Grandpa Clark's Birthday!

Grandpa Clark's birthday was on Saturday -- Happy Birthday Grandpa!

To celebrate, on Sunday, we drove to Fort Dodge and met Grandma and Grandpa Clark and Carl, Hollie, Gabe and Ty for lunch. After lunch dad opened cards and gifts--he brought Em's card along to share too. This year my sister Emily gets the win for best birthday card for dad (there have been times she and I pick out the same card for dad) -- Good Job Em it was a great card!

We now have large quantities of tomatoes to use up that mom sent home with us. Looks like cucumber and tomato salad a lot this week.

While dividing tomatoes and squash Ty cleaned off the hood of our car for us! It made a great slide!

On our way home we stopped at Sonic to grab something to drink for the trip. Next time I guess we need to get Clark his own little juice cup since he did end up drinking a lot of my real fruit lime slush (and after backwash who wants the cup back). The kid likes lime what can I say.

Not much new today (Monday). Clark helped me put supper in the crock pot. This week will be a lot of crock pot cooking because I simply cannot stand the sight and smell of food come 4:00 pm. So at least if its in the crock pot I may smell it but I don't actually have to work with it at that time. We also made some banana bread to get rid of some old bananas. Clark stood on his new work platform and dug right in. He would put the chopped celery and carrots in the measuring cup as I finished chopping and moved them over for him. He also enjoyed stirring items and using the whisk along with dumping veggies and raisins into various bowls. Our supper menu included chicken and rice casserole, squash and bread pudding.

Clark is using more words but often he still will say a word once and then not use it again for a long time. But he is up to dada, mama, ditty(kitty) -- he uses this one more than mama andbath. Other words he has said but doesn't repeat often: tractor, ball, stick, apple -- I know there are others but am having a hard time coming up with them right now. He has no problems understanding though.

Clark really likes watching Handy Manny and Curious George. We watch one either right after lunch or before naptime. He claps along to the music in Handy Manny which is really cute. He also goes nuts anytime he sees a rabbit on either show. He has a thing for rabbits because he heads straight for them in Earl May too. I don't know where that comes from. He recognizes ducks and cats too on those shows (but we have those so that's understandable) but doesn't go as nuts with those as he does with bunnies. He is also a fan of Jumpy Squirrel on Curious George.

All for now -- have a great week!

1st Cyclone Game!

On Saturday we went to the Iowa State vs Kansas game at Jack Trice Stadium. We sat in the South End Zone where Grandpa Spencer has tickets. This was Clark's 1st Cyclone football game. He seemed to enjoy the experience -- so much to see! Since the game started at 11:30 am we ate at the stadium. Clark had a hotdog and we all shared some fries (Clark ate most of the family fries I think). The first half was great! And at half time Clark was getting pretty sleepy so we walked back to the Clark (Uncle Carl & Aunt Hollie's) household to put him down for a nap. Clark rode on dad's shoulders on the way home and fell asleep up there too. Clark did get to see the best part of the game (where we were winning) because it all went downhill from there and the Cyclones ended up losing 33 to 35.

Watching the band at half time!

Riding back to the Clark house on dad's shoulders. Had a great nap while the Cyclones lost yet another game :(

Oh well, we all shared pizza when everyone came back from the game -- at least we had some good family time later in the afternoon. There's always the next game right? Go Cyclones!

Fall Weekend

This weekend we spent some family time outside. Saturday we packed a lunch and went to a park. Clark went down the slide (a number of times) and then tried out some classics -- the horse swings, teeter totter, and sand box digger. He really enjoyed using the levers on the digger and picking up and dumping out sand.

After lunch and play we went to the DeMoss Family Pumpkin Farm in Gilbert. Clark had to thump some of their pumpkins too, he helped pick out some nice mini pumpkins and gourds to use in decorations around the house. While there he also had fun looking at the tractor and visiting the animals including: sheep, chickens and pigs (really liked the pigs).

This week has been great when it comes to food preparation. Mom and dad gave me a stand for Clark for my birthday -- it works great! Clark asks to get up now to help us when we're at the counter and it saves on a lot of tears that I used to get when I worked at the counter and he couldn't see. Sunday I made a tomato/cucumber salad -- as you can see Clark was eating tomatoes about as fast as I was cutting them up to put in the bowl. He has also helped dad wash some dishes at the sink.

