Summer Blog Update Part 3 of 3: Nature Fun

The rose bushes we  planted last fall in front of our house were lovely earlier in the summer.  Now the blossoms have pretty much fallen off.

It was good that there were so many rose blossoms, because Mary and Joey needed a huge supply of them for all of their outdoor cooking.  Here is a sampling of a "salad" with rose petals, and rose petal "tea."

Here are the kids playing in our backyard.

Ta-da!  Sticks!

We went strawberry picking again this year.  My friend said she saw a sign that said not to eat the strawberries while you are picking.  Joey didn't see the sign.

We picked and picked and picked in the hot, hot sun.  Then I stopped at a farmer's market on the way home and doubled our strawberries.  We made and canned 25 jars of jam!

A giant mushroom sprouted in front of our house after a recent rainstorm.  Joey found it and picked it all by himself.

Mary thought it was pretty cool too.

And that concludes the three-part summer fun series.  Until next time!

Summer Blog Update Part 2 of 3: Water Fun

Summer is the season for fun in the water, and we've been having a lot of it!  The really hot weather is only here for a short time so we've been trying to make the most of it.  

Here is Mary playing in my sister Melanie's pool over the 4th of July weekend.

 

Later that week we took a trip up to West Bend to play at Regner Park with some friends.  It's a really nice water park, with lots of sandy beaches for the kids to play in. 

The water was fabulous.  Joey spent a lot of time in it.

 

Here he is working on his swimming skills.

 

They also have a little splash pad near the beach, which is nice for rinsing off the sand.

We also visited the beach at Muskego County park.  It was small and had a lot of silly rules, but we still had fun with our friends.  Here is Mary with a seaweed salad creation.

 

Whenever we go to the beach I am amazed at how much sand gets inside Joey's swimsuit.  He just loves the sand.  He literally rolls around in it.  And this time, he got buried in it!

 

We also recently bought a Wisconsin State Park annual pass and have been visiting the beach at Ottawa Lake.  It's a very nice beach - clear water, nice sand, not too crowded - and just over 10 minutes away. It's also nice because it doesn't have a lot of silly rules like a lot of other beaches do.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from there, but trust me when I say we go there often and it's very fun!

After playing outside all day in the summer the kids definitely need to be bathed more often.  One day Joey was particularly dirty and didn't want to take a bath.  So I asked him if he wanted to take a bath in the sink and he enthusiastically agreed!  It was a win-win - no fight to get him in the bath tub, he still got nice and clean, and he had a blast playing in the sink!

 And that concludes the pictures I have of us having fun in the water.  Watch for the third blog post of this series coming soon!

Summer Blog Update Part 1 of 3: Family Fun

The summer is flying by so quickly!  I can't believe August is nearly over.  Today we were talking about how summer was almost over, and Mary asked if fall came after summer.  I said that was right, and she said, "Summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, right?"  "Yes," I said.  She replied, "I knew I was an expert."

In whatever spare moments I can find, I've been trying to squeeze in crafty little projects.  I did some hand sewn little birds using a pattern from this site.  I was planning on making a mobile or something with the five birds I have so far, but the kids are having so much fun playing with them I'm not sure if that will ever happen!  Joey claimed one of them as "his" bird and carried around for days and days.  Mary liked to take them outside and build little nests for them.  And Lily likes to wave them around and suck on them until they are very wet.

We went to the 4th of July parade in Hilbert.  Joey wanted to open up and eat all of the candy right away.  He kept tearing wrappers off and shoving things in his mouth to taste them, and then discarding them for the next piece of candy he got.  He never actually got around to finishing most of them, but he sure had fun!

My mom came along to the parade with us.  Here is grandma with Mary and Joey waiting for the parade to start.

Grandma and Lily at the parade!

Mary and Joey had patriotic shirts to wear to the parade, but Lily didn't have any so I embroidered one of her white onesies the night before.  I did it last minute and without using a pattern or anything, but I thought it turned out kind of cute anyway.

 

My sister Malorie sent me a link for making these crazy spaghetti hot dogs and I thought it would be fun to try.  They sure do look weird.

Here is Joey investigating his lunch.

He and Mary both got a kick out of them.

Lily is able to pick her head up pretty well now.  

 

Ta-da! Four months old!

 

Napping in a hammock.  This is the life.

 

Lily is also reaching and grabbing for everything she can get her hands on.  She loves to play with her IKEA baby gym.

 

Last week we did a project with microwave puffy paint just for fun.  Here is Joey swirling around a big paint puddle.

Mary did some painting in the style of Jackson Pollock.

After we were done painting, we put our pictures in the microwave and watched them puff up.  The texture was really neat, and I thought it smelled a lot like pancakes.

Joey did the six on the left.  He was really liking the green and yellow.  Mary did the five on the right.  She liked the splatter painting, and I thought her face was really cute.

So that's part 1 of 3.  I had so many pictures on my camera I couldn't fit them all into one post this time.  Watch for the remaining installments soon!

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!