Annie is officially 5 and ready for kindergarten. Fortunately, her birthday ended up being on Saturday, so we set aside the entire afternoon and evening just for her. Mike didn’t get home until 4:00 because he had a camp-out the night before with the scouts. Once he was home and all unpacked we headed out for dinner. The plan was to go mini golfing afterward, so we chose a restaurant close to that destination. It turned out to be a hunting lodge-style restaurant, and Annie thought it was so fancy. When she was ordering her mini corn dogs, the waiter told her that that was an excellent choice. This definitely confirmed to her that we were in fancyville.

Next up was the mini golf experience. Apparently, the establishment only takes cash, so we made 4 attempts to get money from several ATMs. I was ready to give up, but the BP ATM was willing to give me some cash. The girls were very excited to golf. Annie seemed to pick up on the concept pretty quickly and actually was patient enough to hit the ball enough times until it went into the hole even if it took a dozen tries. Mimi, on the other hand, usually gave up after a couple tries and just picked the ball up and put it into the hole. Mike and I didn’t keep track of scores. We really just enjoyed watching the girls have fun.

Annie is already planning our next golf outing. We spotted a go-carting place next door, and I thought that that would be fun to do. Mike wasn’t in complete agreement, but he’ll give in soon enough.

Later that night we went home for cake. Don’t tell Annie, but I didn’t spend that much time on decorating it. You see, I have tons of jelly beans, and I thought this would be a great way of using up a lot of them. Unfortunately, I still have tons left. I’m sure she didn’t notice either that we didn’t have real birthday candles and had to use a tea light.

Tonight I will take pictures of Mike’s new toy. The documented photographs have been demanded by several of Mike’s male friends.

Yesterday we had the pleasure of meeting up once again with the Maneelys. This time we had a play date at the Racine Zoo. It was a smaller zoo, but there were plenty of animals to enjoy and lots of places for the kids to goof off. Another family attended who had another almost 5-year-old female for the girls to befriend. We also packed our own lunches and had a little picnic at a park outside of the zoo. We had a really fun day and are glad we discovered that there is a quiet and inexpensive zoo only 40 or so minutes away from our house. We may be making more trips there in the future.

Those silly girls. Mary noticed that they were all coordinated and properly ordered in the picture.

There were peacocks roaming around amongst the patrons. They kept their distance though.

Penguins, meerkats, and pelicans. Oh, my!

And acrobatic goat-like animals.

The 25 cent foot massager. Worth every penny since it seemed to entertain the kids more than the animals.

There were also lions, tigers, and giraffes, but I was only able to see and snap the lions.

The zoo also had a small room with some aquariums. I let the kids practice their aquarium photography skills. I believe this picture of a lionfish was taken by the multi-talented Sam.

I have other news to tell about Mike and a new toy, but I want to get some pictures before I reveal it. Of course, he has it at work with him today, so I’ll have to wait until later. Stay tuned!

The girls have both now been to the dentist, and they were wonderful patients. Annie was not afraid to admit to the hygienist that she was scared of what was coming, but the nice lady made sure to introduce all the tools to Annie before using them which really put her at ease. Both girls loved Mr. Thirsty the best (the spit suction tool). Mimi watched Annie’s entire visit with wide eyes and was very excited when it was her turn for a dentist visit yesterday. She cooperated and was not afraid at all. The girls each got a bag of goodies which includes a new toothbrush with a suction cup on the end, sample toothpaste and floss, an hourglass to keep track of how long they brush, and prize they got to choose from a treasure box (actually a plastic basket). Ever since Mimi’s visit those silly girls have been carrying around their goody bags everywhere with a few new items added.

Oh, I feel I must also mention one more thing since it has to do with the girls’ car seats pictured above. Once Mimi figured out how to buckle herself in she decided she wanted to sit in Annie’s seat (Mimi is actually in it in the picture). Of course, this caused huge screams and hair pulling. So now every single time we drive anywhere I have to try to remember who’s turn it is to sit in the wonderful, spectacular, magical, fantastic, super car seat. This has been going on for about 2 months now. I don’t know if it will ever stop because the girls don’t show any signs of growing out of those dadgum seats. According to Annie it’s because it sits up higher which allows the occupant to see much more outside of the car than from the other seat. I honestly think Mimi just wants to sit there because she knows Annie wants it.

