Weekend Recap: It's SUMMER

It might not officially be summer just yet, but our weekend could not have felt more summery if we tried!  I haven't taken my 31 week picture yet, so a weekend post it is!  Plus, it's only Tuesday and I could use a little weekend reminder. :)

We kicked off the weekend with our first swim at my cousin's pool on Friday night.  Josh loves the tub and he has loved when we went to a water park and kiddie pool in the past, so we thought he would be equally excited about this pool.  For whatever reason, he was a little hesitant at first.  It was hard to get him to smile without tickling his feet, but by the end of the evening he was a true fish!  Uncle Joe and Auntie Anna even met us there.  Ben didn't have time for photos!  He was going down the slide (with his puddle jumper on) like a champ!

We did not want to stay out too late because we had to get up early for Andy's quarter marathon on Saturday morning!  We had gone to the expo earlier in the week and the boys made signs (that we forgot to use) to cheer on Andy during the run!  Watching them color is one of my favorite things!  Ben is getting so good at actually writing letters and drawing things and Joshy is just so intense when he colors.  He LOVES markers and coloring on everything.  Stinker!  What they didn't love was that lion! Joshy crawled over the table to me so quickly!

Andy rocked his first quarter marathon!  The boys loved watching him!  It made me miss running and I hope to run it next year.

Andy had a little time to recover before it was on to zoo class with Ben!  They learned all about hippos and Ben was totally in his element!  He was so proud of the hippo costume he made and Andy said he was just enthralled the whole time.  Good thing because I signed him up for a few more classes throughout the summer!  Joshy too!

I can't remember what we did on Saturday night, but I bet it involved going to bed early after that busy day.  I should also add that it was H-O-T HOT on Saturday, like over 90 degrees!  Too hot for this pregnant momma!

On Sunday morning, Andy and the boys went to Andy's parents' house to help plant some trees, so I had a nice, quiet morning to myself.  I ended up doing laundry and cleaning, but it was nice to not have extra hands helping undoing everything.  After they got home, we went to our old church's festival!  Ben loved it, of course!  He could not get enough of the sports games!  He even won a 2L bottle of ORANGE soda for having the fastest pitch of anyone 6 years old or younger.  27mph!

Joshy was napping in the car with Andy for a good 45 minutes before they joined us, and Ben was so sweet in picking out prizes for Joshy, including these cool shades!

After Josh woke up, we headed over to the ping pong fish game!  They were both so serious about throwing their balls.

Neither of them actually got a ball in the little bowl, but they both came very close and Josh even got one in the big fish tank in the middle of the table.  Somehow, they both walked away with a new fish!  Even more amazing, they are still alive 3 days later.  I'm pretty sure that did not happen last year!

After the festival, it was definitely time for a nap!  Josh had already napped, but Ben was out and woke up just in time for….. the ice cream truck!  It was almost dinner time, but it was the first time that the ice cream truck made an appearance on our street, so we couldn't pass it up!  If ice cream truck doesn't scream summer I don't know what does!

The weather was in the low 70's (i.e. perfection!!) on Sunday, so we decided to use a gift card that we had to eat dinner outside.  It was wonderful.  The boys were well-behaved, good eaters, and happy little guys.  There was a guy playing guitar while we ate and the only thing that would have made it even better is if I could have had a glass of wine or a summer cocktail of some sort! ;)

And I think it is worth mentioning that we all survived over a week with my mom being out of the country.  This is Ben modeling his new shirt from London.

That's our weekend!  Almost half way to next weekend!  We might need to have a mini half birthday party for Joshers!  Lots of fun plans to look forward to!

Weekend Recap: Wedding & Mudder-ing

A "weekend recap" on a Wednesday means we are almost to the next weekend already.  Woohoo!  And since I took off on Friday, tomorrow is like my Friday--double woohoo!  AND since I can wear jeans to this culture training course I have tomorrow--triple woohoo!  Even more exciting yet is the fact that my sweet little baby turns ONE on Friday!  I've been far more emotional about this milestone than I ever thought I would be, but I'll leave the sappy post for later. :)  We started the weekend with a "goodbye to summer, hello to fall" street festival.  (I made that name up, but that's kind of what it felt like.)  I do love summer, but I am also one of fall's biggest fans, so I'm ready for cooler temps and fall scented everything.  We didn't have a ton of time, but with corn on the cob, glowsticks, and climbing on street signs all in absolutely perfect weather, you can't go wrong.

According to Benj, what good is a street festival if you can't be in the street?  He took full advantage of the roads being closed.  The little man was walking around like he owned the place.  He even convinced me to let him try a snow cone.  The guy loves weekends as much as his mom.

