my uncle jerry...

came into town on the 5th...exciting since we haven't seen him in over 5 years.
my mom hosted a cookout at her house...

dirt at the grill...{yeah, that's his name}

my mom...{that's my uncle in the background}

brat, tina, and annabell the dog

jessica...who is the same age as jaden, but wasn't all that interested in playing with her...

until she pulled out the barbies

mom pulled out some photos that belonged to my grandma and she and jerry began reminiscing...

our 4th...

we had a cookout at our house for the 4th...

{which was actually on the 3rd}
the kids played and the adults talked,

played cards, and had some "beverages"...

then we headed to the vandalia rec center

for sparklers, glo sticks, and fireworks...

june in review...

june 2: jackson's birthday

june 4: jaden's last day
june 7: new fridge {trust me...it was a big deal to us!!}
june 8: came home to this...{it was not a good night in the haywood house}

june 11: jackson & the girls visited sunwatch indian village...{if you look close, you can see monkey holding her nose. she was not a fan of the smell}

june 12: bd's mongolian grill & the funny bone
june 13: st. chris festival

june 15: my last day
june 16: girls' night out at t.j. chump's
june 20: backyard campout for father's day

june 22-26: jaden at vacation bible school with kacy
june 25-27: garage sale
june 27: took the girls to see "up" and then a night out at bolt's

and somewhere in between, ashlyn cut her hair again, so both girls got short summer "do's"

charleston falls...

took the girls to charleston falls...
don't know what these are, but they are incredibly cool!


monk found a beetle before we even made it onto the trail...




the girls brought along their butterfly nets...
apparently, they're practicing to be robbers.

{i love that you can see her missing tooth! nothing like a gap-toothed robber!}





jackson snagged a frog with one of the girls' nets...




and i'm pretty sure ashlyn is the animal-whisperer!
she was able to pet the frog without it hopping away...


and she told the dragonfly to stop so mommy could take a picture...
and it did!


{apparently, she forgot to tell it to fly away before jaden scooped it up in her net}


jackson was as interested in it as the girls...


we were even able to catch a butterfly in our butterfly nets...


this tree was huge!


and i don't know what this is either...but it's pretty interesting.

kind of like a mix of lady bug and honeybee.

jaden's favorite birthday gift?

her hula hoop...

notice the missing tooth? #3 so far...