Nana's Birthday

We have had a busy last few days and it feels like we have spent more time out doors than indoors.  This means sweeping up dirt off the floors and doing many loads of laundry today.  We started out the holiday weekend on Friday night celebrating Nana's birthday.  We were going to go out to eat, but then thought that you only turn 60 once... so why not invite some friends and family over to the house.  Nana didn't know about these plans, so she came over thinking she was riding with us to Buffalo Wild Wings.   It was a nice night, and the boys LOVED wishing Nana "Happy Birthday" every five minutes.  We had cake tonight again, and they still were wishing Nana Happy Birthday.  Hmmmm - no pictures of Nana, she avoids the camera well.

 All the teenagers had out their cell phones... Uncle Nate too.  What would we do without technology?

 Brandon made a surprise visit with his brother, Josh.

 Mikayla,,, probably on Pinterest or Facebook!

 The boys LOVE Price.

 Especially Aiden, sticking pretty close to his buddy.

 What could possibly have the boys' attention so closely?  Even Daddy is intrigued!

 A Boom Truck from Menard's of course.  Dropping off the brick for Daddy's weekend project.

 What else would we do besides play in the dirt?  Brothers...

 Sunday morning, Adam started his project.  He has two little helpers for most of the morning.  Then he has two little supervisors enjoying their snack.  Break Time!

 The start of the retaining wall in the front, finished product later in the blog.

 Sunday night we joined some friends for a grill out.  Here they are running up and down the driveway... all went to bed well this night ;)  Reese is a month younger than the boys.  So fun to watch them grow together!

 Waiting for the fire.

 Aiden is drawn to boys.  He loves his buddies and we hear about Brigs for days after we see him... "Brigs go?  My sit by Brigs!  See Brigs?"

 Brigs helping the boys break some wood for the fire.

 Don't you dare try sneaking outside without two little helpers.  Especially if it involves dirt and a shovel!

 Today, my Uncle Steve "Cowboy" came over to help Adam finish the retaining wall out front.  It looks great... THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE HELP!

The hard part done... Now we can get the yard back to grade think about planting grass in the fall and finish the stone work... and...and...and...  ;)

 Adam sent this to me during the week from his phone... WORMS!

What more could two little boys ask for?  Dirt...

 and trucks.  They love their "Scoopers, Dumpers, Graters, and Diggers" right now.

Speaking of trucks... they got the COOLEST shirts in the mail this week from Gramma and Grampa!  They are so cool, we had to put them on right when they opened them, keep them clean through supper, take them off but keep them where we could see them for bath time, put them on their chair for bedtime, and wear them the next day to Bonnie's.  They would have slept in them if they could have.  What kind of shirt are they?  CAT shirts straight from the CAT Plant that Grampa visited for work.  Thanks Grampa!

Thanks for checking in! 

The A Team.



Outside... In the Dirt.

Dirt is everywhere.  The boys love it outside, and I am very tired of cleaning up dirt.  Dirt on their faces, under their fingernails, muddy shoes, dirt in their hair, dirt on their clothes, a dirty dog, dirt... and so on.  I have never been so excited for cement (done) and a driveway (coming this week).  Once those two things are done, we can get the yard back to grade and get ready to plant some much needed grass.  The boys might miss their sand box though...

Front of the house the morning they were doing cement.  The boys were in heaven.  It was a daddy daycare day and the literally parked their chairs in the cul-de-sac and watched all the scoopers and the cement trucks.  I was a little nervous leaving for work though and being able to get back in the house.  They did our front step, garage apron, side garage service door slab, and back patio...

 The back of our house with the cement patio.  Major landscaping needing to be done.  What are you doing the next 10 weekends!?!?!

 D.I.R.T.

 One of the sand boxes of the end of the cul-de-sac from the snow plows... I don't think we even need to fill up our sand box!

 Daddy surprised the boys and picked them up from day care (two Fridays ago).  He had two NEW BIKES in his car too!  The fire trucks have been popular lately, so daddy had to get his bike out for the boys to be interested.

 Racers... Balance Bikes are good for learning balance without training wheels.  Notice there aren't pedals either.  They learn to balance and push with their feet, and then the concept is to go straight to a pedal bike without training wheels.

 We're practicing for Door County!

 Then... back to their trucks.  Safety first with the helmets ;)

 On Mother's Day, we had brunch at our house.  The kids also were cooking... 

The Saturday before Mother's Day, all the "Moms" may have started a new tradition.  We went our for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and did some shopping in Edina at the Galleria.  This tradition may stick, like the Black Friday outing as well.  We all make a pretty good shopping team.

 The Three Stooges.  Larry, Curly, and Moe.

 The weather was a bit chilly, so Elise had to borrow they boys' hat.  Too Cute!

 Then Gramma had three helpers (plus Izzie) to open her present.

 Adam got some Elise time.

 On Wednesday night, we went to watch Uncle Dave play baseball for the Menomonie Eagles.  The entire way to the game Ashton was saying, "Baseball - dribble dribble shoot!"  Sorry Buddy - wrong sport.

 

 Uncle Dave playing baseball is all we heard about the next day.  He is a celebrity to these two little boys.

 Sunday morning we had Nana and Debbie on hand to watch these four crazy cats.  Missy and I had our May 5k to run!  This picture cracks me up.  Aiden is SUPER excited, Ashton has bedhead, and Elle seems to be holding Elise's head on!  ;)

 This is the only race day picture of the two of us.  We ran a 5k in March (I don't remember times exactly... 46 minutes?), one in April (roughly 34 minutes) and this past weekend we both continued with Personal Records (32 minutes).  I better start training or running more than once a month if I want to continue improving without dying...

 Daddy has been busy cleaning up brush piles and wood in the back yard.  The perfect opportunity for two little boys to explore.

 Love the boots!

 Aiden is pretty brave up in the tree.

 So is Ashton!

 Bats and Baseballs were the toy of choice this week... Maybe influenced by going to Brigs' and Dave's baseball games...

 Love it.

 I am not encouraging them to swing the bats because it is often directed at each other.  Ashton also continues to mix up his sports.  He uses the bat as a hockey stick and a golf club most of the time.  Look at that stance!

 I guess you can still dig in the mud AND hold the bat...

 Or just give up all toys and play in the mud/dirt.

 While playing outside tonight, Ashton took quite the digger on the patio but caught himself before it got ugly (face first)... and what did he say? 

"Did you see that?!?!?!?"

Yes Ashton - we saw that! 

How many times in our lives are we going to hear that one?

 "Aiden, where is your belly button?"

"Right here."

We used to go to Menards and head straight to the plumbing, flooring, lighting, and whatever else section when we were building the house.  Today we were headed there to shop the Garden Center and retaining wall brick...  How you keep the boys busy?  A cart with a car attached and you just don't stop to look at anything or they get mad.   ;)

The BEST part... TWO steering wheels.  Now someone was thinking because that gave them nothing to fight about!  Except... who got which side.

 While we were there we also picked out our camping chairs.  Do you think Grampa would haul these to the beach everyday in his wagon for us - in Door County?  The best thing about this chair = SIX drink holders.  Then Grampa would have to find room for me in his wagon.

As many teachers and student have count downs until the last day of school, I look at my calendar and don't know how I will fit everything in.  I need more days of school ;)

Three weeks.
Happy Birthday today to Aunt Misssseeee (Missy)!

Have a great week!