A festive(al) weekend

 Zach and Alex at the
BBQ Days parade

The second weekend in July is always a fun-but-busy weekend for us, as both our town and Cole's hometown have their big town festivals that weekend - BBQ Days and the Raspberry Festival, respectively. And starting this year, the big parade for each festival had some of the Vandermark boys in its list of participants.

Saturday was our BBQ Days day. Zach, Alex, Joe and I marched along with the rest of our Cub Scout Pack, handing out freezees to the parade-goers - a very welcome treat on a hot, sticky day! After the parade, we met up with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob at the carnival to have some food and enjoy some rides before Zach, Alex and I had to go work a shift in the Scout's pork chop and corn-on-the-cob stand. Joe spent the day working at the Knights of Columbus' burger and dogs stand. We were definitely worn out at the end of that day!

The next day was a little more relaxing for us but still lots of fun. We went up to watch the Raspberry Festival parade to watch Cole perform with the LMPM pep band from his school. Later that evening, we were back at BBQ Days to watch their famed fireworks, put on by a major pyrotechnics company based in town (they were amazing!).

Check out the fun in the July-Aug photo album, including a video of Cole's band performing (Hi Cole!)!

The boys of summer

Zach and Alex at T-ball

I'm finally catching up on our summer photos, and I've got the pics through the month of June up on the site. June was a great kickoff for summer.

As mentioned in the last post, the boys fired off rockets with the Cub Scouts and we spent a day at the zoo to see dinosaurs with Grandma Pat.
We celebrated Joe's birthday, including a special present where I took him to see Roger Waters perform The Wall, who was in town that night (great show!).
We honored 2 of the best dads I know, Joe and my dad, on Father's Day, a relaxing fun day up at Grandma Pat and Papa Bob's house.
Zach and Alex started their second season of T-ball, this year playing on the Maroon Team.
The carpet was installed in our basement - we have a functional space downstairs! Yay!! :)
Grandma Pat and Papa Bob spent a special day with Zach and Alex, taking them to the Como Town amusement park just to hang out and have fun.

Check out the pics and video clips in the May-June album.

From space-age to prehistoric

Zach and Alex are
ready for rockets!

We took quite a time trip in the last week, starting in the Space Age by shooting off rockets with Cub Scouts and finishing up the week going back in time a mere 65 million years to the Dinosaur era at the MN Zoo.


The Cub Scout rocket launch gave each scout the chance to fire off his rocket twice, and the rockets were flying high on a perfect Saturday morning. Zach and Alex had a blast (ha!) shooting their rockets - they went really high! Zach's rocket had a slight mishap on its second flight - the parachute didn't pop out, so it turned into a nice lawn dart on its return to Earth, burning itself halfway into the ground. Zach thought that was SO cool! :)

Did you stop by for a bite?

We finished the week celebrating the end of the school year joined by Grandma Pat for a trip to one of our favorite places, the Minnesota Zoo, to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. This cool exhibit features animatronic dinosaurs displayed along a trail similar to the other animals at the zoo. It was really neat to see the dinosaurs as they may have looked in life, really giving you perspective of their enormous size.

Check out the pictures (and a couple of video clips of the rocket launch) in the May-June album.

A birthday, baseball and Memorial Day

A great day for baseball

Just a quick post from a beautiful Memorial Day at the ballpark yesterday. Mom and Dad B had given Joe a family day at the game as an early birthday present, so the seven of us headed out to Target Field to watch the Twins "begainst" the Oakland A's. After a couple of days of weather extremes (cold, windy, rainy and then hot, steamy and windy with even more rain), it was a perfect day to spend a day at the ballpark as a family.

Because it was Memorial Day, the Twins had a number of tributes and memorials to honor and remember our veterans, particularly those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It was great to explain to Z&A what the real meaning of that day is for. One of the highlights was the National Anthem, when a WWII vet raised the flag in front of his family and wife of 65 years and a pair of vintage WWII fighter planes did a flyover.

Check out the video of the flyover plus pics from the game in the May-June album!

From Lions to Tigers (Scouts)

Alex, Zach and the rest of the new Tiger den

Most of the pictures from the last month are from Cub Scouts events - participating in the city-wide clean up by cleaning up trash at Veterans' Park (on a cold, rainy day!), helping out at a fundraiser dinner, and graduation/rank advancement at the year's final Pack meeting. Zach, Alex and the rest of the Lions Den stood guard during the flag ceremony in their last Lions duties, and then they crossed the bridge to receive their orange Tiger neckerchiefs and the Lions badges they had earned. The boys were SO excited to move up to Tiger Cubs!

The city clean-up pictures are in the March-April 2012 album, while the rest are in the May-June 2012 album.  Also in this album are a couple pictures from Hot Club, the annual Jazz band performance at Cole's school, a highlight for the band members and families alike that is performed at the school in a cabaret-style club.  Cole even performed a trombone solo this year and sounded fantastic!

Easter fun

Alex and Zach: These eggs are
Easter Bunny approved!

Easter weekend is traditionally a weekend of family fun in the Vandermark household, and this year was no different. Zach and Alex started the weekend with an Easter care package from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn with a bunch of really cool coins from Grandpa's collection and some special Easter baskets from Grandma. Afterwards, we dyed some eggs and made yummy Easter M&M cookies.

On Easter morning, the boys couldn't wait to see if the Easter Bunny had left anything for them in the not one but TWO pairs of buckets they left out. Zach and Alex normally each leave a bucket out, the same ones every year ('cuz the Easter Bunny is all about reusing!), but this year, the boys decided to leave those and the buckets they got from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn's care package. I guess they thought they'd get more treats that way, and of course, the Easter Bunny obliged by filling all 4. :)

After we celebrated the real meaning of Easter in church, we had a little more fun with an around-the-house egg hunt, where the silver egg is an extra special find. You can find the pictures (as well as a video of the boys talking about the Legos they got from the Easter Bunny) in the March-April album.

Meaghan and Cole

Also in the album is a great picture of Cole and Meaghan, who both looked wonderful on their Prom night!

We've also made some progress on the basement (yeah!). The walls were painted a warm grey with a dark red accent wall where the TV will be. The bathroom was painted the same red and will eventually have some cream wainscoting. The picture in the basement album shows the trim ready to stain (we did that part); that trim is now up so it's time to order the carpet, a patterned mid-tone grey. Can't wait until it's all done!

Jamming to a "Jungle Beat"

Zach and Alex perform with their classmates

The kindergarten classes at Zach and Alex's school put on a Spring program titled "Jungle Beat." Each of the classes was featured for one of the song, performing music about the jungle and the animals who live there. Zach and Alex's class was featured for the title song, "Jungle Beat," using a bunch of percussion instruments for the beat. They did a great job! Video clips and pictures of the performances can be found in the Mar-Apr 2012 album.

Arrgh! We be here to see Pirates!

Also added to the album are pictures from Z&A's spring break, where Zach, Alex and Mommy went all over town having lots of fun. There are pictures from our trip to the Minnesota Zoo and, the big highlight of the week, the trip to the Science Museum to see their special Pirates exhibit, featuring treasures found from a real pirate ship that wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod.