Monkey Joe's - Take 2

This afternoon, we went to Monkey Joe's with Grandma Maria.  She had been wanting to take the boys over to Monkey Joe's, especially with all of the talk that they have been doing about the place.  Brewer and Cooper were excited to be there!  Grandma loved all of the bouncing around, giggling, and fun that they shared today!

 Brewer thought that he would try going tummy first...until he got caught...but he still had fun...

but then again, he was following the steps of his big brother...Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Thank you Grandma for taking us to Monkey Joe's!!!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Today would have been Elizabeth's 30th Birthday! Since I had given her 21 balloons on her 21st birthday, I thought it would only be fair to give her one today. However, sending thirty balloons into the air might send some people into an uproar of some type. With this in mind, the boys and I picked up Grandma Maria and went over to pay our respects to Elizabeth, but stopped off to pick up a balloon. Brewer wanted to go with Grandma, so into Supervalu they went. Grandma was showing Brewer the choices of Happy Birthday Balloons. As a boy would, he said no to all of the "girly" looking ones, then pointed to a HUGE frog balloon, but Grandma said that one was too big. Then Brewer spotted this one...

Now could someone please explain this one to me.  Brewer has never met his Auntie Elizabeth in person; perhaps he has in other ways.  But to pick out a balloon with a car on it, was not only fitting to her, but PERFECT!  Elizabeth would have flipped over a few times is she knew that we put a pink princess balloon by her!

Then for dinner, we went out to Applebee's with Auntie Sue, Uncle Fred, and Nicole.  And of course I had my chicken fingers, french fries, and ranch dressing in her honor!  Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

The Pink Tablet

Cooper had a dentist come talk to his Kindergarten Class on Wednesday.  After he was done talking, he gave everyone the infamous Pink Tablet and instructed the group to chew it after eating dinner and then to brush their teeth!

 Here are the results of the pink tablet!

And here Cooper is brushing away the pink!

I AM A ROBOT

Cooper has recently gotten into building with Lego's.  To help distract the little brother, we brought up the big duplo blocks from downstairs.  But surprisingly, who is building with the duplo's....COOPER.  The other day he built a robot head, and walks around saying....

I AM A ROBOT!!

The Human Slide

Brother's doing what Brother's do best!

Signs of Spring

I am not sure what the Groundhogs prediction was on February 2nd.  I think we were all in awe of the snow that kept falling and falling and falling.  It is hard to believe that just two weeks ago that we had over 3 feet of snow on the ground and in some areas more because of the drifts.  But I noticed the other day that the daffodil's were starting to poke out of the ground...spring is coming!

But I will have to make sure that I pick them before Buster eats them for snack:)

Spring Training

Now that the snow is starting to melt, and we can see some grass, it is time to start going back outside to play.  Cooper and Daddy went out to practice hitting the ball a few times.  Cooper was hitting like he was last fall and is looking good for the up and coming season of baseball!!

 Cooper is in position for the ball that is coming.  His eye is on the ball!

 He swings and hits the ball...foul...but hits the ball.

 Once again, he hits the ball out of the yard!

Cooper is always ready for his Dad's pitches..."throw me the heat Dad!

Cooper's Pictures

The other night the fire department and rescue squad were called for a neighbor...the best kind of entertainment that one could ask for.  And why you might ask?  Because then Mom and Dad can eat their dinner by themselves!! 

But while we were in the kitchen and the boys by themselves in the living room, Cooper got a hold of the camera and took some pictures for us...

 Buster never sits still for us to take a picture! 

Here is Brewer smiling for the camera...what could he ask for...he has his puppy by his side and an ambulance to watch!

Wood Projects

Cooper has been learning about trees since the first day of school.  During the first week, he came home and told us the difference between a broad leaf tree and a conifer tree.  He also told us how the leaves change colors and how the trees help the air that we breath. 

Since then, he has been working with different kinds of wood that make things for us to us.  They talked about plywood and different kinds of hard woods.  In the top left corner is the shark that Cooper sanded out of bass wood.  In the top right corner is a sample of plywood that he made in class.  They were learning about the layers in it that gives the wood its strength.  Then in the lower right corner, is the pressed wood that they made with the shavings from the projects up in the left corner.

Their most recent project has been a building project with wood.  Cooper wanted to make an airplane, so Daddy took Cooper down into the workshop to construct an airplane.  Cooper did all of the cutting and gluing himself.  He also made a robot, which is in the lower left corner.  Unfortunately though, Buster got a hold of it and truly "ate his homework!"

