June Update

Once again I found myself with a camera full of amazing things to upload onto the computer and sort through and polish up for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Lily was baptized on June 12, Pentecost Sunday, which I think is a cool day to be baptized.  She wore the same white dress that Mary was baptized in.  Here we are with our priest, Father Dennis. 

Mary and Joey are really getting along well with Lily - they love having a baby sister!  They are as sweet as can be towards her.  Joey is a little jealous of all the attention the new baby gets sometimes, but thankfully he takes it out on ME instead of Lily!  He just really needs lots of extra time with me lately - wants to be carried by me and in my lap and playing with me much more.

Happy baby!  Lily is laughing now and it is super cute.  Baby laughs are the best!

Project day!  The kids and I were looking for something to do one day and found this.   We made a bunch of them together, and I thought they would make a good mobile for above Lily's crib.  She's a very mellow baby and rarely cries.  When she wakes up she just starts looking around in her crib, never really fussing.  Even with the baby monitor on I often don't realize she's awake for a bit because she doesn't make any noise!  So I thought it would be nice for her to have something interesting to look at.  I'm working on making some other really cool mobiles, but this is a great temporary one.

We live near Piala's Nursery and for the past couple of weeks whenever we drive by the kids have been asking to go there.  So we finally made a day trip of it!  The kids had fun walking amongst all the flowers.

I told them not to pick any flowers off of the plants, but there were plenty of petals and flowers scattered around on the ground to collect!  Mary said that next time we should bring a bucket to carry them all in so we can bring them home.

It actually was a really neat place to visit.  They had goats and chickens and peacocks that you could feed!  And even a little playground.  Plus all the mazes of trees and bushes and flowers and everything else.  I'm sure we'll be visiting again soon!

Another happy Lily picture!  I love these.

Joe's birthday was on the 17th and the kids and I made him this awesome card.  I drew and they colored.  I should have taken a picture of the back where we all signed our names - it was very cute - but I didn't, so you'll have to use your imagination.

On the 18th we had a big family gathering at my aunt's house to celebrate my grandparents' birthdays and wedding anniversary.  Joey climbed up to the food table and starting eating taco dip with a spoon!  Apparently he also likes black olives because he started picking them off and eating them - you can see the section he was working on in the photo!

We also had a fun day with bathtub paints.  This is something we've done several times and it's always lots of fun.  The paints are made of dish soap and cornstarch and food coloring.  I like to put them in ice cube trays - they make great pallets.  I always leave some holes empty for mixing new colors!

 The kids paint all over themselves and the tub and have a blast.  Plus since there is soap in the paint, I believe this counts as cleaning my tub and shower!

 It's also neat to pour the paints in the water and watch the colors mix.  The dish soap makes tons of bubbles in the bath too!

Ta-da!  Three months old!  I can't believe how fast time is flying!

I love this picture - just look at their faces!

Joe's birthday is the same week as his brother's and sister's.  This year to celebrate we all went to Chuck E. Cheese!  Mary and I found this squirt gun game that she wanted to play over and over. You had to squirt water at a little target to win a race.

At the end of the race, the game announced, "You've WON!  Let's play again!"  Mary was soooo excited every time she won, even though you only got three tickets.  She insisted that we play over and over because the machine said we should.

Pictures of Joey on Chuck E. Cheese rides.  He had lots of fun.  I could tell because as we were leaving he said, "Mom, I had lots of fun at Chuck E. Jesus!"  We all had a good laugh at that one.  I guess it's an understandable mistake - "cheese's" does sound a lot like "Jesus", Jesus is known for saying "Let the children come to me," and what better way to attract them than with pizza, rides, and prizes.

We are loving the warm summer weather!  The kids are outside all of the time.  Here is breakfast on the patio.  Fresh eggs and berries!

On Saturday the 25th we went to a Beach Party on Pewaukee Lake. It was perfect - not too hot, and not too sunny.  Mary and Joey wore swimsuits and played in the sand and water, and there was live music.  Lily spent most of the time all cuddled up and sleeping next to me and out of the sun.

 

Joey showing me the sand!  He also collected lots of seaweed.

Mary and Joey in the water.  It was a great beach - lots of sand, not too deep, and free to swim.  We'll definitely be going back again this summer!

 

And now, for the first time ever on this blog, a video!  I'm not sure how it's going to work or if the quality will be that great, but hopefully it will be okay.  You can watch Mary and Joey playing on the beach!

Our little beach flower.

Later that night we visited Eagle Town Park for the annual Kettle Moraine Days festival.  We mostly went to see the fireworks.  It was a really nice little show - and good practice for the 4th of July fireworks we'll be seeing soon.  Joey was so excited all day to see the fireworks, but as they started he covered his ears and started to get upset.  "I'm so sad!" he said.  But Joe kept talking to him about all the different colors and shapes and sizes and which ones were the best and eventually he calmed down and forgot about being sad and was excited again.  I was a little worried about Lily, but she just slept through the whole thing!

I think Lily has started teething.  She's drooling a bunch and wants to chew on things all the time.  She's getting better and better about getting her own fingers in her mouth to gnaw on.  I saw her with this unusual combination of fingers in the mouth and had to take a picture!

Yesterday evening I took the kids to a nearby playground while dad mowed the lawn.  Even though this playground is only 2 minutes from our house, it was our first time there.  It's the playground for the local elementary school, so I guess we avoid it when school is in session but we really should go there more as it's a nice park.  Mary and Joey had a good time playing together.

