July 26th, another day, another visit to someplace cool! (Again, I had to work… sorry kids.) Today it was back to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! (Consider this image a sort of title image… it happens later in the timeline.) See this image larger.

I think Connor had been here maybe two or three times before. As far as I know this was Kaylee’s first visit! See this image larger.

This time they had these cool gigantic flexible tinker toys! See this image larger.

They had the usual exhibits there as well… big bubbles… See this image larger.

Even bigger bubbles! See this image larger.

The tunnel of mirrors… See this image larger.

They had a place for the kids to stage a bit of a play, or perhaps a modern dance! See this image larger.

Here Kaylee expresses feelings of impending autumn and the turning of leaves… I’m kidding, I have no idea. See this image larger.

Nina the rockstar made a brief appearance. See this image larger.

Fans were treated to an encore from her fourth album, a heartfelt ballad entitled “I Made Yellow in the Potty.” See this image larger.

Finally, the kids got to experience the prestige and honor that comes with being a grocery store cashier. Ladies and gentlemen, the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! See this image larger.

July 23rd, Ian stands on his hands for Tumble Time, and flipped in excitement that his cousins and Aunt Mel would be showing up the next night! See this image larger.

July 24th. The kids are willing and wanting to help more often… Nina’s always been helpful, Ian seems to be coming around nicely. See this image larger.

Look at these guys go! See this image larger.

It would have been perfect if this image was Ian kicking me out of the kitchen, God knows how many times we have to do that to him! See this image larger.

Aunt Mel and the kids showed up, and it was time to eat! Nina ate corn on the cob, and just in case she never eats it again, I took this picture. That’s what happened with Ian, at least for a little while. 🙂 See this image larger.

Ian takes a tight turn on the ol’ moped styled big wheel. See this image larger.

*Tree!* We got all the kids outside because everybody, particularly Connor and Kaylee after their long drive, had energy to burn. See this image larger.

Love this shot of Connor! He’s such a great kid! See this image larger.

Connor conquers the climby thing at the park! See this image larger.

Nina’s hair is fine enough that a slide’s static electricity really gives her some lift! See this image larger.

See? See this image larger.

Isn’t she adorable? See this image larger.

This would probably be a good time to give her a haircut. See this image larger.

Let’s all take a turn on the tire swing, all at once! See this image larger.

Nina climbed this by herself, if you could see the first step, you’d be more impressed. See this image larger.

The younger kids hit the swings! See this image larger.

Peanut! See this image larger.

One last run on the slide and then let’s go home! See this image larger.

Wow! See this image larger.

On our way home… See this image larger.

Nina’s shoes seem to be a bit oversized, hmmm. See this image larger.

Trying to get them all synchronized… See this image larger.

There we go! Nice, guys! See this image larger.

This picture is fun to study… Who is showing teeth? Who has wide eyes? Who has arms around their cousin? See this image larger.

What a crew! See this image larger.

July 10th, Mommy took the kids to the Reagan Marketing + Design Garden Gala. I did not get to go. I will explain why in a moment. As usual, I can only guess from photos what really happened, so you’ll have to take my captions with a grain of salt. Overall, the Gala appeared to be some kind of hedonistic romp on par with Woodstock. Did you get a tattoo, little girl? Maybe twelve? (love this pic!) See this image larger.

Ian – *Ok, the coast is clear… fill your diaper.* See this image larger.

*ALL DONE!!!* See this image larger.

It turns out that Ian is actually pretty darn good with a hoola-hoop. Mommy said he’d use his body to stop it from dropping, giving himself further opportunities to get some spin. Impressive! See this image larger.

It takes two to tangle. See this image larger.

At some point, the dancing and chanting turned the children into traditionally war-painted Native Americans. Here, Ian points out a smilie face that he was awarded for helping Giggles With Cuteness to achieve a higher spiritual level. See this image larger.

This is Giggles With Cuteness. See this image larger.

Just before the police arrived and busted up the party. (I’m kidding.) See this image larger.

Everybody came home, and Nina took off on a very small big-wheel. Melissa bought this one for a buck or so. See this image larger.

The pedal reach was good at the time, and she went from having some difficulty to really doing quite well! See this image larger.

