Birthday and More

So we have been doing things other than just getting a home. June 5th was Wesley's birthday. He turned three years old and is one smart cookie. The weekend before (or was it after) his birthday we went to the Milwaukee childrens museum to celebrate.

Here we have Kate, Kairi and Wesley. Nowadays Kairi does not have a hair tie just so other people can tell them apart. Sometimes though she likes to trick people and asks me to put on in her hair just to mix things up!



Wesley has been asking to go on a real boat ride lately. Perhaps he was remembering this awesome boat he got to try out. Speaking of boats I'm reminded of my last date idea to go boating. We even managed to get a babysitter and find the boat rental place. However they didn't take cards and their atm was out so we went mini-golfing instead. Oh well. One day.

The girls really liked this spot. They didn't dance as much as hang on the bars until they both got hurt.



Wesley had two cakes for his birthday. One is a Thomas cake made by Amanda.

The other was a batman cake with a bat symbol made by Amanda. This one was a little harder. If you ask Wesley this sentence: "Batman is here to say..." he will still finish it off with "Happy Birthday to Wesley!" Thanks for the card Michelle.

On Wesley's actual birthday we went to the splash pad. None of our invited friends came, but we still had some fun checking out the new park next to the water that sprang up out of nowhere.

Here is Batman eating some cake.



You can't be Wesley unless you love Back to the Future. He got a delorean for his birthday. However it was more fragile than we expected so it currently has a new home until he's gentler with his legos. Stay tuned to see where it went!

We were determined not to miss Strawberry picking this year so I wrote it a year in advance on my calendar when the season would be. However since we had a long heat wave the strawberries got ripe too soon. We got to the field to pick them on the last day they were available to be picked which would have been the first day available last year.





Here's the strawberries we got. They didn't last too long since kids plus strawberries go together.



 Here is a picture of three hot kids on a train ride in July. Speaking of that month the twins are now 18 months and in nursery. With their fear of everything, it's safe to say that currently they hate it even when mom stays in there with them the whole time.... I'm hoping their fear of transistions and strangers goes away really really soon.

I finished a project I had been wanting to work on for some time. I hope you can tell what it is!

In July we went to the annual Epicnic at Daddy's work. This year Wesley and dad climbed up on top of a fire truck. It was a large step from last year when he wouldn't even sit in the front seat.

Wesley is very excited about this place. If only we lived closer to it! Here we are at a lego store!! He got to pick out some legos to go in a bucket and he was super thrilled. The girls helped to pick out legos too as well as mix the colors together and dump legos on the floor.

And here it is everyone!

You have found the new spot for the delorean. This sits on top of the fireplace and makes a nice centerpiece especially if you like clocktowers and trains and deloreans. The clock tower was purchased from the lego store. The rest we already had.



A weekend ago we went to a beach in Middleton to play in some hard sand and watch boats. The kids enjoyed it for a half hour or so then we played at a nearby park.

Alright. I hope you enjoyed the update. I had to get this done before I accumulated to many family reunion pictures at the end of the month... assuming that I remember to take any. :)

Re-Home-Ba

I needed to come up with a classic title for this post since Chris thought "Home Sweet Home" was too cliche and it is I guess. So I can up with Re-Home-Ba which means we got a new ("re" as in again) home (as in house) with a ba (as in basketball hoop). Surprise!!! For all those who didn't yet know. It's hard to keep something this big quiet so a few  people knew before others. Sorry. We were just trying to wait until we got internet to make the announcement. So here's the states:
4 bedroom, three full bathroom, fenced backyard, garage, garden spot and shed, storage room, 2288 square foot, the same distance to work. There's a wonderful park a block away from us. We first looked at it at the end of April and asked to put an offer on it the night after viewing it. The next week someone else was going to try to take it but we were faster so the home owners went with us. That and we didn't have to wait for a previous home to sell before we could move in. We were already doing month to month at our apartment. Ha ha I'm glad to get out of that place. It was fine for two years but I won't ever miss the squeeling water sound from the pipes and the six set of stairs (that's what I would end up doing when the kids fell asleep, up and down two flights carrying three kids one at a time) or fearing leaving them in a hot van while I did so since there's a garage and when the kids want outside there's a backyard, not two flights of stairs a full parking lot and a few blocks over for a park...okay Chris says I shouldn't brag but I'm not trying to brag. I'm just trying to say how nice it finally is to have a place of my own. I don't worry when they stomp on the floor now since we can't disturb the neighbors. We literally scared away every single neighbor around us at the apartment. Every single one of us on our half of the floor moved in the same month. So now I don't worry about annoying anyone when the kids throw their tantrums. 

There is a few drawbacks already though. The girls can open and close all the doors since the doors have bar handles, well they're not knobs. They've been closing themselves into closets and bedrooms and sometimes they can get themselves out, other times the dark scares them and they wail. Eventually they should catch on that it's not a fun game right? Okay I'll stop talking. And put up what I was going to put up. Things still aren't all unpacked etc but you can see the layout of the place from the long video below. (If you want you can start thinking of what room you want for the reunion. And don't forget the tent!) 

Choose-A-Home Competition 2012

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.  As you may know, five people in a three bedroom apartment on the third floor of a building with no elevator is tricky business, so we are entertaining the idea of looking elsewhere for our living needs.

That's where you come in!  There are a lot of homes on the market, and given our history of indecisiveness, it's impossible to make such an important decision on our own.  So we've selected a handful of representative house styles within our price range, which you can vote on to guide our future.

So without further ado, here are the finalists.

1. Classic Suburbia

This type of home seems to be all the rage these days. Comes with a nice, quiet neighborhood full of middle class families far from the hustle and bustle of downtown and where all the houses look the same.

2. The Deck

This type of home has proven popular with others in the past. Located on a hill, the chances of it being wrecked by a flood are low, but you have to do your own cooking.

3. The Manor

This home would do well to prevent the "stuck staring at the same four walls" syndrome so many other houses can cause. Another plus is that you could get away with three screaming kids throwing tantrums and not have to worry about all your neighbors hearing you. You can also put all the water you want on the driveway without fear of the cops getting called, which is good if the fountain ever starts leaking.

4. The Basketball Jones

This is the ideal home for the up-and-coming Basketball Jones. Just look at that basketball hoop location and imagine all the trick shots you could pull off. Throwing the ball through one window and having it bounce out the other and into the hoop is just one of countless possibilities.

5. The Yo Shack

We're rather partial to this one. It's on the lower end of our budget, meaning we could fill it with better furniture, a quality entertainment system and lots of fancy toys for the kids that we wouldn't be able to afford elsewhere. And should a natural disaster ever happen to destroy the place, rebuilding it is a simple one-afternoon affair.

6. The Castle

This provides a good balance between all the other options.  Looks fancy but stays modest, and it would be great to come home to in the winter where the warm glow of the fire is waiting with marshmallows and hot cocoa.  We could also play host to murder mystery dinners without any extra effort to fit the theme.

7. Home Sweet Home

It might not have the height of its neighbors, but this cozy split-level is far more homely. And it's got a flagpole. You don't get much better than a flagpole. The lawn is also impeccable and it has a spacious, fenced backyard - perfect for our plans to add one mini-golf hole a year for the next 18 years.

8. Bane of Mailmen

Moving closer to older part of Madison, this would provide both a nice location and vintage feel. But it probably has a mail slot, so not only would we need to subscribe to as many magazines and catalogs as we possibly can, we would also need a dog for the porch area to sit guard and wait to snap at any tasty fingers that might poke through.


So there you have it. Where should we live? Cast your votes now in the comments section. Don't let this opportunity to take part in the Heit Family's future slip by!