Weekend Shi-Bar-B-Q

This Sunday, we hosted the first of hopefully many barbecues at our house. Though it threatened to rain, the weather turned out to be fairly nice. It was warm, but not too hot and a bit windy. A couple of kids had to get seconds after the wind blew away their plates. The wind also made it a bit chilly when getting out of the pool. But, we didn't hear many complaints.

We were extremely pleased with how many of our close friends were able to come. We did a post-party count and determined that as best as we know, attendees included 22 adults and 28 kids ranging from age 2 weeks to 8 years. The pool was a hit, almost all the kids old enough and many adults took a dip at some point. There was also lots of other fun things going on...bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swinging, sliding, playing in the sandbox, rolling down the large hill in our backyard, etc. I expect that there is a really good picture out there of one of the munchkins absolutely covered in blue chalk. I'll update with a link if it gets posted out here on the blog-o-sphere. :)

There were no broken bones or stitches required, only a couple of scraped knees. No one went hungry. Or, at least if they did it was their own fault. Jon grilled up some pork burgers and bratwurst imported from good ole' Ste. Marie, IL. (Thanks Hartrich's and thanks Mom!) I think everyone had fun. All in all I'd call it a success!





Other than that, we've been keeping busy. We went to our first ever Hamburg Family Fun Fest. This is a festival that is held every year at a park about 1.5 miles north of our house. Marie got to go on a couple of the rides and loved it. It was also nice being able to watch the fireworks through our front windows.


I'll speak for Jon when I say that we had a good Father's Day. After Mass we went out for a special lunch...Mexican of course! Then we just had a relaxing day at home with the kids. Just what Jon wanted.


The kids are doing well. Marie has been doing much better on the potty as of late. She is gaining some independence and increasingly wants to do things all by herself. MOST of the time this works. She is really into trying to make us laugh right now, too. Jon has taught her her first knock-knock joke.

Knock, Knock;
Who's there?;
Boo;
You get the drift...

Tonight while she was putting on her pajamas, she got the biggest kick out of keeping her shirt around just her head and telling us that she looked like a "bakery."

"Her" garden is also doing well. She picked some broccoli, peas, and a few green beans this weekend. We've also had some lettuce to eat. There are a few zucchini out there that won't be far behind.


Joey is just keeps growing. He is a good eater and is definitely not wasting away. So far there's nothing that he hasn't liked. He's eating bananas, applesauce, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, along with the usual baby cereals. He still just rolls from his back to his belly for the most part. When he's on his belly, he doesn't crawl, but pulls himself around so that he can reach for things ahead of him and turns in circles so that he can keep track of where Marie is. He absolutely loves her. When he wakes up from his nap, Marie goes in to "check on him." He smiles and giggles and plays peek-a-boo with her through the crib rails. So cute...





So, we're getting ready to head to Pittsburgh this week for an extended July 4th weekend. We're looking forward to seeing family and catching up with friends. And, hopefully (for Aunt Jaclyn's sake) will get to meet our new niece while we're there!

Special Message...

Week with Grandma

We had a wonderful visit from Grandma Meinhart this past week. She arrived on Wed (6/10) and left almost exactly a week later. The kids loved it and I sure appreciated having an extra set of hands around.

During Grandma's stay, Grandpa Meinhart also came for the weekend and Mark and Sarah came over a few times. Mark and Sarah have been busy with wedding planning and preparations. They worked on some table decoration possibilities and Marie was very excited about getting to help!





Jon has been working hard to clean and open the pool. Sunday, we decided to try it out. It was a bit cold, but that didn't phase Marie one bit. She got to swim two days in a row and now she is very into it. Last night while I was in the kitchen making supper, Marie was in the other room. She took off all her clothes, came in, and said, "Mom! I'm ready to go swimming now!"


On Tuesday, Grandma, Marie, Joey, and I went to a strawberry patch and orchard nearby. Marie loved getting to ride on the wagon out to the patch. Joey kicked his legs and swung his arms in excitement every time he heard and saw the tractor go by. The kids did pretty well. Believe it or not, the strawberry you see Marie eating below is the only one she ate the entire time! And she didn't eat any more than a nibble! Then, we had a nice picnic lunch. We ended up with enough strawberries to make jam, slice and freeze a bunch, eat some fresh, and make a pie. All in all, it was a productive day!





Marie is turning out to be quite the photographer. She has definitely caught on to the fact that she has to be able to see her subject(s) in the display before taking the shot. She often also appropriately adds, "Joey. Can you give me a smile?"

Dan Marries Amanda...

We had a nice and quick trip to Ft. Wayne this weekend. Jon's cousin Dan got married to our new cousin Amanda. It was a beautiful day, beautiful party, beautiful bride...everything a wedding should be.

The reception was held at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, IN. This was RIGHT up Jon's alley. We got to browse around the cars and read up on all the history of them and Mr. Cord. Marie particularly loved running around, being chased by Cousin Jenny. Joey like it too...the cars were all really shiny.

It was a nice chance to catch up with family again, even though like always, our time was much to short. We hope everyone had uneventful journeys home and congrats to Dan and Amanda!!!







On a completely unrelated note, tonight we were reading stories before bed. Marie chose to read "Corduroy Goes to School." We were asking her to read the letters, "S-C-H-O-O-L." The first one she said that he couldn't remember. We figured that could be the case since she does sometimes get "S" and "C" confused. So, we moved onto the next one. She then said, "I can't remember the C." She was so busted.