Not long after we found out we were moving to Wisconsin we discovered that an old Navy buddy and his family (we love to say that) also live in Wisconsin. They are no longer affiliated with the Navy but are still willing to give us the time of day. The Maneelys were at Parris Island at the same time as us, and we spent a bit of time with them there. They had 2 children when we met and quickly discovered that they were expecting a baby around the same time Annie was to be born. It turns out that they had their daughter 4 days after our little button in the same hospital. The Maneelys now have 5 kids. So Mary, the lovely wife of the former navy dentist, and I promised to get together once our family settled in Wisconsin. Of course, life got crazy for both our families, and we nearly let the summer disappear without any contact. Finally, we got in touch and made plans to go to the Jelly Belly Factory on Tuesday. The kids immediately got acquainted and enjoyed each others’ company for the rest of the day.

The Jelly Belly Factory tour was interesting, and it surprised me to learn how time-consuming it is to make just one batch of beans–7 days. Of course, the tour ended right at the store which is impossible to leave without purchasing several pounds of candy especially with 7 kids in tow. It was also surprising to realize that jelly beans aren’t the only candy they sell. The store is pretty much stocked the way you’d expect any candy store to be except their specialty is in fact Jelly Bellies. Naturally, the kids were thrilled to discover the disgusting flavors such as vomit, ear wax, pencil shavings, baby wipes, rotten egg, and booger. However, no one was keen on trying any of those flavors. I was actually excited about the soda flavors such as A&W Root Beer, 7UP, Orange Crush, and a few others. I got suckered into the buy 2 bags of “Belly Flops” and get the 3rd free deal. The Belly Flops are the imperfectly shaped jelly beans that get rejected but that still taste just as good.

The kids were definitely on a sugar high when we headed over to Red Robin for lunch. It was even more evident, to me anyway, that the balloons from Red Robin only intensified the mood on the way home. The Maneelys played for a while at our house afterward. The oldest child couldn’t get enough of Lucy and only had eyes for her the whole time. I warned Mary that she’d be getting the dog talk from him for the next few days (months/years?). My girls were sad to see them all go and immediately asked when our next “play date” would be. Don’t worry, girls, Mary and I are already on it.

Jelly bean artwork. I wanted to get a picture of the Ronald Reagan depiction, but it was during the tour which forbid picture-taking.

The “twins”. They were actually the same size which is unusual given how small Annie is compared to almost everyone her age (or even a year or two younger).

The darling 3-year-olds, already the best of friends.

Our whole group. Gotta love that Jelly Belly bug.

Our first big adventure in Colorado was to visit the Mesa Verde National Park. Since I’m not very good at learning about history and stuff, I’ll just quote what is right on their website:

“Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.”

I didn’t really see where the green table fit in because there wasn’t much green in the dry, rocky mountains, and there were no tables either. The trip up to the first part of the park was quite curvy and inclined which left a lot of wimpy folks (including me) not feeling so great. We stopped for lunch and traveled to the Spruce Tree House which is a self-guided tour through hilly trails which eventually led to one of the ruins. It was quite impressive how much still remained of the dwellings.

The kids enjoyed climbing down this ladder into a room underground. Even Annie and Mimi were up for it despite my being quite nervous.

Here are the girls and I grinding our corn for the evening meal.

It really was a cool place to visit, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys learning a little history.

With being up in the mountains with several lakes and rivers close by there was no way to keep Mike from fishing. He managed to sneak off a few times, twice with the girls and a coupla other young cousins in tow. This was the first time the girls really got to fish. They had been practicing at home with Daddy and their new Barbie rod and reels (no joke–they actually make those). Mike said it would be worth missing catching any fish of his own if he could witness one or both of the girls catching a fish. And, that they did. On the first fishing expedition Annie caught a medium-sized rainbow trout. She was even brave enough to eat it after Jake used his mad, cooking skillz to fry it up for her. I got a few tastes as well, and YUUUUMMM!! The next time out fishing Mimi got to reel a smaller rainbow trout. It was too small to keep, but she was ecstatic, nonetheless. Mike couldn’t have been prouder.

Here’s Annie with her catch!

Now enjoying the prize.

Mimi is overjoyed about her fishy.

Tune in tomorrow for more…