Grayson

Jackson is now getting to the age that having friends really matters to him.  He is happy to play with his mom, dad and baby sister... but playing with friends is far more exciting. He talks about which of the kids at school are his friends and who he likes to play with Joe, Ethan and Issac are some of the more frequently mentioned ones and he sometimes talks about helping Caley and Julia with the soap dispenser in the bathroom.

The other day we were looking at photos in Jackson's room. He has a picture of himself as a baby, one sledding with his dad and one of him and Grayson on his shelf.  He was telling me about them all and when we came to the one of Grayson, he said "this is me with my best friend!"  I thought it was cute and pretty cool that we have friends with a boy so close to Jackson's age to play with.

 A couple weeks ago we had Grayson over to celebrate his birthday. (Ron had mixed up the dates of Grayson's birthday party and so we had our own).  They both climbed into the toy box that Ron built for Jackson:

What? No ice?

I know this is quite the odd time to be sharing ice fishing photos, while the sun shines bright outside. We are having unusually warm temperatures this Minnesota March! But it's the first time I've uploaded photos from the camera in the diaper bag in a while.

While there was still ice on the lakes Ron and his friend Russ took their boys ice fishing on Bald Eagle Lake. It was Jackson's first time fishing and he brought home many a fish tales.

Jackson and Grayson had a great time and were lucky enough to catch some fish:

Daddys at the zoo...

On Saturday my friend Heather and I took a night off and went out for a night of scrapbooking with our other friend Emily. Our husbands loaded our boys up and set out for the Minnesota Zoo. It sounds like the four boys had a good time together checking out all the animals, while the dads got to spend some time together too. On their way out of the zoo they pulled up next to our friends John and Janine (such a crazy coincidence) and they all went out for dinner together.

By the time the ladies got home from their little scrapbooking retreat boys were still awake and full of energy!


(I did ask Ron to comb his hair next time they go out after nap time.)

Playdate...

Jackson had a playdate with his friends Maddy, Grayson and Amelia on Saturday night. The kids played well together, running between Jackson's bedroom and the living room, a tornado of toys following them. Jackson was tuckered out when his friends left and crashed on his bedroom floor, which is become somewhat of a habit for him. Here are some photos from the event, we did pretty well getting them all in one place so that moms could snap memory shots for our scrapbooks! Believe it or not, the kids posed on their own for the first photo.

We have another set of friends that are usually with us in this gang. Elise and Anja were missing from our playdate, and we talked about options to get us all together once again. Jason and Darcie and their family moved to south eastern Minnesota late this summer and are missed.

I feel in love with the drummer...

Last weekend we had our friends Russ, Heather and Grayson over for pizza and play. The boys had a great time together and even decided to start up a band together. They just need to decide who will be the drummer:

Another weekend behind us...

We had another busy weekend, but a nice one since Ron was home on Saturday, and I was off on Monday. It was so very nice to be able to spend a good chunk of time together as a family. On Friday night we had Russ, Heather and Grayson over for a little play date. Once we got the boys to sleep, the adults had some time for conversation. Saturday started with a trip to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market for some tasty food purchases, and a trip to a local park for some free-play time.

Saturday afternoon Ron and I helped my Dad put a railing up around his deck, while Jackson slept soundly. After that, it was off to Como Zoo to see the animals. Jackson roared with the lions, and was amazed to see the three giraffes (his favorite animal, as of late).

Sunday, the three of us took a bike ride to meet up with my Dad's family for breakfast. Jackson seemed to have a good time riding in the go-bug, and managed to fall asleep on the way home. Sunday afternoon we spent some time with family at my Mom's, barbecuing up some pork chops, hamburgers, and dogs. We were in the garage chowing down when the tornado sirens started up. It's a whole new ball game when there is precious new cargo in the family. Just 15 miles north of where we were, a two year old boy was killed in the tornado, an awful sad news item to learn about that evening.

Monday morning brought us to another local park, where Jackson had a blast going down the slide all on his own. And after nap we piled in the car, picked up my mom, and headed north to Fawn Doe Rosa. Jackson "baaaa-ed" with the goats and got a kick out the elk.

What a great way to spend the weekend. I just love getting Jackson out in the world to see how he reacts to all the new things.

Like a fish...

Jackson really enjoys being in the water, which is a very good thing considering his daddy's profession. We went swimming at the Lakeville Lifetime on Saturday with our friends Russ and Heather and their son Grayson.

While Lakeville is only a 45 minute drive for us and we only stayed at Lifetime for 3 hours, it felt like we actually went on a mini vacation, it was great. The boys went into childcare for the first hour so we could have some adult time using the rock climbing facilities. After refueling the boys we got them ready for the water. It took us longer to get them ready before and after than the time we spent in the pool, but it was well worth it, we all had a blast.

Thanks for the good time Schmidts!