Nice job, little girl! It is fun to watch her gaining control over her legs… more on that later. See this image larger.

I had to stay home to watch over the guys doing our landscaping work. They hit our underground sprinkling pipes with a trench machine… the guy that repaired them then reversed these two, so he then cut them in the middle and swapped them. We now have eight connections where we used to have zero. The actual work that needed to be done was completed, and after three storms I can, at present, say that they did a nice job. (This is to alleviate the situation that caused our basement to get some water in it.) See this image larger.

July 9th, woke up, got the kids dressed, and started heading for the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum! On the way there, what a sight to behold, but the north end of a cow heading south on 131. What was really strange is that my friend Brandon had posted a picture of this same cow only days earlier on Facebook. See this image larger.

I wasn’t actually worried about it, until it started following us! Mooo… Mooo………Mooo… Moo……Mooo, moo. Mooo, mooo. MooMoo MooMoo MooMoo MooMoo (Grampa Dave already got that Jaws reference, the rest of you needed this little hint. 😉 ) See this image larger.

We got all the way to the Children’s Museum, and put some quarters in the meter, when a man with a beanie on his head stopped us to ask if we had our member IDs ready. When I said that I did not because we aren’t members, he gave us the speech. “Today,” he said “is Members Monday, but I can’t turn away your lovely children, one of whom is picking his eye, and the other picking her nose.” Some people would be partially offended, and screamed something like “JUST TAKE MY MONEY!” but again, this man was wearing a beanie, which means all of his social commentary is moot. First thing to check out? Car! See this image larger.

I liked this one too. See this image larger.

This one’s been photoshopped a bit. See this image larger.

When Ian was Nina’s age, he used to play with this exhibit… you drop golf balls and they hit school bells on the way down. See this image larger.

There’s my awesome kids sharing again! See this image larger.

Makin’ great big bubbles! See this image larger.

Nina came up to the play ultrasound machine and said “scary.” This is sort of ironic as real ultrasound machines have conveyed pure joy and terror to Melissa and I over the years, particularly in regard to Nina. Hard to believe that it was three years ago when an ultrasound resulted in a whole lot of relief and Mommy seeing our little girl waving hello from the womb. Scary? Only sometimes, little girl. See this image larger.

These were cool magnetic transparent building blocks. See this image larger.

Ian helped me build a great castle-like building, including corner towers. I built the right half, and he mirrored it for the left! He’s been taking a liking to Minecraft lately, so maybe that’s why we did this. If you don’t know what Minecraft is, I’ll show you a picture in a couple entries. See this image larger.

As much as I love these kids, and I really, really love them… two is enough, thanks! See this image larger.

Nina plays to the beat of her own drum, that’s for sure! See this image larger.

THAT’S my girl! See this image larger.

World’s biggest light-bright set? Sure! See this image larger.

Ian creeps through a mirror tunnel! See this image larger.

Wherever she looks, a friendly face! See this image larger.

She got to live out a bit of one of her favorite books here in the farm section of the museum. The book is about how a small girl goes to the Apple Orchard a couple times a year and picks apples. See this image larger.

The lighting was great here, so I took a bunch of shots. See this image larger.

Wish I could have gotten a smile out of her, but these will do! See this image larger.

She could see outside to downtown Grand Rapids, and city life was interesting to our little girl. See this image larger.

Nina tries a hard-hat on, near the construction area. See this image larger.

She moved these out into the walkway herself, and put hats on them like a little family. See this image larger.

If you’re a pedestrian, I assume a sight such as this would cause you to freak out in abject terror. See this image larger.

Afterwards, we ate at Panera. Because this was a Monday, I was by myself with the kids all day. These meals are always a challenge. For example, if one kid needs to go potty, you need to take both kids, and any valuables, leaving the food at the table. Here Nina shows off her soup technique. I showed her how she could sit on her knees to make the straw not have to bend… moments later she sat back down normally, pushed the bowl until it was much further away, and the straw didn’t have to bend either. (Yes, I know I could have cut the straw, but it needed to be a certain length to work appropriately.) See this image larger.

That night, by the light of the pink-ish hued light in Nina’s room, stories were read to happy children. See this image larger.

Here the tale of Snow White is absorbed with interest. See this image larger.

