Jenn's baby shower

The main reason the boys and I went to Milwaukee in August was for Jenn's baby shower. (Well, that was the main reason I went--the boys came to see Grammy and Buppa, and because Ed was out of town!).
Here are a few pics from the shower, thrown by a group of mom's friends who have created a cottage industry out of throwing showers, minus the getting paid part. They do a fantastic job!
You can read more about the shower here, on Jenn's blog.

 The ladies based the shower on Baby E's room (see pictures here--it's adorable!)

 Dinner, which continued the alphabet theme--each course started with a letter in B-A-B-Y-E

 Jenn and Mom with the quilt Mom made for Baby E. I love it!

 Jenn and Mom with the shower hostesses

No explanation necessary. Even if you don't know us (unlikely, if you're reading this blog!), you can tell we're just a tiny bit related.

Fly-In Breakfast

There's a small airstrip just 2 blocks away from our house, and the boys love seeing planes overhead as they take off or land. Then we found out that the airstrip was holding a fly-in pancake breakfast, and we wrote it on the calendar in ink. The morning dawned, beautiful but chilly, and we headed over, pulling the boys in the wagon. 

Despite the looks on their faces, they were excited about going.

 First, we ate pancakes, sausage, and eggs.

We walked the length of the runway, admiring all of the planes that had flown in. Planes were landing, taking off, and buzzing the runway, while we walked, thrilling the boys and many other people.

It's not often that Thomas stands still. He was mesmerized by these planes!

 What a neat little red plane, complete with eyes!

 There were helicopters taking off and landing, as well. This one was stationary.

TJ took our picture in front of this neat plane.

As much as TJ loved the planes, gators were the highlight of the morning for him. A local company that sells gators had brought some for demo rides, and we took one. They were also giving away two toy gators. TJ won! You can see it under his arm in the photo below. He calls it his gator-rator and it was all he could talk about for a week or so. Then, to top it off, the real gator gave us a ride back to our house!

It was such a cool morning! We will definitely go back next summer.

Weekend at Pearl Lake

After Jenn's shower, the boys and I went up the cottage with Mom, Dad and Jenn. Since neither Ed or Pat were there, I think Dad was even happier to have the little guys along. He's no longer used to being outnumbered! 

 Dad added a railing to the loft so that it would be safer for the boys.

Jojo was just up there to try it out. He's all about climbing ladders, but there's really no reason for him to be up there yet. TJ, on the other hand, slept in the loft with Buppa both nights we were there. They had a ball!

 I "caught" TJ just like he "caught" Ed back in June.

 This boy loves to fish! Someday we'll give him a hook...

Josiah is still not a fan of this floaty fish. But he sure looks cute!

I love this pic!

 Guy time with Buppa while dinner is grilling

 Me and Jojo

Aunt Jenn-Jenn made pudding pops. I think Thomas is a fan. :)

The ladies and Jojo went to the flea market in Princeton Saturday morning, something that at least I haven't done in years. It was fun to wander through! Jenn and I both got $20 queen sheet sets, and Thomas scored this alligator hat, courtesy of Jenn.

 We celebrated Jojo's birthday. He was all about the whipped cream!

My new favorite picture of Jojo! What a ham!

Lake Weekend with the Cooks

We've missed spending weekends with the Cooks at Mattoon this summer, so one weekend in August we recreated the fun at Round Lake in Michigan. We rented a house on the lake, brought the boat, and spend two days boating, relaxing, and eating well. 

 This lake had a great sandbar--perfect for anchoring the boat and doing some small kid swimming. Here's Dustin, Kelly and Abbey (and Baby C) enjoying the shallow water. Isn't Kelly's suit cute?!

 The sandbar was shallow enough that Jojo could touch in a few spots.

 The four of us

We also celebrated Ed's 35th birthday with his favorite, homemade apple pie.

TJ got a lift back to the house after an afternoon of boating.

A Boy and his Blankie

Josiah is our snuggly child, no question. But in the past two months, he's begun a love affair with his blankie, a soft blue blanket Aunt Alli and Uncle Micah gave him when he was born. If it's sitting on the ground, he'll walk over and flop down on it and just lay there. At naptime and bedtime, as long as that's in the crib with him, he's a happy boy. He loves to rub his face on it and just snuggle into it. He has also started carrying the blankie in his teeth and then tripping himself as he walks on it. You'll see a little of all of that in the video.

Dancing at the Social

One weekend when Ed was out of town for Tucker's bachelor party, I heard about an ice cream social being held at the local fire station. I was all about anything that would get us out of the house, so I jumped on it. I took the boys on a "date" to Qdoba for dinner, and then we killed a little time at PetSmart (great place to spend 30 minutes or so with kids). We got our ice cream at the social, and they had a "fishing pond" where kids could spend a quarter to cast a fishing pole over a blue painted board and "catch" a prize. But the highlight was the live band. Both boys got their groove on!

Beach Videos

This first video isn't as funny as it was in person, but (both at the beach and since then), every time we try to video TJ singing, he clams up. So this is the best we have.

We listen to a lot of pop country in the car. TJ has picked up the lyrics of a few of his favorites. There's "5-1-5-0" and "Red Solo Cup," specifically.
The smaller kids were playing on the couch cushions in the beach house one morning and Thomas started singing 5-1-5-0. (For anyone who hasn't heard it, the words are something like: "5-1-5-0, Someone call the po-po. I'm goin' crazy, thinkin' 'bout you baby.") Then Annie picked up on it and is also singing it. I'm sure her parents were thrilled that TJ got this stuck in her head shortly before their 12+ hour drive home.
Then TJ started singing "Red Solo Cup" until Annie jumped in with another round of "5-1-5-0." I'm sure you can see how the morning went from there...




This next video is much shorter, I promise. It's me skim boarding. For the record, I did have one or two decent rides, but this it the only one worth watching.