Monkey Joe's

This morning we spent some time with my sister and her girls at Monkey Joe's. We also ran into our good friends the Poelzers while we were there. Jack and Drew seemed to have a blast as well.

I think this place is right behind Stonefire Pizza on Casey's favorite places to go list. The amount of bouncing and sliding that Casey does there is unreal. He is such a bundle of energy. Let me tell ya, it didn't take long for him to crash at nap time today!

I have two favorite memories of today's trip to Monkey Joe's. The first happened right when the girls arrived. They found Casey in a tunnel crying. So the nice young lady that works there went to check on him for me. A couple of minutes later I see her carrying my heavy fellow as she is trying to walk on an incredibly bouncy inflatable floor. I wish I could have captured this on video. Whoever she is, she deserves a bonus. The look on her face said it all..."they don't pay me enough for this!"

My second favorite was when all of the kids were sitting on the floor eating nachos and popcorn. My sister left me alone with the 5 kids to get some water. I overheard the ladies next to me trying to figure out which kids belonged to who and which ones were twins! I just smiled and let them wonder:)

Oh, I almost forgot the part where Casey went up to a random stranger (probably 5-6 years old) and stole her entire soft pretzel and ran off! The mother wouldn't let me buy her a new one. Oh Casey...what are we going to do with you!

Here are some pictures of the boys at Monkey Joe's. Caleb loved watching the kids run around and play. His cousins loved watching him too!


Casey thought he was really racing the cars on the screen. Sorry buddy, not yet.


Matt must have taken this picture while I was gone this weekend...too cute (totally unrelated to the post though).

When mom is away the boys with play!

This weekend Joy was able to go to the women's retreat for church at the Osthoff resort, which means it was boy's time in the Buntrock house.

We spent a lot of time playing with trucks, trains, cars and blocks - all the good boy stuff.

There was a good amount of wrestling and tickling as well. It's very cool to watch the two boys already interacting and playing with each other. Caleb loves to watch his big brother play, run and laugh. Casey likes to help with Caleb and bring him toys.

Saturday morning we built a fort in the front room out of chairs, cushions, blankets and pillows. Casey was able to crawl through and drive his garbage truck through (his recent favorite toy).

Being a daddy is so awesome, the way the boys look at you can melt you heart. Caleb is sitting on my lap right now and he just tilted his head back to look straight up into my eyes, and even though he can't talk yet - I know his eye's were saying I love you daddy.

Playing catch up!

Our house got hit with two viruses during the month of January and into February so I haven't had much time or energy to update our blog. We are finally feeling healthy and getting back to our normal routine. For those who know me, you know how much I hate being out of routine. But, this time was different. I really enjoyed the quality time spent with the boys. Casey was a great helper and took very good care of me when I was sick. He fed me dry cereal and told me to "rest my eyes". Speaking of funny comments, here is a good one...Casey pooped in his pants (big surprise) and as I was changing him he said "that makes daddy, mommy and Jesus very sad". When he does naughty things we tell him it makes us sad. I think he can see the disappointment on my face every time I have to clean up his poopy pants!

We have had a couple of beautiful days earlier in the week. I was able to take Casey out to ride on the scooter he got for his birthday. He had a blast splashing through puddles and soaking his shoes and pants. Caleb loved it outside and really had a good time watching his big brother scoot around the sidewalk. Later that day the boys took a stroller ride with daddy. It is always nice to have a couple of days like that in the middle of our long WI winters.

Our little baby hit his 7 month milestone this week. He is growing and changing so much everyday. He sits pretty well. He loves his baby food and would eat our food if we let him. Today he sucked on an apple for a good 10 minutes at McDonald's. Who needs french fries?

Don't let this picture deceive you, daddy is holding him up. Amazingly enough Casey really enjoys sharing his trucks and trains with Caleb. He talks about how he can't wait until Caleb can play trains with him. Here is our famous sausage picture. We do this every month.

Here is Casey at 7 months...a bit more hair (and weight)

Happy Birthday Casey!

Let me just tell you about all of the fun we had celebrating Casey's 3rd birthday!

On Friday we had a birthday party with Casey's little friends from church. Most of these friends are either in his Sunday school class or are a part of our Friday play group. Of course his best friends (his cousins) were there as well. We had the party at a place called the Big Backyard. It is basically an indoor park which is great during the cold winter. The kids were able to climb, slide, ride bikes and play basketball. After we were done playing we went to the party room for some cupcakes and a gift exchange (every kid brought a gift and took one home). Here are some of my favorite pictures from this event.

Casey spent most of his time cruising around in the coupe car

Casey is telling Caleb just how yummy his cupcake is. Maybe next year little brother!

We like to party! Yeah Big Backyard! Yeah Casey!

Matt and I cleared our calendar for Saturday morning (Casey's birthday) and took the boys to the Domes for the train exhibit. We spent a couple of hours watching trains go through the beautiful flowers. The sun was shining down through the domes and it was very relaxing. Probably because Caleb and I hung out on the bench while Matt chased Casey around! It was a fun family time.


On Saturday night we had a family birthday party for Casey and his cousin Hannah who turned 4 the end of December. The kids had a blast running around with balloons, opening gifts and eating cake of course. It was fun to watch how different Casey and Hannah opened their gifts. Hannah would tear into hers and barely look at it before moving on to the next. Casey would take his time to look at the card and the gift before moving on. It was fun. Casey's favorite gift was the ride on excavator from Auntie Leah and Uncle Nick. You can see it in the pictures below.

Happy birthday big brother!

All of the kids loved the monster truck that Casey got.

Casey wanted a yellow cake car (he really wanted pink but daddy said no way)

Happy birthday Bubba!