Joe "Logan" Mauer

Somewhere between May and June of this year Logan became a baseball fanatic. Everyday he wants to watch baseball on TV or play baseball in the yard. Unfortunately we did not sign him up for baseball through the Lakeville Baseball Association (LBA) b/c we thought he was busy enough between golf camp, football camp, soccer, etc. However, after weeks of playing baseball every night after school we explored YMCA baseball - and luckily it had not started. Hence, Logan started 8 weeks of baseball yesterday and he was in heaven! It is not as competitive as the LBA, but he is happy hitting the ball and running bases.....doesn't like the fact that there are no outs and you can only run to one base.

He played t-ball before, and I am amazed and how good the kids are at 6-7 yrs old. All of them where hitting the ball from "coach pitch" - some overhand; some underhand. Logan played first base and third base. Carter had a blast playing at the park near the field and watching his BIG brother.

Severe Weather Alert:

Last night was the first time in the 7 years we have lived in our house that we took shelter in the basement. Around 9:45pm the sirens went off for a tornado warning - the TV said it was coming straight into Lakeville. Unless a tornado has winds of about 10 mph, I think the radar was wrong as nothing happened except about an hour of torrential rain (again)! I think we have had about 4-5 inches of rain the last 2 nights. Of course the boys don't remember anything :-)

Good morning from our ark

The Twin Cities survived some major rain last night - 35W had 4 feet of standing water and most of the highways across the city were closed. Lakeville got 2-3 inches of rain in about an hour - some minor damage with tree limbs, but nothing major. Logan got very "sensitive" when the sirens went off. We tried to explain to him how BIG dakota county is and we are fine, but he kept asking if we were going to be ok.

Today is Logan's first baseball practice/game - he is very excited! Hopefully the field will not be a mud pit.

2 more days of work till PTO!!!!

Happy Father's Day to All

Hope all the dads out there had a fabulous Father's Day!

It seems like an eternity since our last post. Shawn has been busy traveling and managing 2 active boys is a full-time job when Shawn is gone....as a result the blog is the last thing to get attention.

Summary of our Father's Day:

• Spent Saturday at the cabin with all the cousins. We decided it would be easier to drive up early Saturday and return late Saturday. The boys had a blast fishing, swimming, playing soccer, driving up with their cousins, and drinking root-beer floats. Getting home late Saturday meant the boys got a full night sleep in their own beds and we avoided cranky kid syndrome on Sunday.
  
• Sunday morning was spent at the zoo - Carter's favorite place in the whole world! The boys loved the new Africa exhibit. The afternoon was spent at the waterpark and ice cream store. It was a nice, relaxing father day. The boys made Shawn a bird feeder for Father's Day.

Exciting stuff on the agenda for this week:

• Logan has golf camp every night
• Logan's baseball start this Thursday and Saturday.

Sharing some zoo pictures - yes Carter has been wearing his winter hat....he is starting a new sumer fashion!

Some exciting news!

We recently received an article that identified the best elementary schools in MN. Logan's school, Lake Marion, was ranked #9 in the entire state based on test scores. WOW!!! Check out the entire list....makes it tough to justify moving outside of the district - not that we are considering it.

http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MN/schoolrank.aspx?pagetype=top10

Logan is enjoying his last couple of days of school - it is field trip mania. So far they have been to Underwater World, Como Zoo, Cub Foods, and the eye doctor. Next week they go to McDonalds and learn how the kitchen works.

Memorial Day Weekend:
We spent Saturday and part of Sunday up at the Mattson cabin. Logan was on a roll and caught 5 Bass and 1 Northern (18 inches)! Shawn caught 2 sardines. Carter caught a bunch of weeds. The highlight of the weekend was when Logan was trying to cast as far out into the lake as he could and ended up throwing his entire body into the water. The look on his face was priceless! Luckily Shawn was on the dock with him and quickly scooped him up.

Carter had his "year 3" school conference this week. His report was fabulous! With the second child I think you do not recognize milestones as much as with the first. Some comments:

-Happy disposition....always signing
-Loves to read to himself
-Very empathetic
-They call him their "gentle giant" due to his size and empathy
-Loves puzzles
-Already knows his ABCs
-Was able to sequence

Although it was not said, Sara and I both could infer from the comments that Carter is much easier than Logan. I think daycare was challenged by Logan's sensitivity and lack of sleep! It will be fun to watch how Carter progresses. On the negative side, they recommend a speech evaluation. Not sure if it is bad enough to justify services. In the last 2 months they have noticed it becoming more difficult to understand his speech. They are not sure if it is because his speech is exploding or if there is something else happening. At least we know the routine.....