Andrew *just* came inside for the night. It is 8:00. He hasn’t had supper yet. He has been playing outside with all the neighbor boys since earlier this afternoon when we got home from Andrew getting a haircut. I was telling Al tonight that I feel like we are living in a “Leave it to Beaver” life. Send the kids out to play after lunch, telling them to be home before dark.
I can’t believe that we are just a weekend away from the first day of school. We had the school open house tonight. Andrew got to meet his teacher, see some of his friends (yeah, 2 of his friends are in his class this year), and put away his supplies in HIS DESK! He has a desk this year, in Kindergarten you sit at tables. I think he is excited to start, while he likes having a lot of free time, he also gets bored and loves learning.
We have been very busy this last month. The weekend of August 10-11 Andrew and Al were in Milwaukee for “boys weekend”. They do this every year, leave me at home (a quiet house!!!), and go to a Brewers game, and check out a state park in the Milwaukee area. They had a lot of fun and even saw a Brewers win! They didn’t bring the camera with, so I don’t have pictures.
The weekend of August 16-17 we were in Durand/Lake Elmo, MN. Andrew had fun just hanging around the farm on Saturday, even “helping” grandpa chop hay. Mom and I froze sweet corn…it’s always nice to do those things together instead of by yourself. On Sunday we packed up and headed to Lake Elmo for the Brunner Cousins Birthday Bash. Since Andrew and his cousins all have summer birthdays (even the new baby coming will be here soon!!), we get together for one fun bash instead of tons of individual birthday parties. We went to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve, had a cookout lunch and spent the afternoon swimming and playing on the beach.
Here is a picture of the beach area (I wished we lived closer, it is such an awesome, clean area!!).
Lake Elmo Park Reserve
After we were tired of the sun and sand, we went back to Aunt Kristen’s house for cupcakes and presents (and later, pizza for supper). Here are the 4 cousins (soon to be 5!!):
Cousins
Fun was had by all. I left Mom, Dad, and Andrew in Menomonie to head home alone. Andrew spent the whole week with Grandma and Grandpa. He had tons of fun “helping” Grandpa hay, feed calves, and various other farm chores. He “helped” Grandma bake for the church fall festival. Meanwhile, Al and I had a mini-vacation to Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Dells. I worked Monday & Friday, but we were gone Tuesday – Thursday. We saw 2 Brewers games (they lost one, won one). We also went to the Tommy Bartlett show in WI Dells, and on a boat tour of the upper Dells. It was lots of fun, and even better because we didn’t have a 6 yr old complaining that he was bored!
Andrew is now safely at home, and enjoying the last few carefree days of summer vacation. Hopefully now with school starting, I will have more time to keep the blog updated.
Last weekend, Andrew and I joined Mom and Dad up at the cabin. It was a wonderful weekend, although Andrew was disappointed that it started raining/storming after lunch on Sunday so he couldn’t go fish anymore. Andrew had tons of fun fishing…
Fishing
riding the jet ski…
Jet Ski
and even had a nap Saturday afternoon…(this was how we found Andrew when we got back to the cabin from shopping in Siren Saturday afternoon, and Grandpa was sleeping on the other sofa).
Nap time
Here are some more pictures from the weekend…
Loons
The cabin...from the Lake
Water flowers
Last weekend I went to the in-laws to witness Extreme Makeover in action. It was pretty neat to see how fast everything changes. When I arrived early Saturday afternoon, the house was just demolished and they were loading debris into dumpsters (a lot of the wood from the house was ground up into mulch which was used in the landscaping). By the time I left early Sunday afternoon, the whole first floor of the house was framed out and they were working on the second floor. WOW! I did manage to get onto the site once Sunday morning, but the view of the action was obstructed by trucks/tents set up with projects coming and going. But…from Carl’s field, we were able to get a perfect view of the house.
I also had a nice time visiting with Joan on Saturday afternoon/evening, something we normally don’t get a lot of time to do when I visit because Andrew is always wanting to play with his Aunt Joan.
Here is a link to see a slide show of the pictures I took of the action Home Makeover Pics
Snapshot of my life 