Road Rash

Parker had a bit of a wipeout just as the last of our friends were leaving on Sunday.  As soon as he hit the pavement I knew it would be a doozy.  A little bit of blood and a lot of tears later... A scuffed forehead and fat lip!

 Once the intrigue wore off he was all smiles.  He LOVES the sound the camera on my phone makes so he has started taking more selfies!

It always looks worse the next day when it scabs over, but a lot of the swelling had gone down.

The swelling was all gone last night and I think he is on the mend.  This summer has been filled with endless bumps, bruises and scrapes.  I guess that's the life of a toddler!

New Fun with Old Friends

Six of the girls from high school got together on Sunday for a BBQ.  Spouses and kids were involved this time, so it was a full house!  We snacked and chatted for while before firing up the grill for dinner.

 I tried not to go overboard, but sometimes I can't help myself.  We had potato salad, baked beans, corn and black bean salad and fruit.

 The unofficially dubbed "Year of 30" starts in a couple weeks.  We are all going to be turning 30 in the next year.  Technically it's a year and 10 days since I have a later August birthday and will only be 29 this year.  I put together a fun "survival kit" for our old age that included: wrinkle cream, hard candy, a heavy-duty make-up brush (paint brush), reading glasses and denture cream.  I think it was a hit!

Lesa, Dani, Stacy, Kayla, Leah, and Brianne

 We each got our turn with the "30" hat too!  Brianne wasn't as excited as the rest of us.

Almost 30 seems surreal when I think about all the crazy fun times we had in high school.  Now it is fun to watch our little ones play together.  We brought Parker's trampoline outside and both he and Elise had fun jumping!

 Isaac checking out the cozy coupe!

Elise also loved the bubble leaf blower!  Our yard was completely covered!

 Sage's favorite was the cozy coupe.  We put the platform in the bottom later and she loved being pushed around the yard fast.

 Elise wanted a picture with the hat too!

 Isaac and Sage getting messy in the sandbox.

 Parker showing Isaac how to mow.

The whole clan!  We were missing a few folks, but it is hard for everyone to make it these days.  We have a couple weddings in the group this fall so we have more chances to get together.

Brianne, Travis, Leah, Ben, Stacy, Dani, Isaac, Paul, Kayla, Elise, Jimmy, Parker
Sage, Lesa

Staying Cool!

It has been hot and humid the last several days so we have been doing a lot of swimming!  My mom and nephew came over on Sunday to hang out.  My mom also did some work, painting some of our trim outside to spruce things up a bit!  Once Parker was up from his nap he went swimming with Jayden.  Jayden is the best cousin ever!

I got in after a while and we all had a blast splashing!  I even won the water war with Jayden! 

Celebrating Dani!

A good friend from high school, Dani, is getting married soon!  We had a great time celebrating her at a shower/bachelorette party on Saturday.  We ate great food and just had fun together!

"Guess the groom's answers" game

I've said it before and will say it again, I am so blessed to know these wonderful ladies!  We are so excited to celebrate Dani's wedding in a couple months!

Fenced In

Back in May we put up gates on the sides of our house and I mentioned that we still needed a fence for the backyard.  As luck would have it, I was able to nab a free chain link fence from Craigslist last month and we finally got around to putting it in this weekend.  My dad came over on Friday and we put in the corner posts to let the concrete set overnight.  Then we laid out the remaining posts to be ready for the next day.  Finally, we weaved the two sections of fence back together to have one solid piece.

My parents came over early to get going on Saturday morning.  My mom watched Parker while my dad and I got the rest of the posts in.

 Once the top rail was on a leveled we poured concrete in, then rolled out the fence fabric.

 We stretched it and then used new metal ties to hold it in place.

 Neither of us has installed a chain link fence before so I am happy with how it turned out!  Plus it only cost $20 in concrete and metal ties.  Thanks again for all your help dad!

Feliz Cumpleaños Nana!

You may recall last year when I made a huge Italian dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday.  I made dinner again tonight for the whole family, but it was Mexican night!  My parents took Parker home with them after the Color Run this morning.  Jimmy and I were able to finish prepping stuff and get the house cleaned before heading over.

Before dinner my brother brought over some fun remote-control cars that everyone enjoyed playing with!

 Helping papa fix the car.

Dinner was quite the spread (I always make too much!)  The year's menu was:

Fresh made tortilla chips from Qdoba

Queso Blanco (this was a disappointment, the cheese didn't melt well and it was grainy)

Ancho chili marinated chicken

Grilled onions and peppers

Taco meat

Spanish Rice

Red and green enchiladas

Easy blender salsa

Corn Salsa

All the fixings

We were all stuffed once again!

Fried Ice Cream Cake was for dessert!  I have made this once in the past and knew it would be perfect for this dinner!

Here's to another great year!  Happy Birthday Mom/Nana!  You do so much for us all, I am happy to be able to do little things like this for you.

Color Run 2014

Jimmy and I did the Color Run in St. Paul this morning.  While we didn't run in the attire I had originally planned, we did have a great time!  My parents came along to keep an eye on Parker while we were on the course.

 Parker liked the head band and didn't want to take it off!

On the bus headed to the start.

 Here we go!

 About to hit the first color!

 Cover your nose Jimmy!

 We passed by with just about a mile left to go so we stopped for a quick picture!

I got hit hard with blue!

 We did it!

 Big hug from Parker at the end!

 The powder actually came off pretty good if you got it wet and wiped it right away.  The stuff that got wet and dried was much harder to remove.  I am still part Smurf too since the blue was hardest to remove.

We are pretty pleased with our time even though we didn't run the whole thing.  We will definitely consider doing it again next year and maybe doing a few other ones in between.