Autism Speaks Walk 2019

The Parker Patrol participated in it's 8th Autism Speaks Walk on Saturday.  We were at a new venue this year, TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team.  It was a cool, but sunny morning.  Our team was able to raise $2751 by walk day, exceeding our $2500 goal.  You can still donate HERE if you would like to contribute.

 We enjoyed running up and down the field, shaking our pom poms, and gathering all the foam balls we could find.

Parker especially loved the bear mascot.  I think he would have snuggled her all morning if we let him.

 Esme snuck in to the seats at one point and we had to coax her back down.

 

We feel so blessed with the people and services that help Parker all year long.  We are happy to be able to give back in a little way each year.

Boomstick and Boomstick

We took in our final regular season Twins game yesterday.  It was also the final home game for them.  The first boomstick was our lunch.  A 2 foot long chili dog with onions and jalapeños.  It took a while, but we finished the whole thing!

 We sprung for some nicer seats in the Delta Sky360 club section.  Jimmy has been wanting to sit there since Target Field opened.  They have an indoor concession area, which was pretty nice on a rainy day.

I made sure to save some room for ice cream!

The second boomstick is Nelson Cruz.  The Twins acquired him in the off-season as a designated hitter.  His long time nickname is Boomstick because of how great he is at the plate.  We were lucky enough to witness his 400th career home run, a feat accomplished by only 56 other players in history.  It was also his 40th of the year.

We took an early lead, they tried to rally in the 9th, but we came out with the win 12-8.

Such a memorable season, let's keep going!

One Final Pool Run!

We had another run of warm weather this week, so I put up the pool one more time.  The kids loved every minute and were sad to see it go again. Only 8.5 months until June...

All the Sports (and some new shirts)

With the Twins doing so well, there are so many sports happening for us right now.  Here is a cute picture of Parker in his Twins gear using the phone in our garage.  A couple weeks ago he started having pretend conversations in it (yay for imaginative play!)

 We were finally able to break out the purple and gold again, Skol Vikings!

 Parker's school had a dress up day in honor of the border battle this weekend.  I made him a custom shirt in honor of the former Viking that works at his school.

 You can never go wrong with more Husker gear!  Parker has had the same para in his classroom for a couple years.  She is a big Nebraska fan and I got this adorable picture sent to me.  Go Big Red!

 New seasons means new custom shirt as well.  The first is a new basketball shirt.  My dad has been brainstorming ideas ever since Nebraska announced their new coach in March.  He came up with the "Go Big Fred" in the shape of Nebraska.  He also liked the idea of a three dimensional basketball, but wasn't sure how to incorporate it.  I came up with this design and think it turned out great!

 I also made a new face mask shirt for him now that it's football season again.

Game On Second Grade

Now that summer has been run in to the ground, we are ready to get back in the groove of the school year.  We had open house last week and got to meet Parker's new teacher, Ms. Anne.  I was nervous about a new teacher since we've loved Ms. Marie for two years, but I think she's going to be awesome!

This is his first year with his own assigned desk, which is exciting.

We had a relaxing last weekend before school started as well.  We decked out in our Husker gear and visited our friend, Rick.

Esme remembered throwing rocks in the creek last time and asked to go back.  There was a fallen tree to navigate through as well.

We spent the afternoon playing outside.

Esme has been paying attention to how I "push" Parker on the swing and tried to pull him back by his feet.

She also got her first scrape of the year (which is pretty impressive.)  She face-planted the driveway and ended up with quite the scab.

We kept up our labor Day Panera tradition, with the kids splitting hotcakes and sausage from McDonald's.

I guess we are ready as we'll ever be. Game on 2nd grade!