Lily had a good time too, I think.

Here are some shots of my little monkeys.

 

As we were about to leave, Mary spotted a tetherball and just HAD to go over and check it out quick before we left.  Mary and Joey thought it was the best thing ever and we ended up staying for another 45 minutes just playing with this.  Here is a short clip of the joy of discovering tetherball for the first time!

A Month Long Post

So I finally got the pictures off of our camera and ready for another blog post.  It's going to be a long one.  Scroll down slowly and enjoy it, because it might be another month before you see a new post!

Here's a picture of me and my three babies on Mother's Day.

And here's Lily giving me a great big smile.  Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Chilling with Dad on the patio at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We grilled out with them for Mother's Day - beautiful weather for it.

After dinner we played Bocce ball in their backyard.  Mary found a beautiful butterfly - black with blue and yellow spots on the wings.  It was fairly large too, we don't usually see butterflies like this one.

I had my six week postpartum checkup with my wonderful midwife, LaNette.  Everything is going great - Lily and I are doing awesome.  I have officially packed up all of my maternity clothes and am back into my normal clothes.  I still have an extra five or ten pounds hanging around, but I'm sure they'll go away soon enough.  Here is a picture of Lily and the hands that helped bring her into the world. 

 

It's great that the weather is warm enough for us to get outside more.  Here is Mary playing on a friend's swing set. 

I finally finished sewing the diaper bag that I started two years ago!  Woo-hoo!  I was going to make it when Joey was still in diapers, but I didn't finish it and then he was potty trained so I didn't really need it.  It's such an awesome bag that I wish I would have finished it sooner - I can definitely see myself using it even after Lily's out of diapers.  The tutorial is well done and it wasn't actually that hard to sew.  I'm considering making myself another one so I can have some options when I go out and about.  Hopefully it won't take another two years! 

We went on a field trip to Angelic Organics Farm with a homeschool group.  It was super fun.  Joey loved seeing all the animals.  Here he is feeding grass to a goat.

And here he is trying to get a cow to eat a leaf.

Here is Mary holding a chicken.

 

 And Joey petting a baby goat.

Mary even got to milk a goat!  The kids made their own cheese from goats' milk, and we ate it with freshly picked spinach and oregano from the farm.  It was awesomely delicious.

We go out and about a lot, but some days we spend at home.  On this day we got out the paints.  As you can see, Joey is a serious artist.

Here is Mary working on a rainbow scene.

We also visited the Waukesha County Museum with Grandma and some aunts and cousins.  One exhibit was on famous movie producers from Waukesha.  They had a little theater playing a short piece from a silent black and white film.   Mary and Joey loved it!  Especially Joey - he watched it over and over.  It showed a woman tied to some train tracks, and a dog saves her by running for help and they pull her out from under the train at the last minute and then catch the bad guy who tied her up.

  Who knew that my kids liked silent film?  I might try and check some out from the library.

Would you believe I remembered to take a two month photo?

 

I think Lily was happy I remembered.

We had an extended Memorial Day weekend vacation on the Mississippi River at Joe's parent's new cabin on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.  Here is the spectacular view from their deck.  Click to enlarge!

 Mary and Joey building a tower on the deck.  They have their disagreements, but mostly they get along well.

Family picture!  We took a LOT of photos trying to get everyone smiling and this was the best one.  Some of the others were quite humorous, but this post is already long.

We have a zoo pass for the Milwaukee County Zoo and go there once a week, usually.  Here is a picture of an elephant and my little monkey.  I like to dress him in bright colors at the zoo so I can spot him more easily.  If there's ever a school or daycare group that comes in all tie-dye I might be in trouble.

Another day at home.  This time - play dough!  Mary made me a dessert plate of chocolate ice cream with cherries on top, a cookie with red icing, and I can't remember what the other red thing was but I'm sure it was something else yummy.  

She also made a plate for Lily.  You can see what Lily thought of it.

Close up of my pretty little baby.  Her eyes are getting darker and darker - I think they will end up brown, but we'll see.

Joey made something out of play dough too!  He told me it was a belly.  I forget why he is only in underwear.  Sometimes things just happen to your clothes when you are a little boy, I guess!

Lily chilling on the couch.  I love how babies sleep with their arms thrown over their heads.

Mary loves to take pictures with the camera.  Here is a self portrait of my little photographer.  

Another day at home.  We built our own ice cream stand using things from around the house.  Mary and Joey have fun ordering ice cream cones and making them up.  We had five different flavors of cones, five different ice cream flavors, and cherries, cookies, and candy wafers to put on top.

Here Mary is serving me a delicious ice cream cone.

Lily has started teething already!  It doesn't seem to bother her too much - she's only had a couple of fussy evenings.  She is drooling a lot though, and wants to chew on things all the time.  She's not super great at holding things in her own mouth yet though.  Usually she can get her hands in her mouth, but she ends up choking herself pretty often by shoving them in too far - poor thing!  Here she is with a wooden hippo teether for the first time.  She seemed to like it, but it was kind of hard for her to keep it in her mouth for very long.  That hippo just kept jumping out of her hand and onto the floor!

 The zoo has a special exhibit on butterflies for the summer, and we went to go see it earlier this week.  Here Joey is trying to coax a butterfly onto his hand.

They handed out laminated cards naming all the butterflies in the exhibit.  Mary liked being able to find the ones she saw on the card. 

So that's the end of this one!  I will try to post more about our summer fun - I'm sure there will be a lot of it!