Dinner with the family

We went to Grandma & Grandpa C's house tonight for dinner with the family. Besides Nana & Papa, the guests included Auntie Cathy, Uncle Wayne, Auntie Candi, baby Paige, Auntie Maureen, and cousin Lee. Parker wanted to wear his Army clothes because Uncle Wayne is an Army guy and Auntie Cathy bought him the cool clothes for his Army Party. Uncle Wayne gave Parker a cool patch that we are going to ask Nana to sew on his jacket.On the way out to Nana & Papa's Parker enjoyed a nice hot Chai Tea from Caribou!*
After dinner Parker and Paige played in the leaves and a lot of us hung out outside and ran around the yard.

*He really only had a few sips of the caribou, we aren't crazy!

Auntie Cathy & Uncle Wayne

We have visitors from Washington!! Auntie Cathy and Uncle Wayne came over tonight and we took them to Broadway pizza. After that Parker wanted to see the big camper they pulled up in... Then Parker tried to get Wayne's dog Cindy Lou to play with him....not much luck though!

Can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Down by the river.....

The river. Again.

New Friends...

This is a picture of Parker with his best friend from school. His name is Tyler and for the first few weeks of school the teachers had a hard time telling the boys apart. One day they both had Star Wars shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes on and it was the 3rd day of school, that is when they became friends, they were comparing shirts! I have absolutely no idea what Parker is doing in this picture.

And, for the record, Parker says his best friend is Alex but his best friend at school is Tyler!

Another 3 Day Picture

The girls from work had some of their 3 Day pictures and they gave me copies of the one's with Parker. Here he is holding the sign as the walkers went by.

Dinner with Batman!!!!!

I know I say this a lot.....but I think today might have been the best day of Parker's life!! We received a tip that Batman was going to be at Perkins tonight and Parker put on his shirt and cape and we headed out for dinner. The kid was giddy with excitement. He was the happiest I think I have ever seen him!! Batman came and posed for a picture and commented on Parker's cool outfit..... Then he made Parker a balloon monkey!
Then, believe it or not, after he had made his rounds he came back to our table and said he thought we needed to get a picture of the 2 of them standing up and flexing their muscles! Parker was ecstatic!
We were first in line for the face/hand painting, Parker told Batman that he wanted a Bat Mobile...
Awesome!! He didn't want us to take it off before bed....we'll see what it looks like in the morning...
All evening Parker kept saying "Batman was so, so happy to see me"!!

Yes, it was the cutest thing ever!

I've actually never seen Parker sit still so long and stare with such amazement at someone. It was a really great day for Matt & I as well because it was so wonderful to see our little boy so happy!

Happy Birthday Mor Mor!

Tonight we went to Grandpa & Grandma O's house for Mor Mor's birthday and had ice cream cake. Parker played in the yard with his trucks.... and helped grandma water the plants....

And we played at the park for a while. Mor Mor is worse than me when it comes to pictures, maybe some day we will sneak one of her!!

Breast Cancer 3 Day 2008

We set our alarms and got up at 6:15 AM to go support our friends at the cheering station this morning for the Breast Cancer 3 Day. My camera died so unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures......Fortunately, one of our friends on the Busy Being Fabulous team's husband took some awesome video of Parker and he promised me he would get it to me! Soon as he does I will post it, it is really cool! Our Friend's had shirts made for their team and we all wore one, Parker looked so cute in his!
He shook a pom pom, clapped and said "thank you for walking" as people walked by, he also held a sign and gave hi-fives to people. He was quite the little cheer leader! We saw lots of people with dogs and we saw 3 awesome Boxers, next year we might take Phoebe!

Thanks to everyone who walked and worked on the crew this year!

Grandma & Grandpa O

Today Parker spent a few hours with Grandma & Grandpa O.....They took him through a car wash, brought him to a place called Boyer's that sells big delivery type trucks and he even got to sit in a few of them!Then they took him to the Como Zoo and he went into The Conservatory where mommy & daddy got married....
And they let him go on some rides......
He said he had lots of fun!!

Thanks Mor Mor & Pop Pop!!

Maplewood

After school today we headed to Auntie Candi's house to see her and baby Paige. Parker had a lot of fun playing with different toys.....We went to the McDonald's by Maplewood Mall and let me tell you, the play area there is probably the biggest, cleanest, nicest smelling play area I have ever been to at a restaurant! Parker had a blast climbing to the top and going down the slide. He even made a little friend that he was running around with. After lunch and a few errands we headed to the Maplewood Mall to play in the play area there (where Paige could actually play). The kids had a blast there as well and Parker made a couple little 4 year old friends that he ran around with.
Thanks for a super fun day Candi & Paige!

Boats, Rocks, River

Daddy took Parker to the Mississippi tonight!

