Incredible Three Day Weekend

What an incredible weekend we have had. Zoo, Parade, Good food, Fireworks, Park, Beach, Family, Friends. Life is good.
We are having a PERFECT summer.

Today we dropped Matt of at the airport and then met up with Natey and Diane. We went to Chutes and Ladders park and to the E. Bush Lake Beach in Bloomington.

Jacob loved the sprinklers/misters.

Natey and Diane both braved the playground, climbing, and sliding.

When the sun was out it was great, but when it went behind the clouds the boys got a little chilly.

Building our masterpiece. Natey put his Sandcastles 101 to good use.

Natey took the boys out to the kiddie dock and let them jump in. He also showed Jacob the ropes of "swimming at the lake". No more info needed about that. ;)

Diane came through and covered my behind since I didn't have any cash. What was I thinking not checking and making sure I had some? There is always an ice cream treat after the beach.

It was a wonderful day.

Happy Fourth of July!

It sprinkled a little bit before the parade started, but once the parade started it was perfect out.

We watched the parade with Matt, Kristin, and Kelsey, Kristin's brother's family, my Uncle Ed and Aunt Sharon, my cousin Katie's family, and my cousin Jenny's family. Quite the crew. After the parade some of them came over to our house to grill out, do some brave swimming becuase it was kind of cold out, play kick ball, and have some of our own fireworks and sparklers. Then we watched the fireworks. A wonderful day.

Happy birthdday Mattey! and the Zoo and a mouse

Today is Matt's birthday! I was always jealous that he had a birthday close to the 4th of July. Always made for a fun birthday celebration or two or three!
Hope you have a great day with your lovely family, Mattey.

We met up with our friends at the MN zoo today and had a blast. Between the two families we have 6 boys. Wow, is it crazy. The boys are all about a year a part only, so they get a long really well. We had an interesting start. We brought the double stroller which we haven't used in awhile and when we took it out of the van at the zoo we noticed the wheels were extremely flat. The boys and I walked ahead and Matt ventured to a gas station to fill up the tires. Here are some of my favorite pictures and then if you're bored a slide show of ALL my pictures. ;)
We watched these two bears play/fight four about 10 minutes. It was amazing and the boys really got in to it.

The new bear exhibit has a fun splash area ( I did not know this because I haven't been there in awhile and was not prepared with extra clothes - but there was no way we were keeping the boys out of it) and the boys had a blast and got SOAKED.

We tried to at least salvage their shirts and shoes and Nolan stood under the dryer for awhile to try to dry off.

And then we couldn't resist making a stop at Chuck E. Cheese on our way home. This was just the five of us.


Jacob sat at this game forever and played - without putting a single coin in. HA.

Another Milestone!!!

Connor can ride his bike without his training wheels!!! Woo hoo!

We've been trying for about a year now, and last summer just sort of dropped it.

Well, this summer, I've been bringing it up once in awhile and would take his training wheels off and work on a few things and then he would want them back on. Well, today he must have felt brave. We lowered his seat a little bit and he went around the block with Matt three times. By the third one he rode around the whole block without Matt's help. He was so pumped. We had to go celebrate of course and get some ice cream and eat at the Rose Street Cafe.


He is my smart one, but definitely my timid one when it comes to trying things for the first time. I think truly because he thinks too much about it and knows too much about the "what ifs" that could happen. I have to learn to sometimes back off a little. I remember how scared he was to do the monkey bars by himself for the first time, and now it's hard to get him off of them and he climbs them like a little monkey, even backwards. I remember when he was really timid to jump in the water, but now he enjoys it a little more. He gets a little annoyed with me always telling him to "Don't give up so easily". However, I overheard him telling Jacob this same thing yesterday after Jacob was getting frustrating with his project and he happened to glance up at me after he said it and winked with a smile. Loved it.

Jacob and Nolan on the other hand, especially Nolan, have ABSOLUTELY NO FEAR and are probably going to give me a heart attack. At least with Connor I don't have to be so nervous.

More adventures

Even with the weather cold and cloudy, this week has been full of many adventures and fun.

Connor received this very cool and HARD Lego set from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas and we finally got to it. We have one car totally put together and it took us 1-1/2 hours. We have another car and a track to put together yet. He's my little builder.

I feel bad, Connor wanted to wear this outfit, that Matt brought back for the boys from China, to the Library on Tuesday (I love our Tuesday rituals we go to Downtown Bagel for breakfast, story time at the library, and then to the park to feed the ducks) and I tried really hard to persuade him not to without telling him no. He decided against it and I said he should where it another time though. Well, after being outside and getting wet from playing with the hose he puts his outfit on and no doubt about it the other two have to do the same thing. Then Jacob put his hat on, so the other two had to put their hats on. It definitely made me laugh.

We had a picnic and played at the park.

Remember the snake we found this weekend and Matt supposedly took far away. Well, while Matt was mowing the lawn, Connor found a snake this afternoon that looked a lot like it. It wasn't moving though with the boys all around it so we poked it. It barely moved his head, but opened it's mouth. Matt got a pole to pick it up with and it was wound around the bush. When he finally got it out, it was torn up pretty badly on the end of his tail. We think Matt got it with the lawn mower. ;( I feel bad that we hurt the poor fellow, but I'm not in tears over it. Matt threw it on the other side of the street, but I don't think it made it much longer.