corn maze

We broke out our winter gear, and headed to the nearby giant corn maze! We had a blast, and thankfully the nasty weather held off until we were ready to head home. 

video games

So Ethan's gotten super into a couple of games either on my phone or the iPad recently. I guess we're non-traditional in our views of video games because I think it's really neat to see his coordination and problem solving skills improve through playing games like these. The really funny thing is that it's translated into real life and sometimes I think he thinks he's in a real-life video game in his mind.

A couple of weeks ago Ethan and I picked up Steve at the convention center downtown. Ethan told me he had to go potty and so he and Steve ran into the convention center quickly to find a bathroom while I went across the street to parking a lot and wait for them. They ran down the hall, went potty, ran back through the hall and down the street, crossed at the light, ran to the car and buckled in. Ethan gets buckled in and says "whew, that was a really tricky level!".

Then a few nights ago we were starting to get him ready for bed and I told him to come get his teeth brushed. He replies "but I still have 20 more lives left!". No dude, you don't. It's 8:30 and we're tired. :)

dreams

Lately Ethan's been talking about dreams that he's had, but I've always gotten the impression that he's just telling me stories that he's making up, and that he's not quite certain what a dream actually is. I know he's had scary dreams that he's waken up to, and started talking incoherently about monsters or someone being mean to him. I've tried to explain that it was just a bad dream, and didn't really happen.

This morning was the first time I've been convinced that he's telling me about an actual dream. He told me that he had a dream where he was riding a bike with "the other guy" and that he got off his bike and the other guy rode over his bike and up the two.. tube? (didn't quite catch that part). Then he had to get his bike and fix it, and then he kept riding up the two/tube with the other guy.

Not the most exciting dream, but it sounded legit to me! He brought it up again later and then asked me if I had that dream too. I told him about a dream that I had the other night and he seemed really curious that we didn't have the same dreams. So fun to watch him figure it all out.

stuff he's said

Lately Ethan thinks that it's his job to take care of me. He loves to brush my teeth, help me put makeup on, etc. The other day I said out loud, mainly to myself, "boy, my head's really starting to hurt" and Ethan jumped right in with "it'll be ok mom. I'll make you some coffee". Funny how he's picked that up!

This morning as I was trying to get ready he told me that he didn't want me to get ready -- he wanted me to watch cartoons with him. I asked him if I should stay stinky with crazy hair. He ran into the bathroom telling me, "Oh, I'll get you your deodorant. Then you won't be stinky anymore." Problem solved, no shower needed for me :)

Steve's birthday

Ethan and I made minion cupcakes for Steve's birthday. Ethan is really into the Despicable Me movies lately. He loved the bad minion cupcakes (the purple ones) and wasn't so crazy about the good minions (the twinkies) because they had no frosting. Surprise.

 

We had cupcakes and ribs for lunch and then after rest time, Ethan and I went to a friends house to play and let daddy have the night off to do whatever he wanted to do. I think we all had a blast :)

Ethan couldn't get enough of the cars. Might have to look into finding one of these for him.

our 10th anniversary trip

Steve and I took a couple of nights away to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Theses are the only pictures I got of our weekend. We had a lot of relaxing fun. 

busy summer days

Seeing Sid (from the movie Ice Age) at the Mall of America. Ethan said to him "you're my favorite", and regularly asks to go to the MOA now.

Dinner date with mom

Excited to be holding his own sparklers

"helping"

Awesome fort that stayed up for quite a while

Ethan got really into picking our peonies this year

First movie theater experience. He LOVES going to movies now!

Big boy bike

Swimming lessons. he's doing a great job this summer!

Fave part about the splash park, the xylophone. Go figure.

Park with Saige! Singing and dancing.

Fishing with daddy!

Our park had a party one night and Ethan went with a friend. They got their faces painted, hair colored, and got to go in a fire truck and police car. It was a serious fun :)

Independent back float with a noodle!

So many of our mornings are spent at the beach. We seriously could just live there, Ethan never wants to leave.

Lots of snappers in our lake

Making friends at the beach

Daddy joined us at the beach one evening