A Conversation Between My Boys

Tonight, as Brent was getting ready to leave for a run, he and Luke had the following conversation:

Luke: "How far are you going dad?"

Brent:  "Somewhere between 9 and 10 miles."

Luke: "But dad, there isn't anything between 9 and 10.  If there was, we would say another number when we count."

Brent:  "Ok, I'm going about 10."

That boy, he's always trying to decipher more about the world around him:)

The Deck is Here!

After seven years in our house, we have a deck!!! 

Steve Kirk did a wonderful job and we're so excited to have it complete and ready to enjoy:)

Check it out...

View from the dining room

View from the walk-out basement door

View from the backyard

The bump out on the deck will have stairs connected next year when we complete the patio that will be under the deck along the house.

We assembled our new grill tonight that will live on the deck...now we just have to find a table and chairs that fit nicely, are in our price range, and that Brent and I both agree on:)

Freeborn County Fair

You might remember me mentioning the Freeborn County Fair in my Looking Forward post a couple weeks ago.  Well last week was the fair and Luke & I spent an evening having dinner, playing some games, and watching the Beach Boys with my parents.  It was a beautiful night and Luke enjoyed his first live concert. 

I probably hadn't been at the Freeborn County Fair since I was in high school, so it was fun to see what had changed and what had remained the same.  One thing I remembered very clearly was the ring toss game...and it was still there!  The Cloverleaf Lions ring toss game was exactly as I remembered it as a kid!  Luke tried his hand at the game, 12 rings for $1, quite a deal compared to what we paid at the Olmsted County Fair the week before.  On Luke's first dollar, he got a ring on one of the glass bottles in the middle and won a 2 liter bottle of pop (which is actually a little humorous since Luke isn't a fan of pop:)).  I have to say though, I didn't think through the timing of Luke playing rings, we ended up having to carry his 2 liter bottle of orange pop around the rest of the night:) 

Here's my little man, playing ring toss:  

Can you see the action shot of his pink ring just leaving his hand?

It's just so fun to have Luke experience some of the same things that brought us joy as kids:) 

P.S. He did try the pop the other night and said he actually liked it!

Lovin' Legos

Luke's recent new love is Legos..."big boy" legos to be precise:)  He had his first experience this spring when he and Brent picked out a Landspeeder to build together at the Lego store at the Mall of America.  Since it was a bit more advanced, Brent did most of the building and Luke did most of the playing once it was assembled. 

Then, over the past couple weeks at daycare, he has had some time to play with their big boy legos with the other older boys.  Tracy, our daycare provider, said that the boys even opted out of watching a show on TV so they could keep playing Legos.  Now that is serious business! 

After I learned of his new love, I remembered that my parents had kept our legos from when my sister and I were little.  This weekend, Luke had a sleep over at Gma and Gpa's house and got to play legos.  They even said he could bring the bucket of legos home to play!

Luke digging into the bucket from my parents that I played with as a kid:)

Boys vs Girls

No, I'm not referring to everyday life at my house:) 

I witnessed the cutest thing last week and had no other adult to share my snickers with so I had to blog about it!

Last Thursday, Luke had two buddies over to play: his cousin, Ethan, and his friend from MOPS, Carter.  We decided a trip to the park would be fun and this is where I witnessed the game of boys vs girls. 

When we first got there, we were the only ones at the park.  The boys were busily playing for a while when they finally settled into the tube...

While in the tube, they decided the game of the day.  Turned out that the tube was a space ship and each of the boys was a super hero (no big surprise considering Luke and Ethan were involved;)).  Moments after agreeing on the game, Carter peeked out of the tunnel and said "Girls are coming."  Little did I know that an informal game of boys vs girls was about to resume.

The boys left their space ship pretending to be their respective super heroes.  Shortly after, the girls went into the tube.  This got the boys going....they started talking about their ship being taken over and decided to lay claim to another jungle gym.  The girls over heard the boys and started playing along.  When the girls left the tube, the boys came to try to reclaim it.  Back and forth they went.  It was hilarious!  The funniest part to me was that they never even talked to the girls or agreed on playing their classic game of boys vs girls:)

Their game was certainly good entertainment for this momma:)

Oh yes, and after the rousing game of boys vs girls, the boys needed a treat to re-energize;)

Carter, Ethan, and Luke enjoying their frozen juice bars. 

When I Grow Up...

We had the following conversation at our house last night:

Brent:  "What do you boys want to be when you grow up?"  (Talking to Luke and Ethan, our 5 yr old nephew)

Ethan:  "I want to be a doctor.  They make lots and lots of money."

Luke: "I want to work at Think."  (Think is the bank where Brent works)

Brent (talking to just me):  "I can't believe Luke wants to work at Think when he grows up.  At his age, he should want to be a super hero or a professional football player."

Me:  "You are a super hero in his eyes, that's why he wants to work at Think."