I'm baaack!

Did you miss me and all of my silly antics?  

Good 'cuz, I'm back and I have so much to tell you about!

Stay tuned to see what I have been doing for the last month.  

Yummy!

Contrary to what the scale readings show, Evan has been doing a lot of eating this month.  Here is the evidence to prove it.  It's not my fault if he runs around so much he burns all the calories he eats...if only we were all that lucky!

Daddy's Assistant

As you can probably tell from the recent posts, Evan loves to do everything that we do.  He always wants to be right in the middle of the action.  The same was true this weekend when Bruce started fixing the back door due to the ants feasting on the door jam.

I have my hammer and wrench, Dad.  I'm ready to help

 Bang, bang

Assessing the damage

Showing daddy what the problem is 

Taking a break and letting daddy do some of the work

Three Little Monkeys...again...

Same activity, different monkeys, and different zoo than before.  This time the monkeys were Danny, Sean and Evan and the zoo was Southwick's.  What a beautiful day to visit Southwick's Zoo, especially considering that school is back in session.  It felt as if we had the entire place to ourselves.  We had a little bit of a rough start to the day which included a flat tire on Danny and Sean's stroller and Sean wanting to be able to just take a nap but we quickly got going and had a wonderful time.  After lunch the boys played at the playground for a while before we completed our tour of the zoo and fed deer in the deer park.  Southwick's is definitely a place worth visiting!

Butterflies!

Thanks to Groupon we enjoyed a fun, rainy day and picnic lunch at The Butterfly Place with Abby and Connor.  I didn't realize know what to expect but there were tons of butterflies, flying all around us.  A couple were close to landing on Abby and one landed on my head as we were leaving.  We had planned a picnic lunch which we didn't think would be possible because of the rain but they had a big tent out back so it was perfect.  A good way to spend an otherwise dreary day!

Run, run, run!

Today was a beautiful day for a fall 5K...the CVS Downtown 5K.  Bruce was planning to once again run with Evan in the stroller but Uncle Dan volunteered to push him while Auntie Karin pushed Danny and Sean so that both Bruce and I could run.  It was a great course with local bands playing all along the route.  Bruce ran a great time, especially seeing as he hadn't done much training, and I ran my second fastest.  We followed up a fun morning with an afternoon of football at Uncle Dan's and Auntie Karin's and lots of fun cousin time!

Date Night

Tonight was the first time that we left Evan alone with a babysitter.  We have left him before with either family or with a babysitter for Danny, Sean and Evan but never alone, one-on-one.  We went out to celebrate our 8th anniversary and had a very nice night.  We were out for about an hour when Katy, our babysitter and a former student of mine, sent me a text message to let me know that Evan was ok but was crying every 15 minutes or so.  From her messages, I knew he was fine and that Katy had enough experience to handle it.  We continued with our dinner and headed home when we were ready.  We got home to find Evan running around the living room having fun, with no pants on - he wouldn't let Katy change him.  Truth be told, I was actually kind of glad he was still up...I missed him!  Not bad for the first time with a sitter!

We love you, Pal!

Fall Fun!

What's better than apple picking on a beautiful late summer, fallish day?  Apple picking and a corn maze!  We had a fun family day at Schartner Farm in Bolton today.  We wandered through the corn maze for a while, got a little lost (isn't that the point?) and made our way out.  Then we took a hayride out to the apple orchard to pick some apples.  The trees were loaded with lots of good, juicy (we had to taste a few!) apples.  There were even quite a few low enough for Evan to reach.  We stopped to grab a bite to eat on the way home and were home in time for mommy and daddy to get ready for date night.

Proud Peacock

From the looks of this picture you would think that Evan was as proud as a peacock for the mess he had made in his room.

Truth be told, he was cleaning up by throwing all of the animals back into his crib and having a great time.

Making Pizza

Tonight we made pizza for dinner.  Evan was very interested in what we were doing and wanted to help.  I can already tell that making Christmas cookies this year is going to be so fun!

Wheeeeee!!!

Evan and I took advantage of the beautiful weather today to squeeze in one last pool day at the "beach house". It has been a beautiful summer and we hate to see it end but we are lucky to have been able to spend so much time by the pool.  Evan did all of his favorite things today - played with the tools, had a snack with Papa, played in the cabana, played golf, sat at the picnic table, and took a walk with Gramma.  He even did one new thing today...went down the slide!  And boy did he love it!  I think we may be in trouble next year!

Daddy's birthday weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Bruce's birthday with not one but two parties.  Friday night we had many of our WPI friends over.  It was a little cool but still nice enough to be outside on the deck and playing cornhole, life sized Jenga and beer pong in the grass.  We had a fire and a few people used the hot tub.  Evan was his usual self, entertaining everyone with his animal noises and jumping jacks.  I guess we were having too much fun though because we didn't take any pictures.  Oh well...next time!
Sunday we hosted a second party, this time with my family.  It was again a beautiful day so we spent most of it on the deck.  Gotta soak up every minute we can because we all know what is coming...winter!  Yuck!  It was a relaxing day and we all enjoyed watching the boys play together.
Tonight we planned to have a special salmon dinner just the three of us but Evan had other ideas!  He was getting into everything as we tried to cook dinner, including the wine glasses off of the wine rack.  Hard to believe that he was playing with glasses again seeing as he broke one yesterday with a Weeble.  While we were in the kitchen, Evan managed to grab a glass, hit it against another glass and bottle of wine, and then try to get it into his mouth.  It seemed that the more Bruce and I yelled "No!", the faster Evan moved.  Luckily I got to him just before he put the glass in his mouth.  He did end up with a small scrape on his chin but it could have been so much worse.  Needless to say, this set the tone for the rest of the evening and Bruce and I ended up eating our salmon dinner in shifts.  Not quite how we planned but still a memorable night!

Happy birthday, Uncle Gary!

It's not everyday that you turn 60.  And it's not everyday that your entire family is together in one place, especially for the Brunner's.  For that very reason, we continued the celebration of Gary's birthday on Saturday as well.  We had quite the gathering at Sarah and Shawn's house complete with good drinks, great food and wonderful people, close to half of whom were under the age of 10!  It was relaxing day of spending time catching up with family that we don't get to see often enough.

Pool Time

Today was another super hot day in Ohio.  I guess this is our summer to travel on weekends of record heat!  We moved from our hotel in Cincinnati to a hotel closer to Sarah and Shawn's.  After that, we had a relaxing day in the AC and the pool at their house, followed by dinner from Montgomery Inn...the Ribs King! (I got hungry just thinking about it as I type this!).  Ooo...so good!  Evan had so much fun playing with Chase and Brett and all of their toys!  It was so much fun to watch!

Go, go, go, Reds??

Today we celebrated Uncle Gary's 60th birthday from the Champion Club seats at The Great American Ballpark.  Unfortunately the Reds lost to the Phillies but we had a great time anyhow.  It was nice to be able to go inside to get food and drinks for "free" and to cool off on such a hot day.  Evan was a little confused as to why we were cheering for the Reds and not the Red Sox but he still yelled "Go, go, go, Papi!"  After a nap and a snack inside, we caught the end of the game before leaving the ballpark.  We rounded out the afternoon and evening with dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille at Newport on the Levee.  All in all, a great celebration of a very special guy, even if he is a Reds fan!