Birth Day

Four years ago today it was 100 degrees and I was heading to the hospital, or 'vacation' as I like to refer to it...no laundry, no dishes, no cooking, no cleaning..and GREAT meds!

Today I celebrate my third little lady, Morgan.

She opened a gift as we headed out the door for a day full of fun.  A Fancy Nancy doll...I think it looks just like her! Love it!

A little present for mommy too!  Love it!

On the way, I hear Molly and Morgan in the backseat discussing Morgan's birthday.  Molly says to Morgan, "You look taller today." Ah, little people conversations, gotta love 'em. 

We soon arrived at the Milwaukee Zoo.

We're getting pretty familiar with the layout since we've gone the past couple of years, but we still consult the map.

One of the first houses we went in was the Big Cat House...I wish there wasn't such a glare on this picture....Lacey and Morgan approached this Jaguar viewing area and were startled (hence Lacey's posture) when the Jaguar was RIGHT THERE.

Taylor's favorite is still the elephants and Molly liked the giraffes.  Lacey was in and out of the stroller all day and at times looked like this.

But she gets excited about everything at the same time...typical toddler!

This years special attraction was Adventure Dinosaur.

Sounds of stomping dinosaurs could be heard along with individual noises at each dino exhibit.  The dinosaurs were electronic and moved with noises...and that was scary enough considering the real-life effect they had...but then to make it creepy the eyes moved...they turned and looked at you...Morgan was not a happy birthday girl.  I eventually ended up carrying her before she started crying....however; later in the day she wanted to go back.

 

Chris's little buddy, and godson/nephew, Brody.

The crew for the day.

And after six hours at the zoo; this is what the drive home looks like.

At dinner, a couple of rounds of Happy Birthday were sung, along with the zoo version, "you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too"...it seemed appropriatte for the day.

Hope all your birthday wishes come true.

Love,

Mommy

GOAL!

The two oldest spent this past week in Waunakee for a couple of hours each afternoon at a soccer camp.

Taylor has been playing soccer and Molly was willing to try it since some of her friends would also be there.

She had a good time and was excited when her team scored a goal!

She also liked getting her own soccer ball!

Taylor worked hard too.  It was a typical last week of July...hot! hot! hot! 

So there were plenty of water breaks given to the girls.

I watched Taylor scrimmage and even though she is one of the smallest she is right in there...getting bounced around and falling on the ground and playing hard!

Today was the last day, and she was TIRED!  So when I wanted photo's she was not being cooperative...she said she was willing to pose for a few.

You take what you can get sometimes!

I watched Molly play too.  She is not as aggressive as her sister and backs off the ball rather than fight for her space so I think she enjoyed her time but I'll let her stick to dancing...though this last shot makes me wonder....hmmmmmm

GOAL!

It's Like Riding a ........

Finally, finally, finally

Taylor has learned to ride a two-wheeler.

It's not completely her fault...I mean we don't ride bikes very often.  I probably haven't ridden a bike in 15 years.  We go for walks often so tricycles and bikes with training wheels were slow enough to keep pace with a stroller.  And Taylor is petite and watching her try to figure it out for the past three years I kept thinking she was just not strong enough to hold the bike steady.  Excuses...excuses...

But she has worked hard this past month and motivated by the promise of a new bicycle helmet she has done it!

She's even started tutoring!

I guess I better be buy'n a helmet for myself too...hope I remember how......

Wanna Fest?

Thursday night was a wash this year for Waunafest...record rainfall and many funnel cloud sitings.

But by Saturday things had dried out enough for fireworks.  Molly was equipped with her ear protection and Taylor, Molly, and I drove in for the noisy, but colorful sky show.

On Sunday, we finally(dang road closures!) made it to the parade.  Typical good parade entertainment.

Plenty of candy to be thrown, retrieved, and devoured.

After the parade we made our yearly donations to the service organizations in town by eating hamburgers, gyros, pizza, onion rings....good quality fair food!

Then it was time for rides.

Lacey 'the joiner' was right in there with the big kids and l-o-v-e-d the rides.

Looking very happy with themselves aren't they!

Go Fish

Fishing time with Grandpa.  We gathered some life jackets, sunscreen, and snacks.

It was a windy day so the boat was rocking a lot!  Molly was not a fan.

She sat on the bottom of the boat and clung to my leg.

We stopped and dropped anchor ready to fish!

Need some bait!

A few fresh worms....yum...if you're a fish.

She setteled in, got comfy and waited for the fish.

She started with just dropping her line straight down but after that got boring she decided she needed to cast.

DUCK!

