Al's Run 2011

We had a beautiful, cool, partly sunny day for this year's walk! Everyone had lots of fun.

The boys were all set and ready to go walking early this morning. Jack wore the Champion shirt this year, in honor of his big brother.

Jayden and I were dropped off at Marquette with Grandma, and everyone else came on the school buses from the parking lot at Summerfest. Jack had lots of fun on the bus ride.

Jack had lots of fun playing with Chase and Jillian before we started walking.

Uncle Hayden got a new Marquette hat for his birthday while we waited :)

Katie made us a new shirt design for this year - it looked great!

The kids pushing Jack to the starting line.

Jayden did not like riding in the stroller....

Jack didn't either - he got a ride on Grandpa's shoulders for most of the walk.

I carried Jayden (& his blankie - which he will not let out of his sight lately)

Our team this year - Uncle Greg, Auntie Megan, Jillian, Chase, Grandpa & Grandma B, Uncle Hayden, Jeff, Jack, Jayden & I.

We finished three miles!!! (which gets pretty long carrying a kid the whole way...) But both boys were really good all morning, they just didn't want to ride in strollers. Next year Jayden will be big enough that we'll just bring our wagon.

After the walk we had lunch in the parking lot - sandwiches, pasta salad & desserts:)

Jayden entertained himself after eating his peanut butter crackers by playing under the table with a box of plastic forks.... who needs toys??

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Thanks to everyone who walked with us and/or donated again this year. We raised $341 this year, and $3,241 over the past 5!

Doing Corn!

On Saturday afternoon we went down to the pond to do corn. Grandpa & Uncle Greg had already picked it from the field that morning, so as soon as we got there I put Jayden down for a nap and we started shucking!

Jack was good helper for a while.... then he decided to just watch.

That's A LOT of corn!

It's delicious :)

I shucked for a while, then cut, and then went in to bag it up after Grandma cooked it.

When the corn was all finished - we got about 90 bags in just under 3 hours !!! The guys headed out back to help Grandpa work on his new shed. The boys had lots of fun running around.

Jack had lots of fun playing with Chase.

Chase, Jack & Jayden relaxing on the swings before dinnertime :) We had a very full, fun Saturday!

Safety Fair!

On Saturday morning I took the boys to the Menomonee Falls Safety Fair! We were looking forward to it all week :)

Jack has been wearing his fireman costume a lot around the house the past few weeks - he says he wants to be a fireman when he gets bigger!

I wanted to walk over the high school, but didn't want to push the heavy double stroller - because I knew the boys wouldn't be sitting in it when we got there and then I'd be dragging around two kids and an heavy, empty stroller! So we improvised with this one - it worked well, the boys enjoyed it :)

We got there a little early, before all the firemen were out by the trucks so we just climbed around the backs. Jayden loved it! Jack was a litt shy and unsure this year.

A group of firemen gave the boys new hats and took our picture. (Unfortunately the hats are already broken)

They loved sitting on this old-fashioned fire truck.

This is inside the dive squad truck - the seats where the divers sit after they are all dressed, before they get ready to jump in!

Watching the flag being raised at the end of the 9/11 ceremony.

View as we walked home.

Summer is over :(

The past two weeks the boys and I have had lots of fun enjoying the end of summer. We went to the park every morning and played outside at home every afternoon. The weather was beautiful!!! I'm very sad it's over :(

Watching the neighbors get a new driveway - always exciting!

Then the boys wanted to build a new driveway at our house :)

We also tried very hard to really get Jack potty trained.... we still have had no positive results going #2 using stickers, bribes & threats.... However, Jack has been going #1 a lot better (almost all the time) in the potty since we started the sticker chart. We had one rough evening - but that was after he refused to nap that afternoon and he was CRABBY!

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This morning I am taking the boys over to play at their new babysitter's house for an hour or so. I hope they have lots of fun, and then Monday morning is a little less stressful for us all!

They had a great morning meeting and playing with all their new friends at daycare! Jayden only cried for a few minutes when I left (but then sobbed for about 10min. when I picked him up an hour later... not sure if he just realized I left him, or he wanted to stay, or what ???)

New Labor Day Tradition!

Back in the early spring I had an idea to put the boys' handprints on our landscape stones in the backyard - and continue to do it each year around the yard. And I kind of thought Labor Day would be a good time to do it... still warm out (hopefully), easy to remember day each year, and Jayden would be old enough to do it without too much trouble this year to start!

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The boys both did a great job and thought painting their hands was lots of fun.

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Unfortunately, the "after" picture with the stone didn't work too well... maybe next year :)

Labor Day & Fall Weather!

Labor day was cool & sunny this year! We spent the first half of the day doing lots of little house projects inside, but then went out to play after lunch. It was a little brisk to start but then warmed up a little. We had lots of fun.

The boys look so cute in their pants and sweatshirts!

Everybody Mow!