Wildlife Sanctuary

Our Weekend: Part 4

Tuesday, I know not the weekend technically but Jer was off so I'm considering it part of the long weekend, we headed to the Wildlife Sanctuary. First stop, feeding the ducks and geese. Hayden didn't remember doing this before so he really enjoyed it. He kept saying, "This is fun, Mom, this is fun!" He was a bit sad when he ran out of corn but we moved along to look at other animals and he got over it. I was surprised the birds were even hungry at all this time of year!

"This is fun!"

When we got around the corner by the Bald Eagles there were a couple of Sandhill Cranes just wandering around. They weren't scared of us at all! They weren't in cages of any kind either. I have been there many times and never seen Sandhill Cranes like that! It was pretty cool. Much better bird watching experience than at Bay Beach! After checking out all the birds we visited the bigger animals then headed out for lunch.

Wesley checks out a Sandhill Crane close up

Tuesday night, Uncle Joe treated us to dinner. The boys chose Chinese Buffet. Wesley always says, "I love Chinese food...they make the best pizza!" Umm, okay! Eli does actually eat some Chinese food when we are there. He even tried an egg roll this time! The rest of Uncle Joe's visit with us was spent at home playing with the boys and visiting. As Jer and Joe turned the corner to go to the airport the boys were all standing around me in the front yard clinging to my legs crying...I think Uncle Joe needs to come again soon! What do you say Joe?!?

Memorial Day Barbecue

Our Weekend: Part 3

Monday night we had Abby, John, and Carter over for a barbecue. The guys (and Roz!) enjoyed a few games of ladder golf. Joe had never played before and really enjoyed it. They did have to stop a couple times for Roz to go google the rules though!

Jer throws

Joe, JD, and Wesley
(one of my favorite shots of the weekend!)

Then we had grilled mushroom swiss brats and hot dogs for dinner. Along with three bean salad, veggies and dip, chips, and baked beans. For dessert we had a new favorite...Golden Graham S'more Bars. We were going to let the boys eat outside but a cold front moved through while Jer was grilling the brats and the temp dropped about 25 degrees so we all ate inside. Gotta love that Wisconsin weather...80 degrees one minute and 50 the next!

All ready for bed...
and cuddling with Uncle Joe!

Parade

Our Weekend: Part 2

It was BEAUTIFUL weather for the Memorial Day Parade! Sunny and warm...not too hot, not too cold. The boys love a parade. I had them dressed in their patriotic red, white, and blue. Once they got their little flags to wave the "look" was complete! Looked like the turn out was good for the first parade on the new bridge.

The boys enjoyed clapping and waving their flags (and getting candy!) but not the clowns. We had our Seroogy's connection again this year (a friend of Roz) so we got more than our fair share of the meltaways! In fact the boys had so much fun that a few tears were shed on the walk back to the van. I guess a late night of fireworks (with the traditional popcorn and lemonade) followed by an early start to get to the parade was a bit much for the twins!

The Shown Boys

Roz, Justus, and Eli

Roz

Bay Beach

Our Weekend: Part One

We had a busy (and fun!) Memorial Day weekend. Uncle Joe came to visit and we kept extra busy. He arrived Saturday just in time for dinner. Sunday we made our first visit of the season to Bay Beach. The weather was great and the boys, as always, had a blast. Wesley is finally tall enough to ride the bumper cars so Joe pushed the petals and let Wesley steer!

After we finished the rides we headed over to the park area to have a picnic lunch. Roz's head somehow ended up in the middle of a fight between to robins. Then some brave ring billed gulls decided to harass us for the rest of the meal. When the boys weren't screaming at the pesky birds the wind was flipping the fried chicken off their paper plates. We ate quickly and moved on to the playground before heading home for naps.

On Your Mark...

Today we picked up our friends Sara and Erin then headed to downtown GB for the WPS Kids Power Run. The boys (and Erin!) ran the half mile race. Each got a "medal" to say they finished, a t-shirt, and a goodie bag.

Wesley came in 27th in his age group which is about right in the middle. He ran a lot faster than I thought. He was done before I walked from the start line to the finish line. So, unfortunately, I got a picture of him starting out but not at the finish line. I decided to just stay at the finish line to get a picture of Jer with the twins. So I have a picture of them finishing but not starting. It's a good thing Sara came with us...we needed a third adult. That way we could have one at the start, one at the finish, and one to run with the twins.


Wesley had a great time and was very proud of his fast running. Justus seemed to enjoy the race as well, but Eli was pretty much led along by Jer. Two out of three isn't bad I guess. All enjoyed the snacks provided and the goodie bag though!

One Whole Year!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this little blog. I thought I'd share a few stats with you from the last year. I didn't put the stat counter on the blog until mid-June so these numbers aren't perfectly accurate, but you'll get the idea!

• 193 Posts (194...if you count this one!)
• 2,736 Visits
• 5, 255 Page views
• 3 minutes per visit on average
• 14 States visited...can anyone guess which state had the most visits?
• 2 countries visited (one from Belgium...not sure what happened there!)

A lot has happened in the last year....a new baby, a new van, a new house. We've had good days and bad days....all documented here. For most of 2006 and part of 2007, I had been keeping a written journal but this has kind of become my journal now. One of these days I'm going to send it someplace to have it printed...pictures and all! That will be a fun keepsake. So if some posts seem a little odd...it's just the things I want to make sure and remember. I'll keep writing and hopefully you'll keep reading!!

