Kendalyn's 9th Birthday Party

Kendalyn's birthday party was held at the YMCA which has a great game room for kids.  Kendalyn is trying out the Skee-Ball before her guests arrive.  The play area in the background was a popular place for them to gather and have fun.

Later as the others began to explore they figured out they could get high scores at Skee Ball if they stood beside the targets and tossed balls from there. 

Ping Pong is harder than it looks!  Rory, Laura's friend, is attempting instruction.

Below it looks like he has the girls' attention, though.

More Skee-Ball with Mom looking on.

Then there are the BFFs 4 ever!  Claire and Kendie have been friends since Kendie's first day at Tiny Treasures. Even though they attend different schools, they still get together and have "play dates" as often as possible. 

Mom forgot to bring fire for the candle, so Kendie is showing her disapproval. Oh well, she remembered everything else!

Kendie wanted a cupcake theme so Rory made cupcakes for the party, Kendalyn chose Cotton Candy, Strawberry Shortcake and her favorite Mint Chocolate for the icing flavors. YUM!

Kendalyn invited her whole class, she had a pretty good turn out. This was the Silly Face picture, Evan had the best silly face according to Kendalyn.

The climbing wall was a huge hit, the kids started asking to climb as soon as they walked in the door. Kayla made it to the top of the climbing wall at least 3 times. 

Up, up, up goes Kendalyn, ok so maybe not up, up, up, how about just up.

Creative camera shot makes it look like Kendie climbed up the wall much farther than she really did. She had fun trying though. Look at that concentration!  Below, back on terra firma!  Whew!

Population Explosion

The Canadian Goose population at Thousand Trails Hershey is exploding and seems to be in good shape for the future!  Here is our latest discovery, a new nest with 4 eggs and an attentive Mom on guard.  Alas a few days later the nest was broken up and the eggs were in the pond.  Whether predators or an angry goose were responsible is not known.

Above we see a family with two young ones and at left are two larger babies getting swimming lessons.

A slightly larger family of 4 goslings gets swimming and dining instruction on the campground pond.

Above are six babies heading to the pond for early training in being self sufficient geese.  While to the right we have the largest family we have noted consisting of 7 offspring.  One can only imagine the noise and droppings later in the year when flight training begins and land-based browsing is included!

Ahh!  Keeping warm by huddling together after a swim while Mom and Pop keep a close lookout.