Take me out to the ballgame!

June continued to be a busy month in the Vandermark household, starting with a week after Z&A’s graduation. It started with a Saturday trip to Target Field for the Accenture Family Social at the Twins game. It was a little ironic being at an Accenture-paid event, given that I was no longer employed by them since I had started a new job at UnitedHealth Group the week before, but you gotta love a free day of family fun!

The following day, we celebrated Joe’s birthday, highlighted with a special cake he requested – a cream cheese pound cake with strawberry sauce – and a wonderful day spent together as a family.

From there it was all about sports – Zach and Alex started their very first swim lessons (such water babies, they are!) and their first season of full tee-ball. They of course loved every bit of it!

Check out the photos in the May-June album!

The end of the week finished with a Father’s Day weekend trip to the MN Zoo (it really was a BUSY week!), but those pictures will be in the next batch uploaded.

Tags: baseball, birthday, family outing, summer, swimming

We’ve had a lot of fun so far this summer playing outside and enjoying some great weather.  One of our highlights was the night we camped out in our new tent in the backyard.   We had a lot of fun reading stories (all camping or sleeping related ), checking out the stars and just hanging out.  We even managed to get some sleep – although I’ve realized my body just can’t handle the hard ground like I did when I was a Girl Scout oh so many years ago!

Zach and Alex were really excited to play sports this summer, joining a Preschool Sports program where they get to play a little bit of soccer and a little bit of tee-ball.  They had soccer the first couple weeks and just loved it.  They both looked really good and had a blast doing it.  They were just non-stop all over the place (not a huge surprise, knowing them).  The tee-ball portion started this week, and again, they had a ton of fun.   I think they’re especially proud to be out playing baseball just like their big brother.

Speaking of big brother and baseball, Cole’s baseball team had a great regular season, finishing first in their league!  The playoffs are this week, and they won their first playoff game tonight!  Yeah, Cole!

In totally separate news, both Zach and Alex are finally potty trained.  Yeah! No more diapers!!  Zach was finally motivated to do it once he realized that he had to use the potty if he wanted to go to preschool in the fall.  It’s funny what motivates kids sometimes, but hey, whatever works!

New photos on the site include pictures from our camping trip, all three boys playing their sports, a fun afternoon playing with squirt guns at Grandma Pat and Papa Bob’s, and more.  Check them out in the May – June 2009 photo album.

Tags: Alex, baseball, camping, Cole, family outing, soccer, summer, Zach

Wow, it’s crazy how fast a couple months can fly by!  I’ve finally gotten around to posting all the photos from the past couple months.  Some have been up on the site for a while, as you may have seen from the changes in Recent Photos, but I never got around to publishing the links to them.  The highlights:

• Cole’s 14th Birthday: Grandma Pat and Papa Bob came by to celebrate with us, and after having cake and opening presents, we all went bowling, a fun birthday present courtesy of Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn. Even Debbie and Ben joined in the fun.
• Mar – Apr 2009:
  - My birthday, which I celebrated by making a donation to Locks of Love with 11 inches of my hair.  We also spent a day at Mom and Dad’s house.
  - Trip to the Children’s Museum to see the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit along with the usual fun stuff. It was Cole’s spring break, so he joined us, as did Grandma Pat.
  - Easter: the egg hunt in town, a visit from the Easter Bunny, and special Easter baskets from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn
  - Baseball: Zach & Alex get their first gloves, and Cole’s first game of the season
  - Alex wears big boy underwear for the first time after staying dry for 2 days!  He was really excited to wear his new Star Wars underwear.

Tags: Alex, baseball, birthday, Cole, Easter, family outing, Grandma Pat, milestones, Papa Bob, potty training, Zach