Wednesday's Lunch

I got these new plates at Walmart for the boys. Now that we have a dishwasher our 2 sets of kiddie plates weren't enough...depending on when we run the load. The boys really like them. The plates stack nice and seem to be doing well in the dishwasher so far. I was smart and got five of each red and blue so JD can have one in a few months too. I took this picture on Wednesday just before I called the boys in to lunch. I don't know what made me think to take a picture...all those little plates in a row just struck me as a photo opportunity. Probably because this about sums up my day...making, serving, and cleaning up...little plates of food!

AWANA Awards

Tuesday night we finished up the AWANA year. All the boys finished a book so they received a special award. Justus and Eli were first year Cubbies and to finish their book they had to memorize about 28 Bible verses. Wesley was a first year Spark (aka Skipper) and finished both the book and the workbook. And I'll do some shameless bragging here...he was the only one to finish both in his class. Several finished the book and moved on to the workbook but he was the only one to finish both. He memorized 32 Bible verses in the book and another 18 in the workbook for a total of 50 verses!

Wesley gets his award ribbon from Mr. Tim

Eli gets his award bear pin from our good friend Sara and Mr. Royce

Justus gets his award bear pin from Sara and Mr. Royce,
he was a bit nervous but went up anyway!

After the awards ceremony we call stayed for the end of the year carnival. Lots of games, prizes, snacks, and candy. Once he got warmed up, Justus seemed to enjoy the hockey game and kept going back to that one. When I asked Eli to guess how many M&Ms were in the big jar he guessed "five" and unfortunately didn't win that prize! Wesley enjoyed all the festivities and can't wait for AWANA to start back up again in September. I have to get the directions from one of the families at church on how to make these really cool PVC marshmallow guns. They were so FUN!

Cinco de Mayo

We thought we'd have a little fun and make a pinata for Cinco de Mayo. Here's a little lesson for you...Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day like most people think. Jerry says it's a made up holiday so bars can sell more beer but it is actually a battle victory celebration. If you want to read more click here.

But you know us we're always looking for a reason to have a little party so after discovering Wesley doesn't mind digging in mud but touching paper mache is "disgusting" and getting paint all over the place and making a special trip to the store to get candy to put inside and adding all the tissue paper by myself we had ourselves a pinata. I offered to make it in the shape of something (my suggestion was a pig) but that was voted down cause "we don't want to smash a pig". So it was just a colored ball.

Hayden, Eli, Justus, Super Reggie (the stuffed dog), neighbor Ben, and Wesley BEFORE the swinging started

Wesley was super excited all weekend and kept mentioning the pinata and how much he couldn't wait until Cinco de Mayo. Even the twins kept asking "When is Cinco de Mayo?" Monday while he was out playing with the neighbor children he mentioned it and one of the boys asked me if it was true: "Are you really going to have a pinata?" You should have seen his face when I said yes! It was like I told him I was going to give him a hundred dollars! So our little family pinata turned into rotating neighborhood event. Children up and down Trotter court were cramming down their dinner to get to our house. We had one kid start but have to leave after he hit it...could we "save him some candy?" We had one kid come just in time to take the smashing hit! And one come just in time to scoop up some candy but missed his turn hitting.

Hayden went first

Justus was next

Then Eli

Followed by Wesley and the rest of the neighbors

Alec holding Hayden, Anchor, Wesley, Justus, and Eli with the broken pinata

We used a plastic baseball bat to smash it and in hind sight I guess I should have made it thicker cause it smashed pretty easily. Each kid only got one turn to hit! A few helpful pinata hints for you just in case you want to make your own:

• start the assembly a LONG time before you need the pinata ready, at least a few days or maybe even a week...it takes a LOT longer than you think to make one.
  
• make the paper mache several layers THICK so everyone can have more than one turn
  
• paint it and skip the tissue paper
• fill it with LOTS of candy (chewy is best, hard candy breaks)
• let the youngest go first
  
• stand back when kids are swinging the smashing stick, especially if they are blindfolded!
• And....invite the neighbor kids and you'll be the coolest family on the block!
  

Thirty Five!

This is a bit late...last Saturday was Jerry's 35th birthday. We had a small "party" and included Wesley as a birthday boy since we never really had a party for him. (The move was keeping us busy that week.) Wesley didn't seem to mind. It was super windy and pretty chilly so we didn't hang out in the backyard at all. Although we did send Jerry out to grill the pizza burgers. So we hung out in the kitchen, ate too much, and had a nice visit with my mom, grandma, and Abby's family.

Jerry and I were doing a little math and by the end of this month we will have been together for half of his life! That just seems crazy. Then we starting talking about it and realized Abby was younger than Roz is now when we started going out and I've know Jerry's brother Johnny for two-thirds of his life! If turning 35 doesn't make you feel old...that will! I still remember what I got Jerry for his eighteenth birthday! One of the items was a razor that he still uses! I get him freebies from CVS all the time but he always goes back to his old favorite.

Next time you see Hayden ask him to say "thirty five". He says it like a real Wisconsinite..."terty five"! Roz asks him to say it all the time cause she thinks it is so funny!