The Second Birthday Fun Time Post

The sign says it all...
I see it, but I don't believe it...sigh...
Proud of his sign.
Chillin' on m' birthday...keepin it real...binky and all...
TiLynn made the most awesome cake for the birthday boy. She's so good to us!

Side note: We weren't sure if we'd be in Des Moines this weekend or not, but TiLynn wanted to make Jack a cake for this birthday, and who were we to turn down an offer like that? Then we realized that she was making this big cake and we didn't have anyone to eat it all and it would be sad if we didn't share the cake, so we called up some buddies last minute! We figured we were here, we'd throw something together and just have some friends in the park. Very last minute. And very fun indeed.
Is that not a-DORA-ble? It looked and tasted great! Then we demolished it!
Jack and Dora.
Eating cake and ice cream in the park.
Owen strollin'...(say that ten times really fast)!
Sean helping Jack up the step. I don't know who that other kid was standing there, but he was a bit 'creep' and had no adult supervision.

Jack enjoyed the wooden bridge immensely. He and his buds played on it forev.

Jack and his pretty mommy.
Owen and Jen. I think her shirt is in reference to the fact that they have a 7 week old too...
O and Jack.
What a great birthday!
Owen, Sean, Ryan and Jack muscle for rank on the bridge.
Sean gives it a good run.
Then Ryan had at it.
Jack and I snuck off for a bit and I snapped some photos of him being silly.

Adorb.
Peek-a-boo!
Jack made sure to give every kid at the party a hug as they left. Ryan was first.
Then Sean.
Thanks, Owen F.

And thank you too, Owen H. Jack was very gracious to his guests, making his dad very proud.
Thanks, O, for the big bag o' goodies! Well done!
And other O, we already read the book tonight!
See?
When we got home, Daddy and Mommy gave Jack his gifts: a new sandbox and a roller coaster. Stay tuned for the vid of the roller coaster. This thing is fun!

Here's a photo of it, but it doesn't to it justice.
This is in our front yard perennial bed.
What a cute boy.
Jack helped me plant some annuals in the perennial bed. Yeah, we like to mix and match.
What a helper!

All in all, a great second birthday!

A Week of Stresses And Messes

Ryan and Sean came over the other day while their mom was out running errands. The boys enjoyed some kidz vidz for a while.
How stinkin' adorable is that?
Pole dancin' at Grandma Edna's house. Jack and Amy spent the better part of a week in Des Moines with Susan, Granny Janny and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa K being for them during this difficult time. Grandpa K is still holding on, proving the theory that a Koscielak never gives up.
Jack and Susan get snuggly in the waiting room. Time for a nap.
And taking a break from the sitcho to do some sliding.
Grandma Edna, Granny Janny and Jackles.
Watching Elmo at Grandma's house.
The theme for the rest of this post is 'water'. You'll see why really soon.
Pop-pop Jerry took this photo of Jack and Casper the Friendly Ghost at the water park. They came to town to see Jack on his b-day weekend. Dad and I ended up putting in a mini sump pump system in the basement which was nifty and worked really well...until last night's rain.

This little girl was obsessed with Jack at the water park. Can you blame the girl?
The waves were a lot of fun for Jack.
Catch a wave, dude!
He was trying to drink this fountain thingy.
Cuteness on a cracker.

Whoosh!
The Vrbas tongue is necessary even for playing in water. True story.
Here, Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Tami pose with the birthday boy in the arbor I built. Read on for info on that.
"I'm a model, you know what I mean..."
Okay, so our friends Sarah and Will gave us a huge playground that was in their yard when they moved in to their new house. They helped us haul it over here and we knew it needed 'tightening up' a bit. I worked on it and worked on it and couldn't get it tight enough to be safe for Jack. Well, since I'm not one to let dead trees go to waste, I used some of the wood for an arbor. One hour and $14 worth of trellis later, and we had this by our perennial bed. It's pretty cool. We're also going to use the slide too, and I was able to use the rest for a climbing place for our pole beans. Thanks, Will and Sarah!

Thanks, Gramps for all your help! Someday the pump will catch up!
Jack and Granny Janny.
This is kind of a stupe pic, but it shows the fact that it rained last night, which leads me to my next few pics. You knew we had a little water in our basement, right? Well, dad and I got the sump buried and it's pumping out roughly 6400 gallons of water per hour. And it's working overtime to get it done. Yesterday, it emptied the place OUT. After last night's torrential downpour, well see for yourself...
The water is back up higher than ever, and that's WITH 6400 gallons leaving every hour. Shameful. I do take some solace (VERY little though) in the fact that we are in no way alone in this situation. A simple drive around town and EVERYONE is having problems. The one thing we have in our favor is that our basement is merely concrete for storage. Nothing special. Though we don't have hot water or air right now, we'll survive and aren't out anything really. Oh, and can I just say that yes, there are a lot of cords in this picture, but they're being used safely. All the electrical bits and bobbles are quite dry. For true.
Proof of the madness. This was this morning. 9.5 inches of water in the basement! And it's higher now. Probably around 10.5 right now. Re-dic!

We'll post about Jack's b-day after this brief intermission to have a bit of a party in the park today. Totally impromptu and completely informal little friend party.

Weather, Etc...

Amy and Jack surprised me Tuesday afternoon at work. She drove home without telling me and they walked up to the door at work. I didn't know whether to scratch my watch or wind my butt! Jack latched onto me for about three minutes straight. I was so happy to see them.

We are heading to Des Moines after I get off work today. I had taken vacation time for Friday and Monday way back in April, so I have the time off anyway.

And, yes, we survived the storms last night. Though our basement has seen much better days because of the water. The pumps are running a bit behind.

I'll update more on Monday or Tuesday when we get back--if that's when we get back!

Missing My Peeps

Amy and Jack have been in Des Moines since Friday morning for her grandpa's last few days with us. Although I've gotten A LOT done, it's very lonely in this house without my people here. I've found I'm a very boring person...

The decision was made to honor grandpa's wishes to remove his temporary feeding tube and take him off his blood pressure meds. That decision was extremely tough for his family, but was made slightly easier by the discovery of cancer that had spread to his bones. If he were to remain in the hospital on all kinds of life support, the duration and extent of his suffering would have been unbearable. I'll keep you posted on the situation.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Jack and Amy again, though it won't be under very happy circumstances...

Oops! Forgot To Post This One

I forgot to post this vid from a few weeks ago when the Wade Fam was here. Enjoy it now...