She's Learning Every Day!

Lauryn just can't get enough of learning new things these days. She is constantly bringing us books to read to her, and her favorite right now is Moo, Baa, LaLaLa. When Megan can recite the book to Lauryn while she is in the bathtub, and Lauryn gets excited and tries to repeat things, it must mean we all know the book way too well. It is definitely fun to have her constantly crawling in our laps and giving us books to read to her.

Over the past few weeks, her favorite thing has been to stick her finger in her mouth and "brush" when you say toothbrush, brush your teeth, or she sees a picture of a toothbrush. She is also fascinated to motion when we say lotion, scrub in the tub, brush your hair, wash the floor, wipe your feet, wash your hands, and on and on...Hmm, there seems to be a clean theme here. Anyone need any Norwex?!?!?

We had our first "Smurf" experience. We were playing with the neighbor kids while they were coloring on the sidewalks. Lauryn enjoyed scribbling on the driveway for a few minutes, until she realized the blue chalk looked better in her mouth. Seeing the aftermath of eating blue chalk provides great entertainment. Where was the camera when we needed it most!?!?

The garage sales have been HOT lately! We picked up a really nice wagon for a good bargain and an art table. At the beginning of the summer, we found a car and a kitchen play set, and those have been favorites all summer long. She also has her own set of $5 golf clubs. She is pretty good at hitting the ball, although making the LPGA tour is going to take lots of practice.

She is loving the harvest from our garden. She really enjoys the zucchini, and could chew on a cucumber or ear of sweet corn for hours. The knack for raw green peppers was quite the surprise, and Megan is looking forward to feeding her eggplant!

We are looking forward to a busy, yet fun weekend. We are going to meet Megan's family on Saturday to celebrate her parent's 40th Wedding Anniversary, then off to a wedding reception that night. On Sunday, we are going to the "Teamsters Local 320" union picnic and day at the como park/zoo. It should be fun. Then comes the craziness of student orientation days at school, teacher workshops, and the start of school and daycare again...oh man, :-)

Is it REALLY August?!?!

Where has the summer gone? I guess we have been so busy that it has gone by all too fast. I really hope that the school year goes by this fast so we can have another summer again, soon! Or, maybe we will just move some place warm so we can always be entertaining Lauryn outside. She is at the point where she can throw a trantrum if she looks outside and we don't take her out there. We might just have to put black paper on all our windows and creep all the neighbors out.

Since the last post, hmmm...what have we been doing? We had a family reunion (yes, on one of the 95 degree & humid days) for the Nagel's, Eric's grandma's family. While in Luverne, we contiued to have the debate of John Deere vs Case, and the Gruis vs McMahan battle might just have to keep 1-uping each other. It was Eric's birthday and our 6th Anniversary. We made it to a 12:10 Twins game (Eric's wish) without Lauryn, on the "feels like 117 degrees" day. Grandma & Grandpa McMahan came up for 3 days and 3 nights to watch Lauryn while Eric and I got away to the North Shore. Lauryn was all too entertained by Grandma & Grandpa, and I am sure very spoiled. We've had numerous trips to the pool, beach, arboretum, park, and back-yard misquito fest. We hosted National Night Out in our Neighborhood last night - it was a blast! How fun to have the street blocked off and let the kids run wild! The biggest hit was the "car wash"... a sprinkler made of PVC pipe and made into a 20'x5' water toy. I think we might have to give some money to the neighbors for their water bill...they were gone and we used their hose! Their kids said it was OK! We are off to great-grandma McMahan't 90th birthday this weekend, and more fun in the sun next week for sure!