Grandma L Was In Town

Grandma L was in town recently and we had a lot of fun. Besides a wedding, spring training games and grilling out we had fun and grandma L and Max had a lot of fun playing together.

Max opened his Easter gift and turned into a firefighter.

Grandma L babysat for us while we spent adult time with our good friends at their home for a fondue party/craw fish boil. Yes, fondue was served as well as a southern man cooked a craw fish boil for the whole party. I had never had craw fish before, let alone see it actually being made. This girl was super excited for the boil...and the adult time.

I was a little shocked that the craw fish were alive and hanging out in a Styrofoam cooler waiting to be dumped into a pot of boiling water.  It was really gross to see and I guess I didn't think this through.

Even though the live craw fish freaked me out, it didn't stand in my way to enjoy eating them. I got my fingers dirty with the rest of the group. Besides the craw fish excitement we also had plenty of laughs and it was nice to have just adult time with some really good friends. I am glad one of them is southern so we had a proper craw fish boil. 

Max also received Easter presents from his extended family. One thing he got was paint and his name in wooden letters, so Max wanted to paint his name immediately. So, we got busy.

We colored Easter eggs with grandma L before she left town. Max had a lot of fun coloring all of his eggs and he was definitely Mr. Independent with wanting to do everything himself. He even wanted to use the little metal scooper to put the eggs in and out of the cups, but when that didn't work as well for him he used his tiny hands. 

Grandma L headed back to Wisconsin on an airplane the night before Easter and Max was a little jealous that she got to go on an airplane. Until next time grandma L.

Cubs Spring Training - Game 2

On Sunday we went to the second spring training game this season and Max was definitely more social this time. I am proud of him because the tailgate was packed with people. Max started his day off with a very healthy breakfast.

Then moved on to play ball with grandma L.

Max then had a blast playing cars in the back of Andy's truck with his future BFF, Briggs. He just loves Briggs and Stella and it's so fun to watch your kid play with your best friend's kids.

Shockingly I got a little nap out of Max. I took him for a walk in the stroller (right about when his eyes were red and looked like they wanted to close) and before I knew it he was out cold. Success!

Despite the heat, and my lack of enthusiasm, we made it into the game. We didn't stay long because Max was done and it was so hot, but we stayed long enough to watch a little bit of the game.

Oh, and so Max could tell me to stop singing the Cubs song. Apparently he doesn't think I can sing. He kept saying "stop mamma" and putting his hand over my mouth. Of course it just made me want to sing even more.

Max got to play the piano outside of the Cubs stadium. Mesa puts these around the city and Max noticed it right away. It reminded him of grandma L's piano, so they played a couple keys.

Everybody was exhausted on Sunday night from the very busy weekend. I was hoping for an early bed time, but of course I didn't get it.

Monday night we went to dinner with grandma S and grandpa T before they took off and headed back to Wisconsin.

Max is imitating grandpa doing He-Man.

It's Been Crazy Here

I am not going to lie, it's been crazy around here for the past couple weeks. So crazy that I am not sure where to begin. Last week on Wednesday grandma V and grandpa J headed back to Wisconsin and we had Wednesday night off from guests. On Thursday grandma L arrived and grandpa T and grandma S were also in town. Max has been spoiled with all of his grandparents packed into a three week timeline.

On Friday night we all went to the Seifert wedding and Max stayed home with Tayler. It's always nice to get out every now and then and enjoy some adult time.

Saturday was busy with Easter presents from grandma S and grandpa T.

We followed the presents up with the BBQ Fest in Chandler. We went for a couple hours and Max enjoyed his first bowl of ice cream. He has not liked it in the past because it's too cold for him, but he was asking for some blue ice cream so we gave it another shot. This blue ice cream was cotton candy flavored and definitely full of sugar and not very tasty, but Max liked it. It helped cool him off from the heat.

Mackenzie got him a balloon from some stand and Max had a blast playing with the balloon and his bouncy ball.

Saturday night we had a cookout at our house with about 20 people over. It was a crazy day but we managed to make everything work. Max was exhausted from all the activity that day and went to bed a little earlier than normal. I wished I was snuggled with him in bed early, but one can only dream.

Cubs Game

Two weekends ago was the first Cubs Spring Training game of 2016 that we attended and we were lucky enough to have grandma V and grandpa J in town to go with us. It was their first spring training game too.

Max had a good time hanging out in the nice weather, eating and playing with his toys.

We took him to the park so he could burn some of his energy. This was such a neat park and Max had a great time.

Max played a game with grandma and grandpa before we went into the baseball game.

Our tickets were up on the deck and Max had fun eating peanuts with daddy. Cracking open the peanuts entertained him for three innings.

Chandler Festival

On Sunday we took Max to the Ostrich Festival in Chandler. We had never been there before and I assumed it would be a bigger Corn Fest (a festival from my hometown for those that do not know). I was way wrong. This festival was the Corn Fest on steroids x 10. It was HUGE and there were plenty of things to do, so we spent a few hours there on Sunday with grandma V and grandpa J before Max was done and needed to go home for a nap.

Max went on carnival rides and I squeezed myself into a helicopter for my son. This helicopter was hot and I was claustrophobic in it...not my thing, but I sucked it up so Max could "fly" the helicopter.

I then took him on the train and he had a blast on that.

Daddy went on the spinning ride with Max and it reminded Max of the tea cups at Disney World. I believe they could sit there and spin themselves as fast as they wanted. Max was giggling and smiling. I got a kick out of the fact that Andy did not fit in this ride and it was too funny to watch.

He had been talking about riding the cars the whole time, but didn't want to go by himself. This ride he had to go on all by himself. I finally explained to him that he had to go by himself and that we could not go with him because we are too big. If he wanted to go he had to go all by himself and that he's a big boy. He finally said ok. I walked him in and he wanted to ride the blue car so I lifted him up and buckled him up. As I walked away I expected my super shy son to change his mind and start losing it, but he didn't. He was a big boy and was very determined to ride the cars, even if it meant doing it alone.

Then he acquired a passenger behind him and Andy and I were worried that Max was going to lose it and freak out...basically tell the kid to go away, but he didn't. He looked at him and then just focused on the car and the very noisy horn. When the ride was all done the little boy helped Max off the blue car. It was very nice of him.

He also took grandma on the boat ride. This was another spinning ride that did not look like a lot of fun to me, but Max and grandma had a blast. Max was smiling the whole time.

He won himself a big blue ball at the fair by playing the duck game. He was too cute at playing this game.

We also checked out the ostrich races. For those of you not in AZ, this is a real thing. Real ostrich's actually race around a track with jockeys riding on top. It was crazy! Max got to watch from daddy's shoulders, but he didn't seem too impressed. After one race we moved on.

We watched a little bit of a motorcycle show, checked out the ponies, but the most important thing Max got to do was see the fire truck and the ambulance that was parked there. After a very busy morning Max quenched his thirst with a giant lemonade that he completely sucked down in 2.5 seconds.