Junkedness

Apologies for the formatting again. This thing is determined to strip away any sort of formatting that I attempt to add.
We've smidged to the zoo a few times this summer. Wesley's favorite part is the train ride but he still likes other things, like whatever this picture is supposed to be:

His second favorite part is feeding the goats. It's hilarious that animals eat food out of your fingers, apparently, since he was laughing the whole time for twenty minutes.

For Independence Day, we decided to celebrate our freedom from aliens who use happen to use Macs susceptible to viruses by having a picnic at the park. Amanda recently moved from Chase to Wells Fargo since they don't charge her money just so they can use her money. Part of her joining the party present was a portable grill, so we had to aproveitar, if you know why I mean.

Wesley liked his first fireworks, at least at first. Once it burnt out he touched the tip and burned his finger. Then he didn't like it so much. That must be why our family never went anywhere near fireworks until I was 23 or so, except for that one time with those Arizona cousins in Utah. Too scary.

Wesley needed to cool off, and his sisters had to try swimming for the first time. Wesley's favorite part was the water jets, or "waterfalls" as he calls them. The twins' favorite part was taking a nap. The other guy, no one cares about, so he's been blocked out.

Holding balls is fun to do when you're stuck laying around in chairs at the mercy of big people all the time. Whoever identifies the babies correctly first wins a free kiss from Amanda.

Sometime before July 17 and after January 1, we went to Little Amerricka. That's not Little America where you get 50 cent ice cream cones, by the way. Wesley enjoyed the rides much more than last year in California. Here he is on a helicopter that went up and down. The guy was explaining to him how to use it, but he didn't pay any attention. I couldn't get any good pictures while he was in the air because Amanda kept blocking him from view.

This was his favorite go-in-circles ride because it was fast and there was a bell to tug. He also got to ride it before all the other kids arrived, which is good because around other kids he tends to be either a wimp or a bully.

He wasn't so sure about this Mini Ferris Wheel even though the lady in blue told him he was enjoying it.

More going in circles, with water this time.

This was easily Wesley's favorite part of the amusement park. This train ran every half hour and went all through the park and surrounding area where we passed farms, zebras, ostriches and other random animals you probably never knew where found in the wild in Wisconsin. He liked riding it, but the best part was crossing the roads and the "ding-ding signs." He was very good at pointing them out as we approached. We forgot to take the camera on the train, so all you get is this picture afterwards.

Poor kid. People humiliate her and there's nothing she can do about it.

Riding a real train wasn't enough, so these two decided to make their own makeshift train car. If you still can't tell them apart, Kate's the one who likes to part her hair to the side.

Wesley was kind enough to give them a ride:


Then he had to join in the fun:


Can't have enough trains around here. That's all he plays with all day long. After obsessing over ding-ding signs for weeks, we got him one. It makes ding-ding sounds and lights. It also cost more than all his tracks combined. Oh, that Thomas industry. What might be more exciting about this picture is the kid playing next to him. This is Katelyn's first documented time sitting on her own. Her toy wasn't quite as exciting.

Wesley likes to play with Kate as long as she doesn't touch his trains. His favorites are Thomas, Percy and Koko, even though Koko is supposed to be their bitter rival.

Heh heh, Wesley's asleep. It's our turn! At 7:30 sharp he stands up from his toys and announces, "Night time." Then he gets a bed-night snack, pajamas, his blankie and sippy cup, and climbs on his bed and says "Later." Too bad his sisters don't follow that example, but they're getting better. This is the first picture of Kairi sitting.

Amanda's been working on some projects in her spare time. First she made these train stations for Wesley. One of them has a helicopter pad for Harold the Helicopter.

Her next was scavenging these tables from the curbside store. She would make Mom proud. Or, it might've been a rummage sale. Anyway, the one on the left is before her handiwork and the right is after, maybe.

Here's a successful harvest from her first garden: more peas and green beans than anyone knows what to do with. There are still more growing, and the carrots haven't stooped on the window yet or wound the ball.

Wesley's been learning some Nursery songs. Here's his favorite, though he was a little distracted.



Bye now.

Movie Magic

Here are the videos that we promised to show some people. Maybe one of those persons was you.

This is Wesley's second birthday. After he blew out the candle he wanted "candle again." That was the most exciting part. Perhaps we should have let him blow it out again and try to fit two candles on the fish cupcake, but oh well.

We took a park trip one night and we found a special visitor. He/She was so cute. However, when we started to leave the baby raccoon started crying because it was hoping we would be his mommy. That part was a little sad.

Here we are in the Children's Museum with a dance party.


This one is a robotic dinosaur that Wesley really enjoyed at the Discovery Museum. We could control it and Wesley and CR moved multiple joysticks to get this to work.


Here is mommy pretending to sneeze to get a laugh. It reminds me of "Bong" and "Bing" from that one Utube video. Anyway I was surprised to get this since every other time I have pulled out the camera it has been spotted and the chatter has stopped instantly.


If we start playing this one Wesley says "again." This was a weird music maker at the Discovery Museum. In order to make the music you put on the blocks, move them, rotate them etc to get different sounds. It was pretty snazzy.

JoJo the Bumping Car!

Tah Dah here are the videos!!

Lots of Birthdays and Things

What's happening everybody?! Katelyn and Kairi are here to say enjoy this update! I've been wanting to update the blog for a very very long time now and boy howdy it gets hard to get around to stuff like that these days. Well here it is folks! (p.s. we have some videos coming your way too.)

As an anniversary gift I got a new camera, one that has sound to the video! My other one was a little old fashioned, but Wesley still likes to play with it. Here is Wesley looking through the hole of a tunnel as I played around with my new camera.

