Let's Play Catch Up!

So I knew it had been a long time since I updated the blog. I didn't realize how long it really had been until I looked at my last post.... By Golly! And the post before that was when the twins turned 5 and they just turned 6 two weeks ago. I'm only like 6-12 months behind ya'll. Enjoy the pictures of the random things we do. :)

July of 2016

 We go to Little Amerrika for the 4th of July and ride the rides. Here you can make out Wesley in the blue shirt sitting beside Kate. Chris and Kairi are in front of them. 

We camped outside in the backyard. The kids had mom (Amanda) in there with them so it was a little crowded. 

 Kate took swim lessons and managed to not be as scared of the water now, although she still does not put her face in it. She is the second child from the left in this picture.

 We had Chris's annual work picnic called Epicnic. Kate and Wesley are jumping in this picture.

 The Henry Vilas Zoo finished their new polar bear exhibit and my kids got stuck there.

We watched a bubble show at the library. It was pretty cool and bubbly.

Since I am writing this from February of 2017, the lack of snow looks pleasant. We had a large rainstorm last year in July.

August 2016

 I took the kids to a "new" for us beach. Kate is doing a cartwheel, Kairi is blocking Wesley, bu he is standing behind her.

 The fledgling baby birds that lived in our deck got fed and then learned how to fly.

 I found this, so I think I liked my hair in August 2016.

 We visited the Milwaukee natural history museum and went through the butterfly room.

 At that same place we watched a 3D movie.

 Chris got his Vive virtual reality headset that some of my amazing readers have already seen.

Allen and Michelle's house had bees in their garden hose.

September 2016

 We babysat the neighbors fish that they were babysitting for someone else and it died.

 We got to see Epic's new addition to their castle building that included moving pictures on the walls. 

 Kate started Kindergarten. In Mrs. Nolan's class.

 Wesley started 2nd grade in Ms. Blakeman's class.

 Kairi started Kindergarten in Ms. Joswiak's class.

 The across-the-street-from-us neighbors kid crashed his parents car into our fence by rolling it down their driveway. I think it took 3-4 months to fix it because I had to keep bugging the dudes who installed the fence to come put in a new post. The style they had previously used was discontinued, but I talked them into cutting something to size to fix it.

Chris had a birthday with a castle cake.

Chris and Kate played basketball. They did make this shot.

October 2016

 We got our picture taken at the kids school.

 I went on a tour of the capital building with Michelle and Gemma.

 Kate attended a Chuck-E-Cheese birthday.

 I crocheted an elephant for Wesley perhaps.

 We took a picture at Epic's cool wizard statue that was made in 2016. The ball glows in his hand at night.

 I went on a field trip with Wesley's class to a nature center.

 On the field trip we caught a few bugs.

 Wesley with his class.

 I went on a field trip with Kate and Kairi to a farm. We learned how they process their apples into apple cider. The girl in the gray coat is Kate.

 Everyone here is pointing at the bee hives that you can't see in the picture.

 Chris and I took the kids to a Lego event. We have Wesley, Kairi, Lego dude, and Kate.

 Kate and Kairi with Lego bear and Lego friend Stephanie.

 Wesley made a crown.

 Kate and Wesley made castles.

 You've got to pose with Wild Style!

 This is my niece Cathryn. She is my sister Amy's baby and is one month old here. She was born in September.

 We grew a watermelon in our backyard! We had about 4-6 more but all the other ones rotted.

We went to a pumpkin patch. Here is Kate, Kairi, Chris and Wesley.

 I even got a picture of myself at the pumpkin patch! Pictures of me are scarce.

 I babysat my niece Gemma so we had to play on the trampoline.

 We had Halloween.

 We have Gemma the (ahem horse/cow). Chris and I are steampunk people, Kate and Kairi are princesses and Wesley is a Lego Nexo Knight.

 We ate a pumpkin Pizza!

And our house looks cool with our Halloween lights.

November 2016

I made a new Thanksgiving Decoration.

Chris thought I was too cool to be contained so he stole a video.

 We had visitors come to town for Thanksgiving. 

You can just make out the orange stripe of Wesley's coat, Uncle GR, Amanda, Allen, Gemma, Michelle, and Marisa. Kate was the one who took the picture for us.

 Uncle GR and Kairi at the staircase that cuts off halfway inside Epic. Just think "Harry Potter."

 Lounging at Epic with Michelle, Wesley, Marisa and Kate.

 More lounging after lots of walking with GR, Kairi, Kate, Marisa, Gemma, and Allen.

 Guess what? It snowed in December.

Kairi (left) and Kate went sledding.

 Kairi, Wesley and Kate visited with Santa.

 The elf on the shelf tried to find new places to be. His name is Apple Cinnamon. 

 We build a snow fort with help from Uncle Allen, Aunt Michelle and Gemma.

 Ta dah! I lasted the weekend before it rained and knocked the roof in. Then it became half a snow ice fort.

 We reenacted the Nativity Story with Michelle, Allen and Gemma.

 Christmas came!

Kate is modeling a super hero suit.

 We checked out the new upstairs of the "climbing place."

Kate and Kairi

 Chris vs. Wesley at Hello Kitty air hockey.

 Wesley scores!

January 2017

 Amanda and Kate are hood buddies.

 Kairi and Kate had a birthday and turned 6 years old. They chose a jungle theme. Here is one of the things we did, a bean bag toss game.

 We had a separate birthday dinner for Kairi and Kate on their actual birthday. They opened a few presents then from Allen, Michelle, Gemma and us.

 Kate, Kairi, and Wesley.

 The girls had a lion birthday cake that looked like this.

 Here they are waiting for the birthday party to start. I didn't get pictures of the actual event since I was in charge of the whole thing. So we played bean bag toss, hunted for plastic toy animals inside a box filled with balloons, fed a green "crocodile" by playing golf into his mouth, decorated paper bag puppets, went on an egg hunt where they found gems inside the eggs, colored on balloons to turn them into animal faces, pinned the nose on the lion. The girls had three friends from school come.

Here is the lion nose game.

 Wisconsin Dells currently has an ice castle that is made from dudes who came here from Utah. Aren't they nice? Kairi had to wear her Elsa dress to visit the ice palace.

 Kairi, Kate, and Chris at the entrance to the ice castle.

 There were about 2-3 tunnels the kids could climb through.

 We got there at 5pm so we could see the place during the day and during the night. At night the ice gets lit up with cool color changing lights. You can see a Wisconsin Dells roller coaster in the background.

 The kids went through a small ice slide. We all went down a larger one later, but only Chris got a picture of that. My fingers were freezing at that point and I was done with taking pictures.

 A nice person took our picture. Amanda, Kate, Wesley, Kairi, and Chris.

 This was a big glowing hole. I called it a cauldron. Chris said there was water and coins in the bottom. I was a little too short to see that.

 Here you can see the same location with the lights changing inside.

 This was a water fountain that changed colors and made me wonder how they kept the water from freezing.

 After an hour or so Kate and Kairi decided to stay there forever.

Here is a picture of what the photos look like on my phone. For some reason I get about sixteen of these every time the girls play games on my phone.

Hey guess what? I caught up on the blog! Go me.