Saturday was the wedding of my former coworker and running buddy but current all around awesome friend, Hannah.  I would post pictures from the ceremony, but they are perhaps the worst pictures I've ever taken.  (Worse than the blurry touchdown pictures posted below.)  I cannot even blame it on the fact that a wicked storm took out the electricity in the church for the entire ceremony.  Fortunately, there were plenty of candles and it was debatably even better without the lights.  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was quite stunning as well.  Think barn wedding pintrest style.  I feel like I am always writing about how I am not an animal lover (maybe I am just in denial??), but I have always loved the rustic yet classy and tasteful look of an outdoors, country reception.  Her parents live on a beautiful piece of land.  Andy and I were in love with it!  Congrats, Hannah & Matt!  You 2 are a fabulous pair!

Cutting the gluten-free pie.

Andy + Benji + Animal = Happiness

Love these boys so much.

Eating ice, showing the flower girls his sticks...just another day in the life. 

Sweaty baby who doesn't seem too interested in his momma. 

We had an amazing time and I wish we could have stayed longer, but we left fairly early to get Ben to bed and to rest up before the Tough Mudder on Sunday.  Andy and I have both done this "challenge" before, but never together, so we decided to give it a whirl.  (Another one of those ideas that seemed awesome in the winter when we signed up...)  Our team of 6+ ended up being a team of 3, but we still had fun!  I wasn't as competitive with myself as I was in the past, so I did skip a few, but I think I'm still tough.  I'm not at tough as Andy who dominate every obstacle.  However, neither of us are as tough as Benji---toughest guy I know.

It appears as though I also lost 10# during the run.  Sweet!

Although we had an awesome time, despite my ridiculous sunburn, I was more than ready to get back to my Benji.  He and grandpa loved their quality time together, but being away from Ben on the weekend is something I do NOT like to do.  We were able to watch some of the Packers game together before bedtime.  Although these pictures are not the best, he is still the cutest little fan ever.  He learned "touchdown" so quickly!

As you can see in the middle picture, his hair has really grown.  Thus, he got his first haircut this week! It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and it deserves its own post.  So much to write about and so little time!  Did I mention that I will soon have a ONE year old?!?!

Weekend Recap: Beer Gardening, Running, & Sweatband Wearing

You know it's going to be a good weekend when we kick it off at our new favorite place...the beer garden!  We heart the beer garden.  We are pretty sure Ben does too.  His favorite part is watching all of the other kids play, even though I think he would prefer if he was playing with them.  I tried not to go into Momma bear mode when the kids were not being that nice to him.  (I get it, they don't want to play with the baby, but they weren't even using that green football Ben had his eye on...)  He even wore real shoes for the first time!  He is growing up sooooo fast!!

But who needs the big kids when you have your good ol' dad, right?  And if dad can't make you smile, maybe a super-sized soft pretzel will do the trick.

And if all else fails, Nana never seems to be more than 5 feet away.  That would be 2 Friday nights in a row where she just so happened to be at the same locale as us... ;)

Another one of our summer favorites is the farmer's market.  For some reason we haven't been going as much this summer, but it is always fun when we do go.  Since Ben was boycotting his stroller, we carried him around for the majority of the time.  Not sure if it was the safest move, but we finally were able to put him down when we came to a bridge by the market.  Mr. Curious was loving the river.  Daddy, of course, was loving Ben's interest in nature.   I think they were discussing their plans to go camping in the picture below.  He was telling me about how he could climb beams.  I don't think so, bud!

Saturday afternoon brought yard work for Andy and the zoo with some friends for Ben and me.  He was again boycotting the stroller so there were not enough hands to take any pictures.  I think we're going to go again this weekend so we'll have to try again.  We had a low-key Saturday night in preparation for the Color Run on Sunday!  Ben got in his warm up before the big race.  I CANNOT get enough of him in this sweatband.  He has the best hair EVER.

Although I had many concerned friends, for the record Ben did not actually participate in the Color Run.  He watched and cheered from a distance with Grandpa.

Before & After

Despite the name the Color Run, it felt like Andy and I were the only ones running.  Even though we have not run at all since the half, we were able to crank out the 5k in less than 28 minutes.  (Thank you, 2 weeks worth of Insanity DVDs.)  This includes stopping and kissing Ben whenever we saw him and my dad.

Again, in love with my boy in his sweatband.   While it was not the most, and perhaps the least, competitive run we have done, we still had a blast!

We ended our Sunday evening by celebrating Andy's dad's birthday at his parents' house.  We grilled out and Ben got to play with his one and only cousin, so of course he had fun!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures, but rest assured it was a fantastic ending to a fun weekend.  Happy Monday!