Megan's First Parade

It had been a long time since either John or I had gone to a parade, so we decided to join my parents at Mayer's parade this afternoon.  Luckily, my parents were able to snag a space under a shade tree right at the beginning of the parade route.  Megan had never been to a parade before and she absolutely loved it.  She didn't run up to grab the candy that was thrown but we had plenty of people hand it to us (an advantage of sitting with an older crowd), plus my dad did plenty of running for the candy himself. 

One of the first things that was handed out were freeze pops (and actually about four more exhibits gave out the same thing).  Megan quickly ate up this orange one and then started a cherry one.  What a great thing to eat outside on a hot day.

Megan saw all of us waving to the people on the floats and it didn't take long until she was waving just as much as we were. 

It turns out that all of that waving paid off.  We had a family sitting right in front of us, but we actually had several people walk around them to drop candy and other snacks into Megan's lap.  Here are her big handfuls of tootsie rolls and teddy grahams.

Megan liked so many different exhibits.  One of them was people riding around on horses shooting guns.  We thought she'd be scared but she actually laughed when the shots were fired.  She loved seeing all the animals including dogs riding in the trucks, someone dressed up in a cow suit, and then the horses in the picture below.  After seeing the dogs she was "woofing" for the next 10 minutes!

Fourth of July Weekend of Fun - Part 2

Monday morning I did something that I haven't done in a long time - slept in!  And I did until 7:38 when Megan woke up.  It felt wonderful.  We decided to stay home during the morning so Megan could get a good nap in before heading to the Gennrich get-together.  Megan actually gave us a couple good naps at home that morning and after our late pancake brunch she was ready to roll. 

Our party was in Eagan at the home of my aunt, uncle and cousins and it was another great day outside.  We tried to keep Megan in the shade which was pretty easy since they had a good swing for her to sit in.  John and I battled it out in a neck and neck bean bag toss.  I lost but put up a great fight!  John was sweating... literally!

Here are a few fun pictures from the day.






I didn't realize it when we dressed for the day, but we made for a very festive family!

Fourth of July Weekend of Fun - Part 1

What a fun 4th of July weekend we had!  I left work early on Friday so I could get home and do my weekly chores and then not feel bad about enjoying the rest of the weekend with family.  Saturday was basically a relaxing day at home with Megan after a Rainbow run in the morning - I had to double my coupons after all!

Sunday the real excitement began.  After early morning church we packed up and headed to my sister Rachel's new apartment.  She has a pool area and access to a grill there and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for a barbeque.  Grilled pork chops, potato pouches, sweet corn and watermelon tasted great outside.  Of course we remembered plenty of sunscreen!  As you can see, Megan really enjoyed the pool - especially with Daddy!

Our fun time with Auntie Rachel ended too soon but Megan needed a nap and we had a gathering at John's parents to go to next!  While Megan napped we all had a cherry picking party.  We picked well over a gallon of cherries and I have been baking cherry crisps like you wouldn't believe and still have more to put in the freezer.  Yum!  We also had a fantastic grilled dinner here of hamburgers and hotdogs and every tasty side you could think of.

The highlight at the evening at the Lewis's was the girls playing outside in kiddie pool.  Megan and Alexa were both in and out and in and out.

The girls really liked being hosed off by Auntie Kristin at the end.  She would spray them and they would run away because of the cold water.  But they didn't stay away for long - they kept coming back for more and more sprays of water.

Picnic 'n a Park w/ Alexa and G&G Lewis

John and I are trying to continue our Picnic 'n a Park Thursday nights again this summer.  Last week was too cold and rainy but we were able to go the week before that and again last night.  Throughout June, Waconia has Music in the Park starting at 7 so we had time to grill and cleanup before it began.  We invited John's parents to join us this week.  They had been watching Alexa for a couple days this week so she was able to join us as well. 

To make it special for Megan and Alexa, we brought along a bubble machine and water guns in addition to having the playground to play on.  Grandma Lewis and I got plenty of exercise chasing after Alexa as she beelined towards the street whenever we turned away.  Towards the end, Alexa made it into a game because as soon as I got close to catching her she threw herself down on the grass! 

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night but the rest of them are on my picasa site.  I came home with way too many again - as always :)

Taking a breather before heading back out to play.

It's never too hot out for some cousin lovin'.

Alexa wonders what Megan is looking at up there in the sky.

Grandma and her girls!

First cousin bath!

Too Cute Tuesday: Good Times at 15 Months

I had fun with this week's pictures.  Hope you enjoy!

And Meg Ran Away With The Dog

For our dinner last night, John and I just grilled hotdogs and ate outside.  I had a roast cooking in the oven, but with how humid it was last night we just weren’t in the mood for it.