I was trying to get a shot were Wesley's feet were popping out at the screen but you could still see his face. Oh well. This was my closest attempt.

We went on a walk to see Lake Mendota. Amy took some pictures of ducks, I got some of us. Here is one where Wesley is throwing rocks into the water. Don't worry Von the world now knows you were there too.

Here is Wesley sitting in front of the lake and making a face.

This picture I was very excited about and got sad when it got lost sometime when Wesley pounded on the keyboard. The kids and I were just sitting around the apartment like we do from time to time and it started raining. Then it started hailing! I had to show off my penny sized hail.

But wait, it got even bigger! Wesley had fun collecting the "ice" off the balcony and watching it melt inside. He kept asking to find more of it the next two days after that, and I had to tell him that it wasn't raining or hailing so no ice would appear. We all thought it was pretty cool.

Another cool thing is us starting our very first garden! We got a plot of land behind Epic this year and are growing peas, carrots and garden beans. It's been quite the challenge to find time to get out and water the place at least once a week, so I hope things will grow and not die in this heat.

Wesley had the most fun trying to push the wheelbarrow. He liked the hose too as long as it wasn't getting him wet. :)

Hey keep those heads up! Here we have Kairi and Katelyn entertaining each other while doing some exercise. They're personalities are really starting to come through these days. Kairi wants to stand and walk already and get into everything and see everyone. Katelyn would much rather learn to sit up on her own and observe all the commotion. They both LOVE to smile and chat away.

The first birthday we had over here was Amy's. She is now somewhere between the ages of 18 and 25. I got her this umbrella and the rose.

Next we had my birthday! Who ever said I could turn older? I love this shot Amy got because it shows how typical a day is. We'll have Wesley into stuff while the twins take turns sitting and standing and then whining. Those kiddos know how to keep you busy.

As part of my birthday presents Chris got me a box of hair dye. We had talked about it a little before, but then I forgot and once I had the box, well there was no turning back. I must admit that we are novices at dying hair and so redid this three times before we actually figured it out correctly. I still think we missed a few spots, but oh well. Lucky for me Chris did not decide that I should become a green head. Just a red head. It took a little while to get used to it, but now I like it, and the color is still close to my original color so there was nothing for me to freak out about.

See I told you that the kids can't sit still. This little one wanted out of the activity center to get a closer look at...my new shirt! It's a delorean and a tardis crashing into each other. Really it just came out of nowhere!

Here is a view of my birthday dinner that I requested. I wanted sub sandwiches, and chips and also received jello and strawberry lemonade. I had other presents too that I got and I like them all. Thanks people!

Some recent Saturday we took a trip to the splash pad and also ended up going to Mendota, but the other side of it. Wesley was being a goof and not wanting to get wet.

We tried to encourage him with peer pressure. Just kidding. We were just letting his sisters get their feet wet. They didn't like it either.

Wesley found some fun making his first sand castle. We had to recreate it for this shot, because he also had fun squishing it.

Next up we had Wesley's birthday. The big boy has turned 2! As part of this we decided to get him a toddler bed. Now we can steal, um use, his crib for his sisters who are starting to roll and kick each other at night. They haven't woken each other up with this just yet, but they will any night now.

The first night in Wesley's new bed he did really really well. He just went onto the bed and went to sleep. In the morning he did fall out of bed when he woke up. He has only fallen out of bed once more since then, but he was able to go back to sleep when I told him it was still night time.

As part of Wesley's birthday we went to Milwaukee. First we went to a Discovery Museum and then to the children's museum. This picture is from the latter where Kate enjoyed playing with a three headed dragon puppet. The sign was saying how play acting was good for kids and that you should try telling some jokes. I came up with this one: What did one dragon head say to the other? You're drag-on me down! At least Kate liked it.

This was one of Wesley's favorite parts from the Discovery Museum. We got to learn how Milwaukee got it's water for it's public water fountains and other drinking water things. As you can tell playing in the water is a big hit with kids.

Here is Chris as he rides in a hamster machine where he was trying to turn on the lights above his head. That thing was stiffer than you would think. We both only just got a small glow.

Wesley had fun looking at himself in the mirrors on the wall.

He also likes cars, trains, trucks, things that move. This steering wheel of a life size model ship was quite the attraction for him.

This is a random thing where you lay down and they raise pokey nails up from under you. They left some prick marks on Chris for a little while. I chickened out from trying it.

Here is a picture of the aquarium inside the museum. I liked that you also got to walk above the fish so you could look down on them.

Oh look, some proof that make use of our twin stroller.

Jellyfish! I love jellyfish ever since I saw a ton of them at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium in CA.

We got a ghost in the picture isn't it awesome! Well the fish tunnel was awesome. They swam under and over and beside us at the same time!

At the Children's Museum we told Wesley that he would see a train. As soon as he spotted it before we had even paid he shouted, "There it is! I see it! A green train!" Oh yes, he speaks in sentences now.

Here he got to push a small wheelbarrow just his size.

We got to play in a pre-walking area. Kairi loved the spot for her.

The green thing is a twisty ramp that Wesley had fun putting balls down.

He had a fish theme birthday so we had fish cup cakes. They turned out very well.

We even decided to borrow a good idea. :)

Here are some random pictures that we took. This one if from a park that we just happened to discover on a walk close to the Zoo.

Oh and Wesley is so talented that he can walk on the ceiling.

This shows some personalities. Yup. Kairi wants to be in front to see what the camera is. Kate just smiles at her mostly, and Wesley well he drinks from this sippy cup!

Whew, almost done. Here is family photo for all of you to enjoy. Our next update we are hoping to put up the videos that we took. It's hard to do so when our internet is way slow at night, but they are coming, and there are some good ones!

As Wesley now says at parting with a wave, "later!"