalities so well!

Charity said...

Dee, Rachel has 2 more practices - Saturday from 9-10 and Tuesday from 5:30-6:30. Until Oct. 23rd, she'll have the same schedule every Sat. & Tues for games. Danny came back Tuesday saying that coaching 5-6 is a lot more work than he bargained for (but I think he enjoyed it).

Marfin, I was thinking the exact same thing about that picture!