Megan did a pretty good job of eating her dinner considering the outside distractions.  She ate most of her hotdog, bread, and some apples and oranges and then asked to be let down from her chair.  Daddy started offering her strawberries and she was signing “more” whenever she wanted another one.  (Megan just started signing “more” this weekend.  Her version is tapping one thumb against the palm of the opposite hand.  It should be the fingertips of both hands tapping each other.  Still very cute!)  Then she started whining really bad, pointing to the table and kept pushing the strawberries away.  I finally got her satisfied when I handed her the extra hotdog on the table – the one I had John grill for my lunch the next day.  Megan was maybe a little too satisfied because she gave us a really big grin, took a couple big bites of hotdog, and when I went to take the hotdog from her she took off running!  As soon as she got to the street I knew exactly where she was headed.  One of her favorite spots outside – then manhole cover in the middle of the street just as you enter our neighborhood.  She plopped her little bottom right in the middle of it and proceeded to eat my hotdog as she held it in her right hand and played with the small rocks with her left hand.

She loves this spot and throws a tantrum whenever we carry her back to our place. As soon as we put her down she beelines right back there.  We must have been quite the site last night, carrying Megan back our house and then chasing her back down the street, hotdog in hand.

Pucker-Up and Climbing Up

Megan had two new big accomplishments to show me when I came home from work today.  New kisses and more climbing.

Instead of giving big open-mouth kisses and tongue kisses, Megan is now starting to give pucker-up kisses.  We hadn't been working on that with her, but we had been working with her on putting the finger up to her lips and blowing the "shhh" sound as well as just blowing air through her lips.  Here is a picture of Megan giving Elmo a kiss.

The next new thing scares me a little.  Megan is now able to climb onto our dining room chairs!  Right before bedtime she pulled out the chair from the table, stepped on the bottom rung and hoisted herself right on up.  Then she turned around to sit, had me help her down and did it a few more times.  Megan wasn't done there...  The next time she climbed onto the chair, she continued right onto the tabletop.  That just goes to tell me that I really need to watch her and teach her that these chairs are not for climbing.  It will probably help if I don't put interesting things on the table because then she wouldn't have a reason to go up there.

Miss Directed

Last night John and Megan had a blast playing "Director".  It was a pretty simple game.  Megan would wave her drumsticks or pen or just her arms and Daddy would shake the egg shakers to the tempo she directed.

Megan's "podium" was her drumhead and she really liked directing from that spot.  She would direct from that spot for a while, throw down her drumsticks, go pick them up and head right back to the drumhead.

A Little Fun in the Flood

While the rest of us might be a little sick of the rainy weather lately, here is one little lady that couldn't be happier.  My parents took Megan walking on the path behind their house down to the park.  The path happened to be underwater and Megan took full advantage.  I was told she played out here for a good couple hours. 

Yes, Megan is drinking the flood water...

What a gooood place to take a break.

End of May Thru Mid-June Wrap-Up

I have a ton of Megan stuff to get up here on our site but I wanted to quickly catch you all up on a few other things that have been going on around the house.

First off, it was a sad event, but some sort of plague went through our aquarium and killed all of our fish in a matter of a couple days.  It was possibly the filter, heater, or just not the best routine upkeep.  Anyway, we decided that we are not going to continue with it and I have our 46-gallon bow front aquarium listed for sale on craigslist.  Hopefully we get a taker soon so Megan can have some extra room in her bedroom.  Don't worry, we will still keep the fishie theme in her nursery.

Our Mediacom contract came up, and after many phone calls to them resulting in no budge in pricing, we decided to switch carriers for our TV and internet.  We now are back with Dish Network for our television.  We contracted with Centurylink for internet and also got a home phone with the deal.  Our new home phone number is 952-442-five seven two three.  We still need to get a cordless phone for the house.  The one John had before isn't working and I'm hoping to score one on a garage sale.  If anyone has one they are willing to sell for cheap - please let me know!  Overall, I don't hope our switch will save us a little money - even if it doesn't, it's worth cancelling just out of spite.

Last week John and a group of management from Home Depot went down to Action Packed Sports in Jordan for an outing of paintball!  He had never played before but had a blast, with five big welts to show for it.  He said he didn't hit the most people but that was because the guns didn't shoot straight! 

Softball has been kind of iffy lately.  Our last two games have been either rained out or flooded out.  Hopefully the weather turns around and we can finish out the season.

Father's Day came and went and I had a ton of fun getting Daddy's presents together.  Of course, all of the Dads got a pail of ice cream but I also got to make them special photo cards from Megan.  Daddy even got a photo book of pictures of Megan and him.  It was very fun to make and I think it turned out well.  You can view the book here.