Valentine's Day

On Sunday morning, the boys put their finishing touches on their Valentines for their parties the next day.  Cooper had Transformer Valentines to hand out and Brewer picked out Cars for his friends.  They both did a great job decorating their boxes and Cooper helped his brother with the glue.

After school on Valentine's Day we came home to eat our favorite family meal...taco's!  Then the boys opened up their gift from Mommy and Daddy.  Brewer got a Monster Truck with Toy Story Dinosaur riding in the back, and Cooper got a Lego Creator Set.  Happy Valentine's Day!!

Bunk Beds

While the boys were in the tub, we were working on getting the bunk beds ready for bedtime.  With the new baby cousin that is on the way and in need of the crib, we needed to switch up the sleeping arrangements in the room.  Brewer was moving from the toddler bed to the lower bunk and Cooper was moving from the lower bunk to the top bunk.  We were also hoping that Brewer would start sleeping better at night then what he has been.

Brewer was pretty excited when he saw all of his stuff on the lower bunk and that he was going to be sleeping on "tow truck" that night.  Cooper was also excited to get up to the top bunk.  Randy installed two higher railings to make sure that he would not fall out during the night.

 Although they were both very excited about their new beds, it didn't take long for them to fall asleep...and I couldn't refuse these two pictures!

And yes, for the most part, Brewer has been sleeping through the night:)

Bath Time Bubbles

Mommy and Daddy need some time to get the boys room ready, so into the bathtub they went.  Bubbles are such a time savor!  A few times, they call us in.  We say bubble beards and bubble hair.  But on this occasion, we found bubble boys!

Ever since we went to the waterpark, Brewer has been love'n the idea of laying down in the water.  It also helped him with shower time too!

100th Day of School

Friday, February 11th, marked Cooper's 100th Day of Kindergarten!  The entire class went from Kindergarten class to complete their 100 Day Memory Book.  In Mrs. Hutchins' class they did a 100 piece puzzle.  In Mrs. Gosset's class they made their 100th Day of School Hat.  Then in Mrs. Glazebrook's class they made a 100th Day Necklace with 100 beads. And then in Mrs. Korder's class (his class) they made a 100 Days of School Pennant.

Fieldtrip to Betty Brinn

Today, Cooper and I went to Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his Kindergarten Class.  There were 18 classmates, 10 chaperones, and 1 teacher on the bus.  The kids were very excited for their adventure today. Once we arrived, we sat down for our bagged lunch picnic style before going upstairs for hands on learning.   

Cooper and I shared our adventure in learning with Cooper's classmate, Michael.  We played with the spiral ball tower for awhile.  We were trying to see how many balls we could get going down the tower at one time.  It was a fun challenge for the three of us! 

 Then they headed over to the dance floor.  In the screen above the the floor, they could watch themselves dancing or trying some dancing moves that were being taught by different generes.

 Then it was off to the Move It Center.  This area was set up like a game board, where every couple of steps had an exercise of some sort or a movement exercise to do.  Here, Michael and Cooper are playing minature golf.

 ...and here, Cooper had to rub the hands together to the ABC's while "washing" the hands.  Here the kids were learning good hand washing techniques!

 ...and here Michael and Cooper made their way across the rock wall to move ahead a few more spaces.

 ...and hanging on the net above them before landing on the soft floor below.

 ...but at the end of the game was a chance to go through the huge climber/tunnel/slide at the end of the game board!!!

 Next, we went over to the community helper area where we participated in various activities of our community helpers do for you and I.  Here a group of Kindergartners are working on a car in the "Garage".

 Michael is checking out the under side of the car...

 ...and Cooper goes under to replace the velcro'd muffler.

 ...next, he stopped off at the mail box to mail a few letters.  He also helped sort out the mail before heading over to the ...

...grocery store.  Here, Cooper is helping prepare a tray of food in the deli for someone in need of a quick lunch.
 We had a great afternoon together.  My favorite part was watching him interact with all of his friends while having a good time.  His favorite part was seeing me direct an orchestra playing the theme to Star Wars.  He thought that was pretty cool!

Number 6 Seed WINS Superbowl 45!!!!

The Packers have just beaten the odds and have won Superbowl 45 against the Pittsburg Steelers 31-25 in Dallas, Texas! Randy read in Sports Illustrated back in October that the writer of the article that he was reading picked the Packers to win it all.  Seated in the Number 6 seed in the Playoffs, we beat the Bears to become the NFC Champions and then beat the Steelers in the biggest game of the year! 

Waterpark Surprise

This weekend, we had a little surprise for the boys.  After picking Cooper up from school and Daddy up from work, we headed up to Madison to spend the night at Uncle John and Auntie Andrea's in Madison.  We were headed up to Chula Vista for the weekend and were able to make a pit stop at their house to help break up the drive.