Sunday afternoon Cortney was able to come out and babysit so Alan and I could finally go see the new Batman movie. The movie was great! However, Cortney was so excited to play with Clark and then he took a three hour nap -- so not a lot of play time.

Monday and today Clark and I started a major sorting/cleaning project. We are going through all of his clothes and sorting them by size to store them better and have a better idea of what we have for the next little Spencer. Clark likes to help throw the clothes in the new storage bags and resort the piles!

Visiting the Amanas

Today we all traveled to Iowa City to visit the hospital (the only good reason to visit Iowa City for a family of die hard Cyclones). We met Clark's Aunt Dee there and they went to play while Alan and I went to our 7 week ultrasound appointment. There was one little sac with one tiny little life -- there was a very strong heart beat and seeing the little flutters brought smiles to our faces and tears to our eyes. We are now released from Iowa City's care and can start visits to our Ob/Gyn here in Ames.

As a treat to celebrate we went over to the Amana Colonies and ate lunch with Aunt Dee. Later we walked around. A visit is never complete without a stop at the chocolate store. Clark's treat was a chocolate cat on a stick. He liked it very much - however, he is squinting in all the photos we took due to the sun (so it looks like he doesn't enjoy it). We also visited the Christmas shop -- Clark liked all the lights and shimmering ornaments. Hard to believe that time of year is not far off. Finally we stopped at the toy store -- we found a cow puppet that Clark really enjoyed.

Yesterday when we were outside Clark found a little frog sitting in our grass. It was so tiny it can sit on a single blade.

Little Drummer Boy

Today was my birthday so I decided Clark and I would do some fun things together. We took our time this morning and then went to town. Ironically my favorite spots to shop are also Clark's. We went to Earl May to check out tulip bulbs and plants for me and to look at fish and bunnies for Clark. He was so excited when we got out of the car. When we went inside he ran over to the fish display giggling all the way. We then picked up lunch and ate in Bandshell Park. Clark could watch all the equipment at the power plant from the park bench and see the trains go by through downtown. After playing on the playground equipment we headed to Holub's (a local nursery) and looked at all the mum's.

Dad took us out for supper when he got home. After supper he and Clark set up the "drums" by the garage. Quite a lot of pounding going on.

Today is also Day 7 in our pumpkin watch -- one week and it is starting to turn orange. However, the vines are starting to die back pretty fast -- hopefully it will manage to turn before the vines are done!

Cake!

(This was actually supposed to be blogged yesterday, but, between an SSTFI Board meeting and Bell Choir rehearsal I didn't get it done).

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Clark came down for a visit with us and Carl's family. Along came a much loved favorite -- Grandma's chocolate birthday cake. Last night we were still working on some left overs. Clark loves chocolate cake -- I believe the pictures describe that sentiment better than I could describe:

On another note we did some toad watching yesterday. Clark likes to bend over and peer in the window wells to check for toads. Yesterday we counted 10 toads in our one window well. All the way from babies to big papas/mamas. I picked up a big one to have Clark touch -- he laughed when it urinated all over my hands -- typical toad response. Not really sure why we have such a very large toad population -- they have tunnels everywhere and this year a group took up residence in a third window well. I would really like to clean up our window wells and put some nice rock in over the bare soil but I have a soft spot for our friendly toads (who hunt crickets).

Apple Festivals & Pork Suppers

Today was definately a day spent enjoying the beautiful Iowa Fall weather (granted Fall doesn't officially begin until Monday). This morning mom had to go into church to help set up for communion, since September is her month to serve on Altar/Chancel Guild. Meanwhile, back at home, dad and Clark started working on our porch. We have a new door to put in but of course once starting a remodeling project you realize that you should fix it right. So, we measured for drywall and tile and will work on this project over the next few weeks. Clark had a great time rummaging through dad's toolbox and "helping."

After lunch we headed out to the ISU Horticulture Research Farm where the ISU Hort Club was selling apples and cider and giving various demonstrations. We took the farm tour and Clark had fun riding on the wagon and looking at all the different trees and plants. There was another girl about his age sitting across from him and they kept each other entertained. After taste testing some apples we headed home for a nap.

After nap we went into Gilbert to the 35th Annual Gilbert Lutheran Church Pork Feed. So much food! We are still not sure where Clark manages to put everything he eats. He really enjoyed the baked beans and the pork. He even tried some coleslaw.