Baseball Birthday Party

We had a fantastic day for a Baseball Birthday Party!  It was sunny and in the lower 80's.  The kids loved running through the sprinkler!  And I think both adults and kids had a great time.  I know Tryg had a blast!  He loves playing with other kids and he thought it was great for them all to come and play in his backyard (although sometimes sharing toys is hard).  

I really enjoyed doing a baseball theme.  Tryg loves baseball.  He likes Elmo and Thomas a lot but baseball is so fun for him...playing it, watching it, seeing it on TV or pictures, wearing baseball shirts, anything.  So, we had a great time with his baseball party.  The adults even got into the rootbeer, hotdogs, peanuts and cracker jacks!  And with a lot of work, we were even able to have the party on our new deck (with temporary stairs)!!

Thanks everyone for making Tryg's 2nd Birthday so special.  It was great to see so many of our friends and family.  Tryg loved it and has been singing "Happy Birthday to You" all week (today especially... in his crib at nap time and right now as we're trying to get him to go to bed...but it's hard to be upset when it's so dang cute!)

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to our Little Man!  On one hand, I can't believe it's been 2 years but on the other hand, I barely remember life without him here.  He is such a delight!  Even on 'bad days,' we end up smiling or laughing at some point.  I know we're biased, but he is so cute and so sweet.  These days, he's talking up a storm, his favorite food is noodles (in almost any form -mac'n'cheese, spaghetti, etc) and loves baseball (and most sports involving a ball --he's also very upset that soccer doesn't have "ball" in the name, but I think he just got over that last week).  It's been a joy to watch him grow!  

We love you sweet boy!  We're so glad that we have you in our lives!

Garden Update

Things are growing!!  I hope it works out.  Today was the first day I saw signs of red peppers and the tomatoes are not very far ahead of them, but everything else is really going!  I'm excited to see what comes of it.

Basement Turned SciFi

So...the moral of the story is: Do Not leave your sprinkler on next to the foundation overnight!

We found our carpet all squishy at 10:30pm on Thurs night because of the water being left on [by me] overnight the night before.  I'm so glad we found it when we did.  It could have been much worse.  We decided the next day to just bite the bullet and hire people to come and dry it out.  We wanted to make sure there would not be mold from moisture in the walls or on the floor.  There was water all along the entire west side of our basement.  We didn't want to take chances.  

So, our basement turned into something that looked like a science fiction film.  They put tubes blowing hot air into the sheetrock on the walls.  I'd never seen anything like it before.  So strange but I'm glad to know our walls will be OK.  They also put fans under the carpet making them look like a wave and had the biggest dehumidifiers I had ever seen.

We still need to have the carpet pad replaced and put the rooms back together, but they are completely dry now.  All of this mess in the middle of trying to complete our deck....ugg.

Grandpa-Sitting Weekend

This past weekend my parents went up North and dropped off my Grandpa at our house on the way.  As a 91 year old, it is difficult for him to be home alone.  So...we were "Grandpa-Sitting" for the weekend!  We had a good time.  There is a lot more 'prep' time required when you have a 1 year old and a 91 year old with you, but we worked it out.  

Since our basement was water-logged [I'll post more about that later], we went to Amy's apartment to watch the Twins on Friday night.  Unfortunately, we left (with a very tired 91 yr old and 1 yr old) after the ninth inning and didn't see them win in extra innings.  Oh well.

On Saturday we had a great time!  We brought my Grandpa to South Minneapolis to tour the neighborhood he grew up in and then we took him on the Light Rail for the first time!  He was so curious about the whole thing.  I think he really enjoyed it.  It was Tryg's first time too.  Tryg loves trains but it is much more difficult to get the concept of being ON a 'train' instead of seeing it from the outside.  After our 'train ride' we picked up my Great Aunt (my Grandpa's sister) Dee for lunch!  She's great!  She will be 90 this year, but you'd guess she's in her 70s the way she jokes around and moves on her feet.  It was nice to be able to have my Grandpa and his sister together.  They don't see each other as much as they used to.  I'm glad we could make that happen.

Sunday morning we went to church.  The church we've been going to had an outdoor service with a baptism and BBQ.  It was actually a very nice day for it and we enjoyed the service.  After church was mandatory nap time for everyone in the house!  It was perfect!  Then we had dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory with my parents for my Dad's Birthday on there way back home.  

We had a very nice weekend and I am very glad we were able to spend time with my Grandpa!  We try to see him at least once a month but that doesn't always happen.  I love his sweet spirit and hope I can be like him (or Aunt Dee) when I'm old and gray.

Happry Birthday Dad!!

Bracing for Inspection #2 {Literally}

We're making more progress on the deck...last night we completed everything we needed for the 2nd of 3 inspections!  WE PASSED!  Now, we just need to finish and do the final inspection.  We have a ways to go, but we're moving along now.

Yes, we gave our child a bucket of water to play with while we worked on the deck.

We can't thank Randy enough!  He he has been at our house every night this week working on the deck!  I think we are more tired than him [of course we have to run after a 2 year old all the time in addition to deck building and life in general].  But, seriously, I think he's definitely in the running for Father of the Year Awards coming up next weekend!  We SO appreciate the help and the know how!  We are very excited to have our deck!

**In other news, I forgot the sprinkler right next to the front of the house and left it on overnight.  We found out late last night that the water came into our basement.  I pretty much feel horrible!!  We sucked up a bunch last night and Erik was able to get a crew there today.  I hope. in the end. that we don't lose much money or belongings.  Just a forgetful mistake and now water in half of the basement!  Yikes!

My First {Little} Garden

I've been wanting to make a little garden on the side of our house for a few years.  As with most things, I have had great intentions!  I bought seeds each spring for the past 2 years.  I even started plants in pots in our kitchen a few times.  They would start out great but then shrivel up within two to three weeks. 

So, this weekend, I finally did it!  I fixed up the side of our garage where the garbage cans go and now we have a little garden there too.

If any of you actually garden, you'll notice that I probably have WAY TOO MANY veggies in a 2'x6' space.  I'm going with my friend, Doug's theory.... The plants that make it will be really strong because they will have had to fight all the other plants to survive.  It's the first try....we'll see what happens.

 

Thank you to Erik for wrangling Tryg while I was playing in the dirt!

(The patio stones are creating a flat surface for our garbage cans -I'll need a few more but it will be nice to have a space for them that is not on a pile of mulch!)