Mark's Photos

It seems Mark has taken more pictures lately than I have. I wanted to post some of the things Mark likes to capture. Photos 1-4...

1. He always busts out the camera when dear are in our yard, especially a 6 point buck-a rare sight.

2. Conner reading a book to Millie.

3. He had a little photo shoot with Millie while she was next to him on the couch. This was one of the pictures.

4. The three kids looking out the window...note Hayden's hat.

It's all about the candy

Halloween for the Raikes kids is all about the candy. They love trick or treating and coming home and digging through all of their stash. This year Conner requested to hid some of the candy from his dad. I said relented and said you need to share, but you can get a baggie with five things in it that only you can eat-he thought that was a pretty good idea.

We have one house we always hit on our street where the homeowner passes out full sized candy bars. The boys picked a laffy taffy and Millie picked a Baby Ruth...does anyone like those?

Here are a few photos...Conner was an army general, Hayden was Darth Vader and Millie was an Ohio State cheerleader.

Celebrating Birthdays

I had a simple 'play dough' party for Millie's 3rd birthday. Five sweet friends came over and had a great time playing play dough, eating cake and ice cream and playing with her new presents.

Then we headed to Columbus to celebrate many birthdays...Hayden, Millie, me, Nikalena, Steve and Hobie. The kids always have a great time and besides Millie cutting Hobie's hair when being watched by the dads, the weekend went very smoothly. Instead of a cake for me, Mark's mom treated me to one of my very favorites, a granny smith apple covered in carmel, drizzled in chocolate and rolled in white and brown chocolate chips. YUM!!!

Harvest Party

A dear friend hosted a Harvest party for the kids. They had a great time with apple bobbing, sack races, balloon popping on the trampoline, delicious food and more. Thanks Dez!

Cousins

Celebrating the kids birthdays with my family, we got a couple of fun pictures of the kids...

Hayden's Birthday

Hayden has been asking for 62 days 'how long till my birthday?' That's a lifetime to a 5 and 5/6th year old.

So it arrived. He was able to celebrate on his birthday with his class and a trip with our family to Fazoli's (his request). Then, a few days later, he had his hunting themed birthday party.

Here are some pictures from his class...




He invited several friends to his birthday party. He was excited about a hunting theme (anything involving a weapon is a plus for him).

We started the party at a picture post (which Mark thought was totally unnecessary). Here are the kids in their camouflage gear with various weapons-Hayden got to told Mark's real bow.

They went on a hunting hike through the woods like real hunters may have to do. After that they practiced using a duck call and went out in the field searching for 'ducks'...decoys my brother let us borrow.

Then we moved on to bow hunting practice. Thank you Noah for letting us borrow your bow & arrows.

From there the kids had shooting practice, using a nerf gun to hit targets from the 'tree stand.'

Of course the hungry hunters had to move indoors for a food...cake and ice cream. I went with a camouflage cake, an interesting adventure getting the colors and camo look.






Mark win big awards for his role in this party. He jumped right in and went with it. The theme was actually his idea. He dressed from head to toe in camo and led the kids through the whole party. Hayden really looks up to Mark and it was great watching Mark celebrate this way with him. The kids had a great time-thanks Mark.

Thanks for stopping by Sam. He got sick the day of the party, but came by to bring Hayden his gifts and wish him a happy birthday.