Love this shot, it was an accident. I don’t mind the lack of focus other than I wish SOMEBODY was in focus. Otherwise, nice shot! See this image larger.

Hello, beautiful family, time for bed! See this image larger.

Ian’s big grimace. See this image larger.

Daddy really needed to take a shower… See this image larger.

Daycare Sheet, June 1st
Nina’s Caregiver: “This morning every time another kid would taker her toy she’d say “I’m gonna tell Mommy!” For art she painted a giant piece of paper. We couldn’t go outside because of the rain sow we ran laps around the room.”

Daycare Sheet, June 1st
Ian’s Caregiver: “Ian really liked… washing veggies in the sensory table.”

Dialogue, June 4th
Nina: “It’s messy because crumbs are everywhere.”

Dialogue, June 4th
Nina: “There’s ian. And there’s mommy! There’s Nina! Daddy not in picture.”

Dialogue, June 4th
Nina, stressing the wrong syllable, but using a great big word: “Is compliCATEd.”

Daycare Sheet, June 7th
Nina’s Caregiver: “Nina had a good day today. This morning we praciced our balance not he balance beam. She could take 3 steps without falling! For art she glued together a penguin.”

Dialogue, June 7th
Ian, waking up, very sleepily: “Need a hug. (hug) Love you. Go back to work.”

Daycare Sheet, June 7th
Ian’s Caregiver: ” Ian really liked our first sprinkler-day. He really liked using the squirt bottle to wet down the rocks.”

Daycare Sheet, June 8th
Ian’s Caregiver: “Ian had a great day! He is such a great listener, very much appreciated around here. Thank you Ian!”

Dialogue, June 11th
Ian sings creatively: “Sometimes you know things, sometimes you don’t. When you do you try to jump in the shadow.”

Daycare Sheet, June 13th
Ian’s Caregiver: “Ian had fun in the water and liked playing w/the water toys.”

Milestone, June 14th
Doctor said Nina’s heart murmur was harder to hear. From a 2 to a 1, whatever that means — it sounds like good news!
34.25 tall
26.8 lbs 15th-20th weight jumped up

Milestone from Daddy’s Notes, June 17th
Ian and Nina… They are getting ridiculously big. And I’m watching Ian suddenly becoming more helpful, more interested in being helpful. Sometimes his motivations for doing so are mildly selfish, but it doesn’t matter… He’s thinking about other people, and I couldn’t be more proud. Nina is just entering her whiny phase as Ian steps out. But she’s also impressing everybody with the way she talks up a storm. In a few weeks she’ll be in a class that is two above her current class.

Daycare Sheet, June 20th
Nina’s Caregiver: “She did say she wanted to see her other friends and mommy a few times but she seemed very comfortable over all and shed no tears.”

Daycare Sheet, June 21st
Nina’s Caregiver: “Nina did a great job putting spots on her giraffe.”

Milestone, June 22nd
This week Nina visited the classroom she will be moving up to next week. Her sentences and speech are about 30% better from just a day or two of exposure to the older kids.

Daycare Sheet, June 22nd
Nina’s Caregiver: “Nina was excited to ride in the buggy on our walk. we decided to go past the fire station to see if we could see the fire trucks but the doors were close. Nina kept saying ‘we need to open the doors so I can see the trucks’ It was so cute!”

Daycare Sheet, June 27th
Nina’s Caregiver: “She tried very hard to cut with scissors this morning.”

Daycare Sheet, June 27th
Ian’s Caregiver: “Ian seemed to enjoy the water day! No problems w/him getting squirted.”

Daycare Sheet, June 28th
Nina’s Caregiver: “She enjoyed painting an orange ice cream with Ms. Jilian.”

Daycare Sheet, June 28th
Ian’s Caregiver: “Ian liked building a city w/jakob.”

Daycare Sheet, June 28th
Nina’s Caregiver: “Nina was singing E-I-E-I-O while building with Lego – it was doc cute! She really enjoyed our circle time songs too.”

Daycare Sheet, June 29th
Nina’s Caregiver: “In dramatic play, Nina fed her baby a bottle. Then she made a long track for r train. Nina loved making a smoore and eating it. She was so excited to play in the tent and tunnel.”