Stay at Home Mom

July marks the start of me being a stay-at-home mom! Things are going really well so far - I'm enjoying the extra time with Andy and Jack. We've gone to some parks, hung out at home, and relaxed out in the backyard. We're slowly working into our routine, but right now it still feels like I'm on vacation :)

Here are Andy and Jack just being silly - Jack now copies a lot of what Andy is doing

Not quite ready to go to sleep...

Jack can now climb up on the couch all on his own (he still dives head first when he tries to get off though)

Smiling at daddy

Andy making sure Jack doesn't fall off...

Out at a park - Jack probably walked about a mile. He will just keep going and going - he doesn't really care where, as long as it's somewhere he hasn't been before. By the end of our little walk, Andy was lagging behind, but Jack continued to charge ahead.
Andy ready to slide down the tunnel slide

Luckily, Jack does enjoy the swing, which keeps him contained in one place. Andy having a snack after playing outside

At Toys R Us, enjoying the motorized vehicles (I think it's okay that they sit in them!) Jack picked the pink Escalade to sit in first, and then Andy got in the black one trying to "catch up" to Jack.

A visit from Kansas City relatives!

A couple of weekends ago, we went down to Delafield and had a fun visit with my Uncle David, Aunt Jeri, and cousins Kylie and Alec. Andy definitely enjoyed playing with his second cousins - they were the cool older kids! He was entertained all weekend :) We went to the Milwaukee Zoo, played softball a couple of times, took the kids hiking, and enjoyed relaxing out on the deck.

Here are some pictures from the weekend,

Fourth of July Weekend

We enjoyed a wonderful fourth of July weekend in Delafield, including celebrating Ben's first birthday! (Jack and Andy's cousin) We had great weather and a fun time visiting with family. We even got out to play some softball again this weekend! Ben seemed to enjoy his party and the boys all got along great :) We watched some fireworks on Saturday night - we didn't get too close, but Andy had a super time staying up late watching them (he especially loved the extra time with his Aunt Karissa!).

Strawberry Picking!

Andy and I had an early morning adventure today. We went out strawberry picking at Oakridge Farms right here in Neenah. We got there around 7:45 and rode out on the wagon behind the tractor with our empty crate - it was quite a bumpy ride. Then Andy and I got assigned our row of strawberries. Andy helped me find some red berries - telling me not to pick the green ones. He was comic relief for a lot of the people around us, because he was pretty excited to be there - thus very talkative.

We picked about 5 pounds in a half an hour, and then rode the tractor back. We got Andy to school around 8:45 - a nice quick trip! I've already made some strawberry jam that Andy is very excited to try. It was something that I thought Jack wasn't quite ready for - but next summer I think both of them will have fun with it.

Andy standing next to our row of berries, getting ready to start looking.

He's pointing to a water sprinkler (not turned on) and explaining that when water comes out of it, it turns the berries red and helps them grow.
Big smiles on the way back

Andy was in charge of "guarding" our berries so they didn't fall off the wagon.

We got out there when it was still about 70 degrees, so it was very pleasant. I'm glad, because it got really hot today!