Celebrations

The Bracken Bunch has been super busy with many celebrations during the last month, starting, of course, with the birth of little Charlie in early May. Since then, we've had a Master's graduation, the end of school, several birthdays, two promotions, one new job, a few trips, and the list goes on! I probably should have waited a few more days for this post so I could include Father's Day and Jenna's final capstone project for her Master's, too. Oh well, it will keep for another day.

Exactly one week after Charlie's birth, Jenna was all dressed up in her cap and gown and walking to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance as she received her Master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University in St. Paul. Charlie certainly cooperated by arriving just a day after his due date so that he could participate in the graduation from outside instead of inside! :-)

Ready to go.

Made it! When Charlie got a bit fussy during the keynote speaker, Andy texted Jenna so she left her seat and they found a quiet place for her to nurse the baby. She made it back just in time to walk across the stage.

Jenna and her buddies from Forest Lake, Crystal and Aimee.

Proud Mama.

Andy's parents were here from Pittsburgh, so they were able to participate in the festivities. We went back to Jenna and Andy's afterwards to grill and hang out for awhile. Charlie is on his very first trip to the park!

Charlie will be joining Maddox on the equipment before we know it!

After a little playtime, we had DQ cake and headed home. Jenna was exhausted after a very busy day for a new mom (that's a fake smile, in case you can't tell).

Over Memorial Day weekend, Chuck and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Illinois to help celebrate the 1st birthday of Amariah, my nephew Tom's little girl. Tom and Kim live in Fulton, Ill, about 5 1/2 hours from here. I took Friday afternoon off so we could get an early start, and we arrived in time to join the Catlin family for dinner and visit a bit at their house. Then, since the birthday party wasn't until Saturday afternoon, we had the next morning to do some sightseeing.

We spent some time at this windmill, which was brought here from Amsterdam and reassembled near the river in fulton.. It is a working mill, and it was very interesting to see how grain is ground into flour. I, of course, had to buy some bran flour for making bread.

This shot is taken from the floor looking up into the top of the mill, and it shows some of the gears that work together to harness the power of the wind!

Here's little Amariah. She is so cute!

One year old!

Mmmmmmm, good!

Looks like bath time to me!

We were back in CF for the Memorial Day Parade.

Charlie's first parade was so short - he slept through the whole thing!

We went to the service in the cemetery, while the kids walked back home to eat chips and listen to taps from the deck.

Our next celebration was a week later for Corey's birthday. He turned 31 on June 2nd. I can't believe I am the mother of two guys in their thirites!

Charlie slept through most of this afternoon, too.

Here he is again in his favorite position.
Maddox, on the other hand, is one big ball of energy! He spent the afternoon trying to coerce everyone to go upstairs to Phebe's room to play with him.

BIG hug for Daddy!

I made a rainbow ice-cream cake, Corey's favorite dessert from his childhood.

Soooooo good!

I spent my first couple weeks of vacation helping Jenna close out her room in Red Wing and pack up all her stuff for another move, and then I took care of Charlie while she worked on her last project for her masters. It's tough to concentrate on writing a paper with a newborn baby around!

Of course, it couldn't be all work and no play! We just HAD to go out for ice cream one day, and Charlie had so much fun talking to his toys while we ate.

Then, we just HAD to go up to Forest Lake to show off Charlie to all of Jenna's former co-workers. Doesn't Charlie look like a big boy in his overalls?

I'm afraid we were pretty distracting to the teachers who were trying to close up their rooms (I finished up mine a few days earlier - yucky job!!)

Last weekend, we celebrated Andy's 27th birthday at Buca. Maddox, of course, provided the entertainment while Charlie slept. I think he'll have a few tricks to teach this new baby!

Looks like we have some members of the clean plate club!

Charlie, again, cooperated by sleeping through the whole thing.

I made a raspberry torte - looks pretty professional, doesn't it?

Very tasty!

I'm going to be watching Maddox on several Mondays throughout the summer, and last week he had tennis lessons while I was in charge. Three and four year old tennis is pretty funny!

Unfortunately, it was raining, so we had to be indoors, but I don't think the kids minded at all.

Looks like Maddox is going to have a really good forehand shot.

Yay! He hit it!
After tennis, we joined Pat, Matthew, Joyce, Jenna and Charlie for lunch. We were all going to go to Como Park, but since it was still raining a bit, Jenna decided to wait for another time to take Charlie and she headed home while we set off to the zoo. It stopped raining as soon as we got there, so it was very comfortable and uncrowded!

However, Maddox and Matthew found every puddle in the whole zoo (typical 3-year olds). We wanted to take their picture in front of Sparky, but the puddles behind Sparky were much more interesting.

They did, however, pose on the giraffes, probably because they could climb on them.

Maddox REALLY like this giraffe. Actually, I think he was getting tired so hugging the giraffe was a good excuse to sit and rest for a minute or two.

The tortoise was fun to sit on, too.

Jenna had to get back at it on Tuesday. That silly paper just wouldn't go away! I felt like a slave driver and she felt like a wet-nurse as I brought Charlie to her and then took him away again.

I did get a lot of reading done, though!

Joyce took over on Wednesday and Thursday while I got away for a few days of R&R at Carol's cabin. The sun was actually shining so we had a chance to take some long walks, ride on the pontoon boat, read, and eat!

So... let vacation BEGIN!!