LOL....she really did OK....and after about an hour of no action she felt a tug...then a bigger tug...she was so excited...Grandpa helped her real it in slowly...s-l-o-w-l-y...and I had the camera all ready to take a picture of......

SEAWEED!

Oh what a bummer...but a round of giggles was had by all!

Grandpa showed Taylor his fish detecting device...so she spent some time scouting while Grandpa drove the boat.  Taylor was supposed to shout if she saw fish.

But it was not meant to be...neither Grandpa nor Taylor caught any fish.

Molly finally got her 'lake legs' and sat on the seat to feed the ducks some fish crackers....lol

Fair Time

I have fond childhood memories of the annual trek through the animal barns at the Dane County Fair.  We carefully stepped over piles of cow manure and hopped over rivers of urine.  How could I not want to share that experience with my own family.

We had missed it the past couple of years because it had coincided with our trip to Yogi Bear so this was Lacey's first trip to the fair.

She was a little uncertain when we entered the cow barn.  They are not in cages only roped to their pens, which obviously she was not aware of so as far as she was concerned we were walking into a cow party.  I assured her that the cows were safe and then she was very interested.

We peeked into the horse stable named Lacey only to be sprayed with a horse sneeze. EWWW!

While we managed to hear sheep bleeting, and pigs oinking;  the loudest barn was the rooster one. 
Cock-a-doodle-doo!

One of the groups favorite animals were the rabbits....

The girls were able to pet the animals that were leaning against the sides of their cages.

In the petting zoo area there were three little pigs...each with their own little house...of course one was made out of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks.  Lacey wanted a closer look.

Taylor was even brave enough to hold the baby chicks this year.

After many rounds of hand sanitizer and hand washing we finished with a round of icecream.

It was a hot day at the fair and the kids were real troopers.  By the end of the day everyone was ready for a nap~grown-ups included!

Butterfly Gardens

It has been a few years since we had gone to the Butterfly Bonanza at Olbrich Gardens.  We talked to the girls about going to visit some butterflies and that they should wear clothes that made them look like flowers.  The girls picked out their own clothes......Taylor had a lot to say in her clothes selection; pink flower shirt....purple/blue flower skirt...this picture really doesn't do it justice.....

But despite the fact that they had thought it was a good idea to dress like flowers they all developed a sudden fear of butterflies.  They ducked and dodged the fluttering butterflies.

Sometimes they felt brave enough to approach a perched butterfly.

But if it so much as opened and closed its wings they would jump back about two feet.

The girls watched the hatchery where chrysalis's open and the new butterflies rest and dry their wings before they are released into the atrium.  The girls were as impressed with the Koi in the pond as they were with the butterflies.  After a few laps, we left through the double set of doors and did the 'butterfly shake' to make sure there were no hitchhiking butterflies.  Molly had a slight panic attack as she felt the tag from her dress move as she jumped up and down, but I was able to convince her that she did not have a butterfly down the back of her dress....*sigh*

We were given Butterfly Passports when we arrived.  The passports led us through the outside gardens to find the stations that held the embossing stamps for the passports.  Along the way we read butterfly trivia and dodged a few bubblebees.

We tried not to disturb too many of the other guests at the Gardens who were taking leisurely strolls or sitting and sketching along the way as four excited girls ran and chased each other among the plants and flowers.

Bubbles

Taylor took a park and rec class this past week.  There were quite a few kids in there that she knew from school, which is always a little extra fun.

There was dry ice.

And the teacher let them touch the carbon dioxide vapor that comes off of the ice.  It's called dry ice but it's not frozen water; it's frozen carbon dioxide and it sublimates which means it goes directly from a solid to a gas skipping the liquid state of matter...hence the word 'dry'.  The kids had fun touching the cold vapor that sinks down the tub and settles on the table.  The teacher even put liquid soap into the dry ice which made little gas bubbles....so when Taylor lifted a handful of bubbles off of the top and popped them they burst full of vapor...very cool!

Taylor made bubbles windows, used her body to make bubbles, held onto bubbles, and put bubbles inside of other bubbles. Then....she put herself into a bubble!

She said she could see lots of rainbows from inside the bubble.  What a fun class...a really cool teacher must have prepped and planned such a class.....*sheepish*.....ok, it was me....*toot* *toot*

But it was a lot of fun!

T-Ball Time

Molly's t-ball adventures have begun.

She is one of four girls on the team of twelve.

She learned quickly on defense that unless the ball comes directly to her she is not going to try and get it.....there are far too many aggressive boys that will jump on top of each other to get the ball...and Molly is having none of that!

She has been a good little slugger and likes running the bases.

Her team is the Rice Krispies.  After the games they do a game cheer.

Hooray!