Playing around

This weekend brought Ninja Baby and his family south of the border. We did many of Toddler Jeneric's favorite things, including playing in the park.

The slide:



The other slide:


The ladder to the other slide:


The ladder that goes nowhere:


The woodchips:


And the modern merry-go-round/jacob's ladder/tricky toy, even for adults:






Stay tuned for Wednesday, when we introduce the newest member of the Wily Jeneric family!

Happy birthday!

Although we love visiting Minnesota most every chance we get, the real reason for our visit this August was to celebrate the 80th birthdays of Eric's grandparents. That's a lot of grand slams.


To celebrate, we headed north, to Gull Lake, where we...

Ate.


Made a campfire (and ate s'mores).


Went boating.



Did a little fishing.


Ate some more.



Sang Happy Birthday... and ate some cake (and there was pie!).


Modeled some hand-knit hunting socks.


And played a mean game or two of cribbage.

A world traveler

Or at least, traveling to Minnesota. Indeed, last Monday's post depicts Toddler Jeneric pretending to travel to Minnesota. Here, we show the Trunki in-use, carrying toys and books a-plenty.


Leading Trunki into the party room.


Spilling his guts (and delighting Baby Wily in the process).

I'm walking, yes indeed

Baby Wily is eager to keep up with big sister Toddler Jeneric. For the past month, she's tentatively taken a few steps here and there. This week, the wheels are clicking and Baby Wily is off to the races.

What do babies dream about?

What do you think, readers of Wily Jeneric? What does Baby Wily dream about?

(Re: Wednesday's post. We made caramels, which Toddler Jeneric insists are chocolate. At first, she didn't much care for them since we did a quick cool on a few so she could eat one before bed. These turned into hard, inedible blobs. The caramels that cooled normally were much better in TJ's opinion.)

All in an evening

Toddler Jeneric recently requested that we make candy. This past weekend, we obliged.

First, we melted butter.


We added sugar, more sugar and a little cream.


Then we boiled, boiled, boiled. And while we boiled, we played Ring-around-the-rosy.




And put together a puzzle.


So - what candy did we make? And did Toddler Jeneric like it?

A computer for every girl

Well, at least a keyboard!

Lawn sprinkles...

the original backyard, summertime, heatwave entertainment.

Fit to be tied

Aunt Kelly had a fun activity for the Wily Jeneric family - tie dying!

Toddler Jeneric was an enthusiastic helper.


Baby Wily rather enjoys the results!


Aunt Kelly tackled a rather ambitious project - a full-sized sheet set.

Gone swimmin'

Eric took the girls and their grandparents to a nearby beach for some fun in the sun.

	Baby Wily took to the water - once again! - like a duckling. She sampled the sand again and chased that with a rock.

	Toddler Jeneric had an adventurous day with a long hike and swimming to the buoys!

We're going to the zoo, zoo zoo!

And if you're Aunt Kelly, you can come too, too, too! Last Thursday, 3/4 of the Wily Jeneric family headed to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. As luck would have it, Aunt Kelly was visiting, too - so we picked her up and ferried her home with us.

	Check out all those nobs and switches!
Pilot Jeneric, at your service!
	Houston, we have lift off!
Blast off!
	What is that contraption?
Look at the fun people you can find in space!