Team Schneider

Pete and Andrew have made it to a couple of St. Michael-Albertville football games this year.  Andrew’s favorite part is bringing along hot chocolate and drinking it after the first touchdown.

Our daycare was closed a couple of weeks ago, so Andrew and Pete made it to a few garage sales.  They scored this set of kid golf clubs.

I see broken windows in our future.

Andrew has had two sessions if Preschool through ECFE.  He loves all the toys, circle time, snack time, and Ms. Emily.

This week we were able to visit the newest member of the Schneider family.  Baby William was born on Thursday.  William was very good about putting up with Andrew’s constant need to hold him, touch him, and attempts to wash his hair with hand sanitizer.

Spending time with William was good practice for Andrew though…

He’ll have lots more practice come February!

Tonight Pete took Andrew and I on a virtual field trip though the company office in Cincinnati…via Skype.  The trip started off in the main lobby where Andrew was shown the candy machine.  He replied with “Daaaad, we don’t eat candy in our offices.”  After seeing some cubicles and the break room, Pete showed us where the real work takes place.

Andrew said, “When I grow up, I’m going to work at table tennis.  Just like you, Dad.”

We just came across the following iPad app to help teach toddlers how to write letters…

Andy has already figured out most apps on the iPad so this one was no problem for him to master and it makes us feel better because he is actually learning a practical skill.   you can find more about it here… http://montessorium.com/

Andy also really likes Apps from the Monkey Preschool folks…you can find them here http://www.monkeypreschool.com/

After a short hiatus from blogging, we’re giving it another go.  This was a summer of travel for us…some of us more than others!  Pete had trips to Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Scotland, London, Denver, and Cincinnati.  He has learned his way around many airports and was able to snag a picture with this guy:

Andrew and I made a couple of trips to Cottonwood where Andrew proved that he will eventually be an excellent helper on the farm.

Or maybe he could just smile and look cute.

We spent countless hours running around with these two.  Whenever Andrew hears kids outside, he runs over to the window and asks “Are my girls out?”

Andrew caught his first (and second) fish at a nearby lake.

Then, Pete had to show him who’s boss by spending a week in Canada to catch this:

In other exciting news, Andrew is potty trained!  It wasn’t as bad as I thought and we’re very happy to be diaperless.

This week has found Pete alone in a quiet house to get his work done, Andrew enjoying his friends at daycare, and myself gearing up for another year of school.  We hope you are all doing well…and we’ll try to be better about updating!

The last week has been busy as usual.  We went camping with Uncle Steven and Aunt Erin to Sibley State Park.

We had great weather, plenty of caterpillars for Andrew to catch, and lots of smores to eat.

Andrew enjoyed the extra attention from Steven and Erin, even when they dressed him as a superhero and made him run around the campsite shouting “Superhero, to the rescue!”.

We were able to do quite a bit of hiking and had lots of great photo opps!

When the fun was over, we came home and made Andrew paint our bathroom.  He only missed a few spots.

Today and tomorrow are days filled with garage sales.  There are nine sales going on in our neighborhood and somehow we turned into the hosting location for 3 families.  There were lots of customers and lots of kids.  Towards the end of the day, Pete and I had fun sending our neighbor kids over to other sales with foreign change from Pete’s many trips!

We’re looking forward to a relaxing weekend 🙂

Today we put the final touches on Phase One of the landscaping.  Here’s what we began with:

While I was at Wolf Ridge, Pete and Andrew completed this:

While they were fishing, I did this:

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve slowly been figuring out what kind of plants we want and deciding where to place them.  Today, we planted two more perennials and then put down mulch.

There are still a few spaces to fill and we’re going to put a couple of stepping stones so we can get from the sidewalk to the grass.  The trees have a new look as well.

We’re very pleased with how it has turned out and just hopeful that everything lives and that the mulch doesn’t wash away 🙂

The bur oak is a great addition, but is struggling a bit.

It’s been fertilized and we’ve watered it every day.  Here’s a closer look:

We’re hoping that it’s just the stress of being transplanted.  Any ideas of what we’re doing wrong???  I’m going to give the nursery a call tomorrow to get suggestions.  In the meantime, I will leave you with this…my favorite plant so far…a speedwell!

Yesterday was the last day of school for my class!  Everyone was ready for break to be here.  I had lunch with a couple of friends today.  Actually had lunch.  With no kids running by to tell me that their tooth fell out.  No meetings.  No fire drills.  No kids arguing about who gets to bring the kickball out.  Didn’t have to tie any shoes or snap any pants.  No rushing to eat because it’s raining again and, crap, the kids will be back soon.

Anyway, we were on the topic of retirement and I realized that I could easily be doing this job for many, many more years.  Sigh.

The up side is that I get to spend my summers with this kid:

There are all sorts of parks to explore, critters to find, ice cream to eat, and fun to be had.

The excitement began tonight as I was finishing up grilling.  I looked over and saw this little frog sitting on the side of the grill.

So for the next 20 minutes we watched as Andrew enjoyed his new friend (and apparently stomped on my cilantro).

Looking forward to the adventure!