*Surprise!* "Happy Birthday!!!"

A surprise party for my 17th birthday was definitely not on my radar screen Tuesday afternoon!!  I went shopping in Lancaster with Lillia and two of our Amish friends and when I arrived home a bunch of the young people and their families were there!!  I was completely shocked and I had no idea that my family had planned a party for me and kept it a secret for so long, as you can tell from my expression!!:P

:: Cousins ::

::delicious fruit::

 

::drinks::

::Papa John's pizza::

 

 

 ::Ella & Benjamin::

 

 ::Grandpa & Grammy::

 

 ::volleyball::

 

 ::David & Patrick::

 

I had an awesome birthday...shopping with my friends, surprise party, and to top it all off my cousin Zack let me drive his lifted Jeep!  Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special!! 

Photo credits go to Abigail & mom!:)

 

~Kaitlyn

:: Springtime ::

April showers bring May flowers!

 

 

 Lillia has taken over the garden this year and her string bean plants are just peeping through the ground...

 

Thanks to Grandmommy we have a bed of mint growing in our garden!

There's nothing like a cold glass of mint tea!

 

 We doggy-sat one of our friend's German Shepherd dogs this past week.

 

 This little sweetheart is growing so fast!  He's crawling all over the place and tries to eat anything he can reach!

 

 "What's that in my trunk??"

 

Mommy and Daddy went to get mulch and when they got back guess who was driving?! :)

 

 Lillia did a great job on the flower beds!

 

 Hope went past on the zipline and on her way back she decided to grab onto a branch...

 

 ...and let the zipline go!

 

 What a monkey!!

 

 We recently got new living room furniture so David pulled our old sofa out to the curb with his tractor!

 

 Our old pool busted last year after being heavily used for the past nine years so Dad got a new one earlier this year.  David pulled the pool supplies (and pool assembler) down to the pool site.

 

Around the beginning of May, Dad fixed up our old pool site and put railroad ties around it.  He also got a load of sand this past week.  He plans to get a load of river stone to put between the railroad ties and edge of the pool.

 

Fillin' it up!



Fellowship Picnic

The Sunday before we left for Jasper Camp, we hosted a fellowship picnic for our church at the picnic grove where my graduation party was last year.  We had chosen this date a few months ago and then we found out there was going to be special meetings at our church that weekend.  It worked out perfectly to have the extra time to fellowship with our friends from out of town after the Sunday service.  Of course, in the rush to get everyone fed I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the buffet line, servers, food, etc.  Mom asked a few of the youth group girls to help serve everyone which helped the lines move along quickly.  Our menu was Sloppy Joe sandwiches, Caesar salad, potato salad, chips, pickles, and fruit.  Also big "thank you" to all the ladies who brought desserts for everyone to enjoy! 



The children enjoyed the playground with swings and slides while the young people enjoyed softball and volleyball.

 

The picnic grove is a perfect place to fellowship!



We had coolers with sodas, juice, and water...

 

Ella, Hopie, & Joy

 

 

 

 

Have a blessed day!

 

~Kaitlyn