Sunday, May 31, 2015

Date Night at Target Field

Jimmy and I headed out to Target Field for date night on Friday.  You may remember the awesome seat upgrade we got on out trip to Kansas City.  I ended up chatting with Mike from the Twins on Twitter that night.  He offered to get us tickets to a game back at home and this was the date we picked.  The weather was looking hit or miss as the day approached.  It ended up raining most of the day on Friday.  We decided to head down to the park anyway with the hopes it would clear up.  We were prepared for the rain since we weren't sure where our seats would be.  Our ponchos came in handy for the walk from our parking ramp, but we ended up being out of the rain.  
 We normally sit in the upper deck, so the rain delay gave us a chance to explore the lower level.  Got grabbed some food and just waited for the storms to pass.
 The game finally started an hour late, but it was a quick game and didn't go much later than a normal game.
 There was fireworks to cap off the evening.  It was cool to see the park with all the lights off.
The Twins lost, but took the series with a win today.  We hope they can keep the momentum going through the summer and into the post-season!

Saturday, May 30, 2015

42 Months

I haven't done an age milestone update in a while so I thought I would throw a a quick one out.  Parker is 3 1/2 years old today, 42 months!  

He had his well-child appointment on Wednesday and is growing like a week (man is that ever a "mom" thing to say!)  He grew almost 3" over the last 6 months!  That makes sense since it seemed like all his pants were magically shrinking towards the end of winter.  He also passed a major weight milestone.  Officially he is 30.6 lbs!  We have been waiting forever for him to finally hit 30 lbs.  He was in clothes and a diaper, but it still counts!  He has been doing great in school and at therapy.  His last day for the year is Wednesday, but he will be going back for part of the summer.

He did have a major breakdown at the doctor.  He is always a bit fussy, but usually tolerates things.  He was very resistant to getting weighed and started screaming when we laid him on the table to get measured.  That was just the beginning.  He remained very upset for most of the appointment.  Not even a cupcake calmed him down.  My ears were in rough shape by the time we left.  Once his shoes were back on he started saying "ah da" (all done.)  He has gotten very good at communicating when he is done or wants to be done.

He has also been singing "E-I-E-I-O" for quite some time, but added the lead up to it tonight.  It's his own jargon, but very intentional.
I took a few pictures with his blocks at bedtime too!
 "Oh my gosh, mom!  Can you believe I am 3 1/2 already?"
Nope, I can't!  Time is going by way too fast these days!

Clay Throwing

I got my mom a Groupon to make pottery for Christmas this year.  It was really popular so we ended up having to schedule out several months.  The day finally arrived on Thursday.  It was a gorgeous evening so we headed out in the convertible!
There was a bit of traffic, but we arrived at Caufield Clay Works just in time.  After a quick intro and instructional we were off and throwing!
Our instructor, Kevin, has been doing this for over 40 years!  He made it look a lot easier than it was for the rest of us.  
I had thrown a few times in high school, but that did not help my cause!  My first item was a hot mess!
Both of us got a lot better as we went and had a ton of fun doing it.
We each got to keep our three favorite items.  Once they had dried slightly we used other tools to smooth and decorate.
This was also our opportunity to add a handle if we wanted, so I added one to my gravy/syrup/"whatever I want to pour" boat! 
The one on the left below used a faceting technique that I think turned out pretty good!  Over the next few weeks they will be biscuit fired, glazed, and fired again.  In 4-6 weeks we will have our completed items back.  I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Parker's New Pet(s)

I may be letting some of you animal lovers down with this one.  "Pet" may be a bit of a stretch, but we all love them!  A couple weeks ago we got Parker a Robo Fish from Toys R Us.  We started with a clown fish, because who doesn't love Nemo?
It has a pressure sensor that causes the back fin to move, propelling it through the water.  We put it in the tub a few times and Parker couldn't put him down.  He realized pretty quickly that it needed to be submerged for the fin to move so he kept dunking it in and out.  He loved it so much that I thought we'd go "all in."  We got another fish and I picked up a cheap bowl and accessories at Walmart.  I set it up on Monday and we played with it last night. 
As you can tell, the robo fish was a good choice.  Not sure if I could keep him out of a real fish tank now.  I was hoping he would just watch it swim, but I guess it will be a great sensory activity for him.  He loves playing in water and will get textural variety with the rocks and plants.  I am excited to play with it some more and maybe even name them!

