Carter - Front Page News!

Carter made the front page of the Lakeville/Farmington Thisweek Newspaper! This week is "pan-o-prog" in Lakeville with numerous events each day. On Tuesday, we all went up to the local mall for the tractor pull. I saw someone taking pictures and we were surprised on Friday when we opened the mail and saw Carter's picture on the front page of the Newspaper. He was in the 4 and under category but they described him as a 4-year-old. Neither of the boys won a trophy, but they had a great time. See previous posts for more pictures.

Link to the online version of the paper. Scroll down about half way on the page, and right under Miss Lakeville there is a series of photos - you will see the one of Carter that made the paper. We went and got a stack of copies for his memory book :-)

http://www.thisweeklive.com/






"Kid Pulling Power: Carter Mayfield, 4 years old from Lakeville, works the pedals to haul the heavy load at the Pedal Tractor Pull at the Southfork Center in Lakeville on Tuesday July 6. The Pedal Tractor Pull was part of Lakeville's Pan-O-Prog celebration. Photos by Rick Orndorf. ...View the slideshow.... "

Pan-A-Prog Tractor Pull Pictures

Tonight we went to the kids tractor pull for Pan-A-Prog. Pan-A-Prog is Lakeville's annual community celebration with numerous activities each day. Trying out our new camera - hopefully the video will play for all.

Carter Boy - pulled about 14 feet in the 4 and under age category.

Logan - came in forth place in the 6 year old category at just over 20 feet.

July 4 in Pictures

Happy 4th of July - here is a quick summary of our vacation/holiday. Sara was off Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday-Monday...Shawn was off Wednesday-Monday. Lots of good family time with the boys!

Some of the fun we enjoyed:
-MN Zoo
-Como Zoo
-Swimming at the health club
-Chuck E' Cheese
-Lots and lots of baseball, soccer, riding bikes, etc.
-Ewen's birthday bash
-Time at the cabin (Sara and boys)
-"Free Movie" Wednesday at the Lakeville Theater - "Monsters vs Aliens" (it was Carter's 1st movie at the theater).

Pictures from the cabin: (Sara and the female cousins -1st picture; all the grandkids 2nd picture...minus a "bun in the oven" or two" - Carter is the 3rd kid and Logan the 8th kid).

Logan and Carter got new Twins shirts last week - I think they wore them for 3 days straight!

2nd Annual Grandkids Soccer Match - Logan the Muscle Man!

"Carter Boy"

While Sara and the boys were at the cabin for 48 hours, Shawn checked off lots of projects on the "honey do" list:

-paint and redecorate the master bedroom

-print and organize pictures from the last 9 months in the photo albums

-frame some of Logan's kindergarten pictures

-paint the exterior shutters

-go golfing with the guys (my honey do list)....at 6:25AM!!! - missed an eagle by 3 inches!

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.....