Not one but two birthday celebrations

Thank you so much for the very nice remarks and enthusiasm about my new teaching project. I so enjoy reading your notes!

How wonderful it is to have our daughter and her family so much closer to us! Last Friday afternoon Tom and I drove to Columbus (just 90 minutes away) to celebrate both Haiden's 4th birthday and Carolyn's ?? birthday. Their birthdays are just a day apart. Here are some photos of the birthday boy taken Friday night.  Somehow we didn't get any of our daughter opening her gifts.

Then on Sunday, Haiden had a birthday party with a few of his friends. As many of you know, Haiden is a HUGE Batman fan.  His party had a Super Hero theme, and the boys all wore costumes. It should be no surpise that Haiden was Batman. Our daughter had made lots of Batman decorations, and they played Batman games such as pin the mask on Bruce Wayne.

Happy birthday, Haiden!!  Are there still paper bats flying around your house?





Yesterday I started going through some of the many old photographs I brought back from my father's place.  I'm attempting to organize them, but it is a monumental task.  I started with some of the oldest photos, many of which I had never seen before.  It was so much fun seeing childhood photos of one of my great-grandfathers and one of my grandmothers.  There were lots of photos of my grandparents as young adults as well as lots of photos of my parents.  I was surprised to find some old tintypes. I presume that they are of family members, but I don't know since there is no information with them.  Perhaps one day I can identify the people.

I also spent some time yesterday updating information at ancestry.com.  I just love looking at old records, such as the census records.  Everytime I go on-line I find more information.  For example, just yesterday I found newly uploaded newspaper artcles concerning Tom's great grandfather and his great-great grandparents, complete with photos.