Monday, May 25, 2015

Holiday Weekend Fun!

We had a jam-packed weekend of fun!  We had a BBQ with our big group of friends we met through Newly Marrieds.  We hoped to be playing outside, but it rained ALL DAY LONG.  Luckily we were at a large enough house to have room to play.  There were 9 couples and 17 kids!
Mary's mom is a photographer so she was loving the camera!
We got to meet cutie pie Luca who was born about a month ago.  
The tool bench was the star of the day, everyone wanted to play with it.  Our hosts were hoping we'd run the batteries dead!
Parker had a blast playing with his buddy Isaac as well!  They were chasing each other down the slide.
Isaac is very tolerant of Parker's craziness as well.  I love the look on his face here.
Of course there was an epic spread of food!
And there is nothing cuter than a picnic table full of toddlers....
Except maybe this bunch.  We excused the 3 sleeping babies!
Jimmy had today (Monday) off so we spent the morning tidying and preparing for dinner.  We invited my parents and Jimmy's mom over for a low-key dinner.  Jimmy's dad is in Texas right now hoping to get a new heart.  Prayers are appreciated for him and I hope to share some good news on that front soon.

Ribs, chicken and tasty sides were on the menu.
 The sun finally peeked out after dinner so we hung out in the backyard and enjoyed dessert.  Pumpkin cupcakes and brownies made by Jimmy's mom.
It was a great evening with family.
And Parker has finally discovered the joy of bubbles!  Can't wait to chase some more this week.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

There's something about May...

I am not sure what it is with May, but it seems to get away from me.  I was about to title this post "Messy May" and then remembered this!  Once again here is a little photo dump for the month so far.

Parker has been hit or miss with his drums lately.  Something I think it's because he can't find the sticks.  That didn't stop him a few weeks ago and he improvised with a plastic carrot!
Remember the baby shower I helped host in March?  That baby finally made his debut!  We got the chance to visit our friends Sarah, Torry, and their son Declan last week.  He was so precious and pretty much slept the whole time (I miss that sometimes.)
Come on...I am in love with him...
We had a fun two day date night last week.  Friday night we walked to the new Noodles for dinner, then to Target to grab ET on blu-ray for another throwback movie night
We went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron on Saturday morning, which was an awesome continuation of the Marvel saga!

Parker has been intrigued by my hair for the last several months.  I find he uses it to calm down when he is upset or to relax.  I am glad I finally got some pictures because I know I will miss it one day.
He has been quite the dancer as of late as well.  His favorites are Owl City and this one by Taylor Swift!
In the funniest moment of the week... I got a text from Jimmy last night, "Parker locked me out."  Haha!  I walked out to the breezeway and found Jimmy trying to convince Parker to let him back in...
The weather is heating up after another late spring cold snap.  Hopefully we will be spending a lot more time outside...
...letting the popsicles cool us off instead of the weather!
It is gearing up to be a busy summer, I am hoping to keep you to date on all the fun!

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Vehicle Fair

We went to our local vehicle fair today.  There were so many different vehicles to look at and climb in!  We mostly tried to let Parker explore on his own, but did gently direct him through the fair.  It was a cloudy morning, but we only got a few sprinkles.

The puppet trailer was our first stop.
They sang songs and Parker danced along with them.
We tried to put him in the sheriff boat, but that only lasted about 5 seconds...
His favorite vehicle was the special ops truck!  He would have ran around that thing all morning if we let him.
 Jimmy thought it was pretty awesome too!
The excavator was our last stop.  It was quite fitting since his one of his favorite videos right now is about excavators!  He did really well, even after getting scared at a very loud horn.  Hopefully this is just the beginning of an epically awesome summer!
Here is the awesome excavator video, you can thank me later!