Corn Maze

We finally had a nice-enough day to go to the corn maze. The theme this year was pirates. We "ran" around wildly through the pirate ship maze (well only Elijah ran wildly, the rest of us were just trying to keep up!) We let Elijah chose which way to go and when we got good and lost Jon took out the map and led us to the exit. Elijah tripped once and face-planted in the mud, but he was okay and kept going.

One of our favorite parts of the corn maze is the corn pit that they have. Kids and adults love to jump in and roll around. The kids run around in it while the adults struggle with every step to keep from sinking. It can be rather exhausting! I have found that the best way for an adult to get out is to either roll or crawl.

Evan was a little crabby before we went in, but the minute he touched the corn he was happy! We had to keep him from eating it though!

Elijah could not get enough of it, he thought it was so fun!

Jon and I could not resist the fun.

We were all finding corn in all parts of clothes! We still have random corn kernels showing up in our car and house. I didn't take off Evan's soft leather shoe until bedtime and I found 15 kernels in one shoe alone! poor Evan!

One last photo-op before we left.

It sure is hard to get them both smiling at the same time!

Happy (belated) Birthday Evan!

Evan's 1st birthday was last Thursday, on the 15th. We have been so busy that I almost forgot to do a birthday post for him. I can not believe that he is already 1 year old! This year has flown by so fast!

Evan, just minutes old

Evan entered this world screaming and we were so excited to see him!

Evan, 1 day old

He soon became our quiet, laid-back baby.

Evan, 1 year old

Evan has been such a delightful baby. He has such a soft, gentle nature, but he knows how to hold his own when his big brother picks on him! He has always had such a serious face, but his smile will light up the room.

Evan and big-brother Elijah with his first cake

Cake is yummy, and messy!

Evan, we love you! You add so much joy to our lives! We cannot wait for the exciting times to come!
Love, Mommy & Daddy

Fall Fun with Friends

ABC's and 123's

Elijah started preschool a few weeks ago! We are still surprised at how quickly he is growing up. He is in the 2-day morning program so he goes every Thursday and Friday. So far he loves it! He runs on into his room barely saying goodbye and is so excited when I pick him up each day. He is already talking about all his new friends that he plays with and all the fun things he is doing. I asked him who in particular was his friend (besides Caleb) and he said, "All the kids are my friends." How sweet! Here are some pictures from his first day and from the parent open house.

Here he is in his classroom with his new bag in front of his bag hook. He was pretty excited that he was assigned the red firetruck symbol.

This was a failed attempt of trying to get a picture with his friend Caleb. Oh well!

They had a ladder fire truck at the open house. There was a long line to spray the fire hose so we just took a turn driving the truck. Elijah had a hard time keeping his head up with the heavy helmet on.

It was pretty neat that they had the ladder all the way up. When we were leaving we watched them bring it down. Elijah thought that was pretty cool too.

Elijah met Sparky. He calls him the fire puppy.

When Elijah saw this picture he said, "I wore that jacket, it was too heavy for me. I'm too little." I think that sums it up well!

Strawberry Picking

I have been meaning for the longest time to post about some of our fun summer outings. Here goes . . .
I don't even recall what month now (July?) but we decided to go strawberry picking. We went to Emma Krumbee's because they are just down the road from us. They have hydroponic plants, which means they grow them in Styrofoam containers up off the ground making them easier to pick.

Evan was just so excited he could not keep his eyes open! (or maybe that was because it was so sunny!)

Elijah searched for all of the red berries.

They gave us scissors to cut them off. Elijah needed a little help with his aim! He accidentally cut a few berries in half.

Yummy!

They had a few interesting wood creations around the grounds. Elijah thought this was a chair and wanted to sit in it.

They also had a couple fun play forts to play on. This boat was a lot of fun!

Hi Daddy!

They had a couple tractors too that Elijah had fun driving.

Stay tuned for more of our summer fun!

Touch a Truck and Thirsty for Trouble

Last week we went to a fun event at the Chaska Community Center called "Touch a Truck". They had all kinds of trucks for kids to climb on and "drive" including a police car, a Zamboni, and a fire truck, to name a few. They also had free ice cream, hot dogs, carnival games, and music. It down-poured that night so a few of the trucks did not stick around for long, but Elijah was non-the-wiser. He had so much fun climbing in and out of them and pretending to drive.

Jon's favorite moment was when Elijah was sitting in the forklift and pushed the garage door button that they had left in there. The big, giant arena garage door started closing (with a vehicle in the way) until a man ran over to push the button on the wall to stop it! Oops!

"Excuse me sir, do you know how fast you were going?"
While taking this picture Elijah accidentally "layed on the horn". Oops again!

Elijah also had fun running around like a crazy-man with his friend Caleb I was able to snag this shot of the two of them after the 80th attempt (okay maybe the 6th!). We finally were able to get them to sit down!

In other news, this just in:
"Amazing Baby makes Dishes Magically Disappear"

or alternately titled:
"Boy, These Doors Sure are Strong!"

or maybe:
"Is this a baby shower?"

"Is this the way to Narnia?"

but most likely:
"So the dishes fairy does exist!!!"
(do you all have a dishes fairy? She always forgets to stop at my house)

Party Like You're 3!!!

We all had a fun time celebrating Elijah's 3rd birthday. Since Jon works at our church we were able to rent out a room at and use their bouncy house for free. That made for a pretty fun party (well, at least for the kids!).

Here is Elijah's construction birthday cake before we devoured it (and before it all slid in the car and the writing disappeared in the Oreo "dirt" - but that is a different story)

Here are some of our photos from the party. I decided I did not want to be tied behind a camera the whole party so we did not end up getting too many photos and some just didn't turn out well. So for those of you in attendance, do you have doubles for me??? :)

I can't believe that Elijah is already into his 4th year of life! We have already learned that the "terrible twos" do not end on the 3rd birthday, but we are seeing a little bit of progress, thank goodness! (Please do not tell me horror stories of the "trying threes" of "frightening fours"!)