Mitch loves to Pitch!

Mitch's position of choice this year has been pitcher, and he has earned himself the reputation of being one of the few guys on the team that consistently throws strikes. It has been fun to watch his pitching improve throughout the year and excel at something he enjoys. As the baseball season comes to a close this weekend, we hope Mitchell will have one last chance to prove his pitching abilities and hopefully the team will be successful at the tourney this weekend. After that... we'll just be figuring out what to do with all of our free evenings for the rest of the summer! But I suppose football season is right around the corner... It is hard to imagine what life is like for families that have 2 or 3 kids in sports at this level at the same time... just ONE has kept us busy!

First Time "Pond" Swimmers

We went on a little trek to the Minnetonka Swimming Pond this past Monday. I was a little skeptical at first about driving 40 minutes to go swimming, but I wanted to see what all the hype was about regarding these swimming "ponds". (There is another one just like it in Maple Grove that alot of our friends frequent). What I liked about this one was the scenic drive to get there, winding through farms and countryside, no highways to be found. It is a man-made lake that is very slowly graded out to a deep area with oh, so much room to swim and, oh so much sandy beach the ENTIRE way around the pool. It was quite nice!

I have no idea what is going on with Mitchell and Jonathon here...

One of the things that struck me most about this trip was Joel, making friends with strangers a couple different times. First, when we first got there, he walked right in the water, right up to a group of boys and started playing catch with them with his torpedo, and then again, later (in this picture above), found another friend to play with. He had a blast. It was the most fun I had ever seen him have in the water.


My friend Kate's son, Sam... he just turned one, but is pretty close to Grant's size!


Grant and my friend Daina's son, Andrew. They are exactly a year apart in age.

Grant ended up wearing Ava's life jacket by the end of the day, due to the fact that he was totally out of control in the water! He was literally throwing himself under the water and barely able to find his feet to stand up after all his jumping around. He was making me WAY too nervous, as I was trying to watch Joel as well and they were not next to each other in the water.
My friend Kate and Sam.

Kate's daughter, Ava. She is turning 4 in August and taught Joel how to swim around using the floaty around the waste. Joel loved it!... when Ava tried to take a break, Joel came over and whispered to me, asking me, if I would ask Ava, if she wanted to keep swimming with him:)

4th of July Traditions

First on tap for the weekend, the band "Hairball" at the Spicer street dance on Saturday night. Gpa and Gma watched all five grandkiks, ages 2-12, while we hit the streets of Spicer. It was a fun time, but just a little hard to be ready for the early morning parade the next day... I'd say it was worth it though. My sister-in-law, Terri, and I rocking to the 80's rock. Well, I'm the only one looking at the camera, but it will have to do since it's the only picture of the kids and I all weekend...
Collecting candy!

I think we had a picture similar to this last year. click here. Thankfully, Joel's reaction to the big trucks was not the same as it was a year ago! No crying this year:)

Lincoln, joining in as a member of the BLEEP drum corp.

Back on the farm after the parade.

I am pretty sure there was more of this drink ON Grant than IN Grant when he was done with this lovely red drink. It required a change of clothes and a near bath to clean up.

Surprisingly, we actually made it all the way through the day to the 10pm fireworkds in Spicer. I was expecting a melt-down from someone at any moment, but it never happened and the boys were mesmerized.

Very seriously, mesmerized. :)

Don't anyone dare crack a smile during the fireworks now...

There's a smile!

Jeff looks SO excited to be at the fireworks, don't you think!

Summer!

It feels like summer has FINALLY gotten started around here. We've been in our pool, or swimming, or at a splash pad about 4 days in the last week, and it wasn't even that nice of a week! I didn't get pictures at the splash pad in St. Louis Park where we met my friend Mel, and her son Dane, but I did get my camera out a little this past week.

Joel and his buddy Carter, looking for fishies in Lake Pulaski near our house.

Between eating picnic lunches and picnic dinners every night Mitchell has a baseball game, I am quite certain, we have actually had more of our meals outside that inside during June. Good thing the boys can't get enough of mom's good old turkey sandwiches!

You would think they would be inspecting a fish, or a bug, or a snail or something in the picture above, but nope, it was just a hot wheel car.


Joel's friend Ashlyn was all about the seaweed, but my favorite part here is the look on Joel's face... just check it out:)
Grant... first upset that his hands were dirty... and then upset that his swim trunks got wet. My goodness, apparently we need to get these boys in the water more!


He did get a little used to it after awhile, but the picture above is about as crazy as it gets.


"cheese" Carter and Joel

New pool!

VBS Week

This past week, Joel attended Vacation Bible School every morning from 9-noon. It was a milestone, as it was the first time he has been left somwhere by himself (except for daycare). I think he did GREAT. His teacher said that he listened and it looks like he was participating and having fun. What a big boy! I got these pictures off the church website... here he is below with some pals from his group.

Not sure what he is planting here... (he didn't give me much info on what they did for these 3 hours every day, but it looks like they are planting something here...)

Playing on the playground.

It is SUCH an impressive and large program. It is truly amazing how organized and well-planned the whole week was... serious kudos to the organizers of VBS at Zion Lutheran.

Date Night

Since Grant is not "movie theater ready", my littlest little guy, and myself had some quality time together while Jeff, Mitch, and Joel when to Shrek 3 at the theater Saturday night. It is always such a good reminder of what a sweet little guy Grant can be when away from his very... well, let's just say "influential" big brother... and not surprisingly, he has even more to say than usual when he has someone to himself.

Our evening started with a trip to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. As usual, he was a babbling brook in the back seat on the way home.... "mommy, I went in your car, and Joel went in daddy's car", "we are going home now to make cookies, "ooooh, we are going down a hill... and up a hill", "bye bye cows (as we passed the cows), see you next weekend"...

A kiss for his new puppy.
Since it was a "special" night, Grant got to pick out a new stuffed animal at the store. It was SO hard for him to decide on just one, such a stuffed animal lover!

And finally after all the work, some tasty cookies for Grant to share with the boys.

A couple video clips from cookie making...