Otsego Craft/Kids Fair

Parker REALLY wanted to go to the river today. I was at work and daddy made an attempt to take him there....but it started pouring so they came home. Park's was very upset about this! Our friend Dawn was doing a craft fair in Otsego today and trying to sell our crafts, but it was pouring all day there too! After an early lunch daddy took Parker to the craft fair because it was also a kids day with horse and wagon rides, bouncy castles and most importantly, Fire Trucks!!! Here is a picture of Parker in the fire truck. Daddy said that Parker wasn't interested in anything but the trucks, he did however get him to go on a horse and wagon ride. They also stopped and talked to Dawn.Here is a soaking wet Parks!
Surprise Surprise! Guess who they ran into??? Alex was there with his dad Joe!! The boys ran around together briefly but then daddy and Parker came home because they were all wet!

Cabela's......Finally!

Finally took the boy to Cabela's. It wasn't our original plan. We headed up to the Maple Maze to meet Dawn and Alex only to find that it isn't open for the next 2 weeks!! Dawn quickly came up with an alternate plan for us....Cabela's! Parker loved it! We spent a great amount of time here at the fish tank...We saw many animals, this is the "winter" area....the boys seemed particularly fascinated with the "snow"......
Then we headed to Africa!! It looks like a painting, but those are real animals. Each animal has a little plaque by it with facts about height and weight, it was an educational field trip!

Upstairs there was lots to see, but this tent seemed to keep them busy the longest.
We had so much fun we are going to go back soon with daddy!

Swimming Lessons!!

Swimming lessons started today and things went surprisingly well! Not that I don't have faith in Parker, but he does get a little nervous in big pools, he is easily distracted, and he doesn't always listen. I know, hard to believe. I love, love , love his instructor. There are only 3 kids in his class, a girl who is taking this same class for the 3rd time and another boy who seemed a little more apprehensive than Parker. They don't just pass you in this class, you have to be able to do the things required of you to pass. After class his teacher came up to me and told me that she doesn't accept no from the students and she makes them try what she asks of them. She wanted to know if I had a problem with this and I sad no. For what it costs to take swimming lessons here I want him to get the most he can out of it. Did I mention that I love his instructor?? He would not wear his goggles, which seemed ok for this first lesson.
She got him to the other side and back a few times!

He did really well and we are very proud of him!

Air Guitar

As I've said many times before, Parker loves to dance. Well, he has added a new element to his dancing, he now plays air guitar. He rocks!! You might also take note that he is only wearing underwear. He really wanted Star Wars underwear and we saw them at the store today and he promised that if I bought them he would use the toilet and not wear a diaper. He was good the whole evening and ran into the bathroom to use the potty. I'll keep ya updated! This potty training stuff is hard.

First day of school

Today was Parker's first day of school. Daddy had today off of work due to the hurricanes down south so he got to go with to drop off and pick up Parker. Mom & Dad were a little sad. Parker was so excited and so grown up about it. He was ready to go!! Here he is in the driveway with his new backpack on. Here he is at school while we were waiting for his teachers to meet us. I was a little worried because he was acting wild and class was about to start.....

After school we decided to do something fun. We really wanted to go to the zoo but it was raining so instead we went to Barnes and Noble and played with the train set and bought some books.
Then we played in the play area.
Parker really seemed to love school and says he is excited to go again. I'll have to pull out this blog when he is 13 and show him how much he loved school!!

The Great Minnesota Get Together!

We set our alarm for 6:00 am, picked up cousin Lee and got to the state fair by 7:15 am! This was Parker's first year at the fair, and it was fun, but exhausting. We ate lots of food, and walked a lot. We did some rides and saw some animals, sat on lawn mowers, played at the arcade and met up with some friends! Our first stop was "The Little Farm Hands". Here Parker got to work on a farm, including feeding animals, planting seeds, milking cows, and selling his goods at the store. I think the best part for Park's was riding the tractor.
We ran into Parker's friend Alex (sheep), and the boys all posed for a picture....
Parker feeding the chickens and collecting eggs...
Planting his "seed"....

*more state fair stuff below

State Fair #2

Parker watering his "seed" that he planted. Then he got to put a tomato in his bucket.Feeding the sheep...
Milking a cow...
Picking apples.... After we picked the apple we got to go "sell" all of our stuff at the little store and buy something with the money. Parker picked a little box of cereal.
Eating his first icee...
*more state fair stuff below

State Fair #3

Uncle Brian, Auntie Candi and Baby Paige met us at the fair. Parker and Paige seemed excited to see each other. Here is Parker looking at the fish..
Petting a baby pig, we got in line twice to do this, he loved the pig and also got to pet a baby calf.
Here is Parker watching daddy and cousin Lee going around the track. The boys decided to do this when we saw it in line for the water ride we went on. Unfortunately when we got to the ticket counter Parker wasn't tall enough. He was crushed and cried a little.....he decided it would be ok to watch instead.
This is the last picture of the day. I think Parker could win a "filthiest day at the fair" award. The kid was covered in chocolate, red stuff, dirt, water, sweat....

What an awesome day!!