Male Bonding Time

Alex and Craig enjoyed a little male bonding time this weekend at Dozer Day in Sussex. Every other year, a local rock quarry opens up to the public as a fundraiser for a local school district. Kids can climb all over the equipment, go for rides, operate diggers. It's heaven for little kids! While I got my hair cut on Saturday, the boys headed out to stomp in the dirt and check out the diggers. A little after lunch time, Craig walked in with one dusty little boy passed out on Daddy's shoulder.

That's Alex between the wheels of a giant mining truck.

Alex getting ready to climb into the cab of a dump truck.

Alex driving an excavator (with some help). He actually got to dump a couple loads of dirt!

One happy little boy surrounded by diggers!

College Colors Day

My company had kind of a fun theme day this week. With college football getting underway, they held a "school colors" day. You could wear your college gear with jeans for the day. (obviously no tank tops or sweatpants, but sweatshirts, t-shirts, jerseys, etc were fair game).
Friday is normally jeans day, so since this was yesterday, it was a bonus jeans day.

The company I work for now is huge... 3500 employees between our two buildings. Even on Fridays, people still dress pretty nice... jeans and heels, jeans and button down shirts or polos... sweaters and blouses for the ladies.

It was really fun to wander around today and see where people went to school. Obviously a lot of midwestern schools were well represented. But it was cool to see some east and west coast schools as well.

I had a bit of a dilemma myself... I went to the University of Iowa for undergrad, but I went to Marquette University for grad school. Marquette is local... so of course there are a lot of alumni who remain in the area. I decided to represent my Hawkeyes. They are my first college love, after all. I only saw a couple of other Iowa folks wandering the halls today... but there are a lot of Hawkeye license plate holders in the parking lot, so there must be more of us here! I was also amazed at the amount of Iowa stuff I still have. I have at least six sweatshirts (obviously a little excessive and some of them are in better shape than others) a long sleeve t-shirt I bought at a football game last year (my first game in like 9 years!!!) and a bunch of random t-shirts. My Marquette paraphernalia is a little lacking in comparison!

How about you? Where did you go to school? Do you still support your team or school by wearing college gear? Do you get your kids in on the school spirit?

My Little Water Baby

That's my water baby! Alex loves to swim. This picture was taken in Indiana at a family reunion held by one of my mom's cousins. Alex has turned into quite the swimmer this year. He's in his second round of swimming lessons at the YMCA... first time without mom in the water, too. We're getting ready to sign him up for the next class. It's amazing to me how fast he's learning and how much more confident in the water he is now.

I think it is so important for kids to learn how to swim. Most municipalities offer very reasonably priced swimming lessons. And the YMCA doesn't turn anyone away, so if you're concerned about price there are usually options available. (disclaimer: I did work for the Y for just over a year. I no longer work there but still fully support the institution)

It's just such an important life skill to have. I'm glad my parents enrolled me in swim lessons as a kid. Swimming is great exercise and it's something we can do together as a family. What more could you want??

Great Weekend Weather and Now This??

We enjoyed some great weather this weekend. It was warm and above freezing... the sun was out... that equals some nice weather for March! Now we're back to chilly, damp, and grey... which is more typical March weather here in Wisconsin. We did get out and enjoy the weekend though. Alex and I dragged out the sidewald chalk on Saturday. We colored up the whole sidewalk in front of our house (forgot to bring the camera outside with me, and was having so much fun I didn't think to go inside to grab it). Took a walk with both Alex and Shadow.

Sunday after church and lunch we decided to head to the Milwaukee County Zoo. We love the zoo, and it wasn't crowded at all since it's still a little early in the season for the Zoo.

Got to see most of my favorites... the cheetahs, elephants and giraffes. And of course we stopped in the primate house to see Mahal, the cutest orangutan baby EVER! He was totally showing off, as were the spider monkeys. But it was great. The fresh air did all of us in. It was group nap time when we got home. I love days like that though... it's so much fun to do stuff as a family and take advantage not only of the great weather, but of the great things to do right here in Milwaukee!

More Visitors

We had visitors this past weekend as well. My parents came to visit. It was the first time they've been here in over a year. The past year was rough on my mom. My grandma's health was failing and mom was stuck between my grandma's house and Galesburg for most of the year.

This picture just screams "I'm three and trains are COOL!" doesn't it?

Alex even got to drive one of the model trains. It was pretty neat!

We had a great visit with them. We went to visit the Domes and had a great time there! There was an awesome train show going on there. Inside the show dome were little villages made of Legos, including Milwaukee City Hall, Miller Park (complete with functioning retractable roof), the Chicago Skyline, and the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome. We had so much fun visiting with my mom and dad, and as always were sad to see them go. The good news is, we won't be without visitors for long! Craig's parents are coming in two weeks! It so much fun to spend time with our families!

Definitely Grandpa's boy!

Thanks for visiting! Don't be a stranger!

Thanks to all the fabulous SITStas who stopped by the blog today! I have read all of your lovely comments and it's been so much fun to see where all the comments have come from! As of about 3PM, I had 27 states and the District of Columbia represented, plus about 6 foreign countries. I just got back from the Brewers vs. Rockies game. It was CC Sabathia's first game as a Brewer. Milwaukee won! WOO HOO! It's too late to go back and return all the comments tonight. I'll try to do so tomorrow. I've got another Brewers game on Thursday... it's a day game so I'm going for work. HOW COOL! Then Saturday we're off to Des Moines to visit my brother and sister in law. More tomorrow!

Fun Weekend

It's been a busy but fun weekend. Saturday we cleaned all morning. Had to go out and get Craig a new winter coat... he busted the zipper on his old one. After a successful shopping trip, we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Guadalupe. It was a great day.

Today, all three of us went to church together in the morning. We had lunch, and after Alex's nap, we headed up to the Tri-County YMCA in Menomonee Falls. They have a small waterpark up there, and we were desperate to do something fun and different. We got there about 4PM. The water was a little cooler than I expected. Alex was a little aprehensive at first. He kept saying he wanted to go home. But after about 10 minutes, he got used to it, and of course didn't want to go home. He played under all the sprinklers, went down the toddler slide in the zero- depth entry pool, watched Daddy and Mommy go down the two big waterslides. It was a blast! We just had such a good time. My friend Sara actually gave me the idea. She's enjoying a free 3 month membership that her brother (who lives in Illinois) won last year. She took her kids up there yesterday afternoon and had a good time too. So Sara, thanks for the idea!