 Cooper was super excited when he found out that we were going to be going to a waterpark, and Brewer was repeating over and over "slides"!  After spending Saturday afternoon in the park, we took a break and went out for dinner at Moosejaw Pizza and Brewing Company.  The boys got the moose hats to wear during dinner and chalkboards to play with while we waited.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel and played games before we all called it a night.

But on Sunday morning, it was back down to the waterpark.  It was really warm and not as crowded as the day before.  Cooper was having a blast spraying everyone in the kiddie area.

 Brewer and Daddy had fun going down the slide before heading off to relax on the lazy river.

 Cooper made sure that his little brother was taken care of...

 and placed right underneath the dumping buckets!

Brewer didn't waste any time spraying his brother though!

 Cooper showed off his swimming skills swimming around in the pool.  While Daddy and Brewer were enjoying the lazy river, Cooper and I went over to the slides.  After going down the green, blue and yellow, I finally convinced Cooper to go down one of the bigger slides.  He finally agreed, so the two of us and a giant double tube started the climb up to the top.  Up on the last step, he turned and said, I can't do this.  I told him, oh yes you can and lets pick a slide to go down.  Down the emerald green slide we went!  He loved it and when we got out, he said let's do it again.  By now Daddy was there and he and Cooper headed back up the stairs!

 And down they came out the orange slide, a.k.a. the toilet bowl.  Although he had a little smile at the end of the ride, he was certain that he was not going to do that one again!

By now, Brewer was done, so we changed into our Packer gear and made the trip back to Madison to get Buster, who had spent the night with Auntie Andrea, Uncle John, and Finney.  Buster was glad to see us again.  He must of had a great weekend playing with Finney, because when we got home, he went to his kennel (on his own) and slept ALL afternoon!!!  It was a busy weekend, but Cooper and Brewer have been nonstop talk of the fun that they had at the waterpark!

Fun In the Snow

With 23.2 inches of new snow, Cooper finally made his way outside this afternoon.  He helped Daddy dig out Gg and Papa and then came home and worked on a path for Buster so that Buster wouldn't run to the neighbors house to do his business.  

 This is Buster's private bathroom or at least we thought so.  That was until Buster realized that Cooper was up on top of the snow, so Buster jumped up and went and played with him.  The drifts did not scare Buster!

 Cooper is walking right under the shade structure...that is how high the snow is.  Cooper was in heaven!

 Buster didn't mind this snow either!  He is a trooper!!!

 Neither Cooper nor Buster wanted to come inside.  But Cooper finally came in when his mitten fell off.  Buster came too...snowballs and all!

Blizzard of 2011

The weather forecast for late Tuesday afternoon said that we would have 1-4 inches per hour in total accumulations of up to 20 inches of snow, plus high winds with blowing snow.  This would be on top of the already 8 inches on the ground, 3 inches from Monday night and would continue to dump more snow Wednesday afternoon. 

Never sure exactly of what will really fall from the sky, we embraced for the worst.  School for Cooper and also for Brewer and I were closed by 1:30 Tuesday afternoon for today....our first SNOW DAY!!!!

Buster woke us up at 1:15am this morning with a need to go outside. As much as we were not pleased to be up at this hour, it was also a blessing in disguise. Randy got all dressed in his snow gear and headed out the front door to dig out the back door. A drift had blown us shut.  After Randy came back in, we discovered the the furnace was not working.  The vents in the back were snow covered and as a result, the furnace shut down.  Back out to dig out the furnace vents.  With the furnace back up and heating us back up, we all settled back down to get some more sleep.

We woke up later to the drifts across the street.  The only time that I have seen snow like this are in pictures from Minot, North Dakota back in 1976.

Mr. Les, across the street, was working on digging his way out. The snow is up mid-thigh at the end of the driveway and he is as tall as Randy is....NOW THAT IS DEEP!

Its a good thing that Randy stopped by the guy across from Indian Trails and picked up a snow blower, otherwise I would be the one out there playing damsel in distress in hopes someone would come over and help us.

Good thing the neighbor to our right (from the street) is a vacant house...at least we had the fence to break up the drift in our backyard.  It is nothing but a straight  drift the entire length of the back yard.

Right now, Buster needs to go out to the driveway to go to the bathroom, the backyard is drifted shut.  Now they are forecasting below zero temps for Thursday and temps to reach the 30's by the weekend.  Fox 6 News reported that we have 23.2 inches of snow!

Before the plows starting going down the street, two snowmobiles went by the house.  Cooper is impressed with all of the "teamwork" to get the snow plowed!!!