Declan's Birthday Party

Declan's theme was football. He has become a die hard Panthers fan, not sure why since neither of us is. He will watch the games, play football, and knows the names of several players. So here is his football themed cake!

One of the many things I love about Declan is how thrilled he is to get any gift. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said, "Whatever anyone gets me will be fine." He oohs and aahs over any present, even clothes. We are starting to collect African stories such as this one.

Yes, there was a Brett Favre fan in our midst.

Three cousins enjoying the bouncy house, I guess that is what you call all being smashed on top of each other!

Declan's 1st and 2nd birthday!

Yes, he turned four, but he got to celebrate repetitively! So here is the first and second celebration.

Papa (Rich's dad) was not going to be in town for Declan's birthday so the grandparents gave him his gift early, a playmobil remote control train! For those of you who have been to our house (it is small), it takes up most of our living room! He loves it-it has been moved to his room.

Wearing the train engineer gear Uncle E sent!

Sporting his new Panthers hat he got on his actual birthday! Thanks Grandma!


Playing with the train, a new car added on that he got for his birthday.

We are playmobil addicts, here is the ambulance motorcycle. He doesn't like to go near the ambulance but he loves all things that represent his daddy!

Washington, D.C. and beyond

This past weekend we traveled to Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, not Ohio...We visited the B & O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. We had a blast crawling on trains, watching model trains, seeing steam engines in action, and playing around with our friend Dave. And yes, we know we only spelled Ohi.

Speaking of trains, the Henns have a cool train set up. Engineer Dave and Engineer Declan drive the trains!
The reason for our trip to D.C. was for us to attend a celebration of our friend, Major David Taylor's life. David was killed in Iraq in 2006. He loved to run the Army 10 miler so his family has had a celebration of his life the last 2 years based around this event. Saturday night we attended a "pasta party" and visited with the Taylor family and friends. Above are Jake, David's son, and Declan having their own Army 10 miler! If you want to read more about David, click the link to the right "A Story for Jake."
Declan so wanted to see Daddy start the race but security is tight and there are close to 20,000 runners so this was about all we could see! Rich ran with another high school classmate, Mark, and had a great time!
Our trip home was a little eventful. Our car decided to break down about an hour and a half into the trip. Declan was excited to have his first ever tow truck ride! We ended up spending the night in Fredericksburg, VA. Not what we were expecting to do but we had a nice day in a wonderful town. After making a contribution to our lagging economy, we were thrilled to get home!