Movie Night, Neighborhood End of Summer Get Together, Football

Thursday night we went downtown to Central Park for movie night (this was the second one, we unfortunately missed the first one).  We watched the movie The Lorax.  It was great seeing such a good turnout, it was a beautiful evening, the boys ate their fill of popcorn, and we had so much fun.  Our city has been putting on and trying a lot of great things for our community and we try to participate in whatever we can. 

  

 

Saturday night our neighborhood had our annual (I think this is the 4th) End of Summer Get Together.  One family takes their turn at hosting (we have dodged that job yet, but our time will come) and we have so much fun.  The main dish and drinks are provided (the developer or builder of our neighborhood always pitches in for this) by the hosts and then everyone else brings a dish to pass.  The past few times a bouncy house has been rented for the kiddos.  We also have washer and bean bag tournaments and play for trophies.  It’s pretty funny.  This year a free throw contest was also added.    We usually end the evening sitting around the fire.  We love our neighborhood, have I mentioned that before?

   

 

Everyone still awake (wide awake!) except the wee one as we make our way home….

 

 

With school right around the corner, along with it also comes fall (my favorite) and FOOTBALL.  We enjoy watching and playing it in our backyard, and even more exciting this year is Connor playing it for the first time.  He looks so darn cute in his uniform and I chuckle every time because the helmet and pads weigh more than him probably.  He looks like he’s going to topple over.  I can’t wait to watch him.  He is really pumped about it.

Mommy Dates

I was able to (barely) get my mom dates in with the three older boys before school started.  I am hoping to get a Saturday morning worked in for Lucas so we can just hang out.  However, he is very much a mommy’s boy lately so I get a lot of snuggle time with him.  The boys have been brainstorming and thinking about what they wanted to do for awhile.

Connor’s date:  We had tickets to a Twins game last week Wednesday (15th) during the fair and Connor couldn’t really decide what he wanted to do for his date, so he chose to be the one to go to the game with me.  We headed up a little early and the whole way there we either listened to Harry Potter on CD or Connor read to me.  We have been reading through the series since the June and are on #6.  I have read #1-5, but not 6-7, so I’m excited to be reading these two for the first time with him as well.  It was great having the whole car ride to read with no interruptions like we usually have.  At the Twins game we sat at a window booth at the Town Ball Tavern for lunch before the game started.  (A random man came up to me and told me he liked my pig tails and Connor looked at me and said, “Now that was kind of weird.   Mom, that was like asking you if you were single”.  ;)  Where do kids come up with this stuff ).  We stayed for the whole game and then on the way back again Connor read for a little bit and we listened to some on CD.  We made a stop at the Dairy Queen before picking up his brothers.  Pretty good day in Connor’s eyes – baseball, yummy food, reading, and ice cream.  It was so nice spending time with him one on one.  It’s hard, even when I try to make a conscious effort to give them one and one it doesn’t last very long because someone else is needing me for something or interrupting.  I really enjoy my one on one dates with these guys.  It makes me sit back, appreciate who they are, and just soak them in.  Thanks for a great day Connorman, you kind of get the short end of the stick sometimes because your brothers are a little more needy with my time and you are so self sufficient and responsible.  Love you bud.

 

 

Jacob’s date:  Jacob had about a million things planned and thought it no problem to get them all in.  I did have to ask him to change his mind on going to Chuck E. Cheese.  ;)  Another thing he wanted was going to the water park, unfortunately it was kind of a crummy day (22nd) and thankfully, in the morning he rearranged our schedule! ;)  We started out playing some baseball on the baseball field.  Then we went home and played some Wii together before heading to lunch at the Pizza Ranch.  There we also played some video games together.  Then we went to go play some tennis at the tennis courts and cooled off with a treat from the Blast.  We took our treat to a park and then played.  To end our day together we went bowling.  Oofta…it was quite a busy day, but so much fun.  He is turning into such a little man.  His laugh is infectious and he still loves to snuggle with me and hold my hand.  He comes up with the silliest things sometimes.  I enjoyed our very active day and it made me feel young!  Love you Jakeyman.

 

 

Noley’s date:  Nolan had to keep up with his brother and also had a million things planned for our day (23rd).  We went to the library and he got his free book (for reading over the summer) and then chose to play the computer together there for a little bit.  Then we went home and played some games, we built a zoo with all of our blocks and animals, and played some Wii.  We went for lunch at the Pizza Ranch as well and also played some video games together.  After lunch he wanted to try swimming at the Country Club (he really wanted to go swimming, but it wasn’t great weather) so we did, but were only there for about 40 minutes.  We went to play at a park for a little bit and ended our day together with a treat from the blast.  While eating our ice cream we went for a little walk along the path.  Another busy day.  It’s so nice to have Nolan not have to fight for attention and be so sweet.  It is like night and day difference when it’s one on one.  I love this little guy’s spunk, even though sometimes it is also what frustrates me.  I was really glad to be able to appreciate all the “spirited” things about him during our day together.  He is one determined little man and I can’t wait to see him soar as he gets to be himself and have “his” time in Kindergarten.  Love you Noleyman. 

Living at the 2012 SCFF

I seriously felt like we lived at the fair this year.  We all LOVE it though.  The boys and I were there one of the days for almost 12 hours.  Pretty crazy huh?  I know. I fully admit that it is insane. The fair runs from Tuesday –Sunday and we were there every day at some point.  Some days longer than others, but every day made an appearance.  My mom and dad buy the grandkids the wristbands (so generous) that allow them to go on rides anytime.  For us it’s the way to go, the boys love the rides and we can come and go as we please.  The weather was absolutely perfect all week.  The boys and I went up early on Tuesday before things were open to get the wristbands and to “scope” things out.  The boys had to check the height requirements for all the rides.   Lucas even caught on to it…

 

Every day we were fortunate to either meet up with family or friends and the boys were in heaven.  Most of the time Matt would join us at night after work.  The boys went on rides with Kelsey and Megan, many different friends, some 2nd cousins, Mattey and Natey, and Matt and I even were able to go on a couple.  Matt went on the Zipper and Super Shot with Connor, I went on the Super Shot with Connor, Mattey went on the Freak Out with Connor – along with a few kiddie rides, and Natey went on the Ring of Fire with Jacob and Connor, and the Remix with Connor – along with a few kiddie rides, Grandma went on some of the kiddie rides as well.  There was no chance of being bored.

We went on so many rides, of course ate some fair food, watched and listened to some shows, checked out the animals, and played some games. 

    

 

The first time anyone went on the Supershot…

Lucas waving to his brothers.

 

 

 

 

Watching Jacob and Connor do the the Super Shot again.  Connor went on this thing 27 times, yes…he kept track.

 

The boys each got to pick one game to play.  They all played the Toss the Ping Pong Ball into a Fish Bowl game.  If they got it into the fishbowl they won a gold fish.  We ended up winning enough and a lady gave us some so the boys decided to trade them in for a hermit crab.  The next day they each brought their own money and decided to play one more time each.  They won enough fish again to trade in for another hermit crab.  Lucky us now have 2 hermit crabs at home!  Yippee!

 

 

 

They had been asking to do the water bubbles the whole week and I told them they could if they paid for it, so they all did.

 

   

 

 

It was so much fun, however I will admit we were a little crazy and faired out come Monday.  It took a couple of days to return to normalcy and recover.  ;)