Uncle Tyler came to visit...

It has been fun to have familiar faces show up, Cory's brother came on Tanner's birthday and stayed for a few days. Super Aunt Wendy came to visit Sam and Alisha a week or two before, so naturally we assumed she was here to see us too, and took part in their festivities. We went to the coolest YMCA swimming pool... EVER.Maybe next time I will get a picture of all it, but there are 3 little kid water slides, tons of water fountains things, and a huge wading pool area. Oh, did I mention the two big waterslides? Yeah, we have fun there... and it is free with the purchase of your YMCA membership! Awe-some!
Anyway, we also went to the Minnesota Zoo again... they were having "enrichment" time with the dolphins, I call it a free show...

And we went to the Mall of America, of course... we actually rode the rides this time.

They thought it was awesome...

Tanner rode the roller coaster with Tyler and Cory... he is behind Tyler's head.

We found out that Kate is an adrenaline junkie... she loved the rides.

Then we went to Bubba Gumps... mostly because it is what it is.

So by the end of Tyler's visit, the biggest thing we were able to accomplish was to convince Tyler that he didn't want kids. Oh well, sorry LaNette, I guess it really will be a while before you get anymore grandkids! Thanks for coming Tyler! (and Wendy, even though I know you weren't really here to see us... I just think of us as a nice bonus!) Until next time kids... have a good one.

Back to it... someone is 5!

So during my neglect, Tanner turned 5! He wanted a pirate party, so what the birthday boy wants... the birthday boy gets! Tanner desperately wanted a surprise party, so I let him help me plan the party but told him to forget about it. Then I had the party in the morning instead of the afternoon. Cory took him to breakfast and when he came home, everyone was there... his reaction was funny.

He warmed up after a hug, it was funny. Anyway, we learned to be pirates and went on a treasure hunt... we have a playground that is a pirate ship, so it worked out to be a good treasure location.

We made a treasure box cake, okay, it is out of rice krispies because I am not awesome...but we made cupcakes, they were better than a cake.

This box showed up during the party from Morgan and Violet. When we opened the door, the delivery guy held up the box and said "Tanner's birthday?" All the kids thought it was so cool that the guy knew it was his birthday and brought the package to his party... you have to love a good coincidence! It then turned into a bit of a pinada moment as the kids tore through it in their sugar induced chaos.As always, Kate got in on the birthday goodies, new headphones from Nana...

Tanner also got new headphones and new books for his story reader.

He got tons more, such a spoiled little monkey! Anyway, thanks to everyone for helping him have a great day! We are all ready to have a fun Minnesota summer!

Where did we go,one would wonder...

We are sick of winter. That is the truth. Tanner prays every night that the snow will melt everyday. It did. Until it snowed again. Ugh. So we have been hanging out...

Kate is protesting winter by wearing her swimming suit at least 3 times a week...

and reading to her dolls...

and talking, a lot, even though I only sometimes know what she is talking about...

Tanner is into self portraits...

And writing recipes for me. This is for macaroni and cheese, it says noodles, cheese, and milk. He even clipped it into my cookbook for easy access.

He also has been making instructions and building from those instructions...

It starts at the bottom, but it says step A: a circle, B: a large rectangle, C: a medium rectangle, D: a small rectangle, E: a long, narrow rectangle... It built a tank, he is holding the one he built.

We have been doing more stuff, perhaps I will get around to posting about it, but don't get your hopes up... I may not. But until I attend to this little blog again, I hope spring shows up! Have a good one, and thanks for stopping by!

A test to get into kindergarten...

So I took Tanner to the ghetto the other day to be screened for kindergarten. Fortunately he passed, he nearly doubled the score to get in, so that was a relief. Now we are just waiting to see where he goes. We are hoping he can get into the same school and class as his buddy. He apparently can't rhyme and he didn't know where his ankle was. So, I guess there won't be any rapping in his future, and we need to start singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, Ankles, and Toes. Oh well, he is so excited to go to school, he misses it. I just can't believe he is going to start school, this is the end of my life not worrying about school schedules, aside from Cory's, so I guess maybe I will never have a break from school schedules. Oh well, someday...

A little bored now that it snowed again...

So I googled my name. Apparently the popularity of it is rising, I wish it wouldn't... at least there is still only 4.27 per million named Kinley. But I am not sure if this counts the people that spelled it wrong... (wink wink Brendi and Dawna).

KINLEY is the most popular 14132.nd name in USA (... 14130.borromeo , 14131.kranthi , 14132.kinley , 14133.mehrunnisa , 14134.chinniah ...). One in every 234,068 Americans is named KINLEY and popularity of name KINLEY is 4.27 people per million.
If we compare the popularity statistics of KINLEY to USA's population statistics, we can estimate that as of February.21.2011 14:19 there are 1,330 people named as KINLEY in the United States and the number is increasing by 11 people every year.
Usage of kinley as a middle name is more common than its usage as a first name. The sum of alphabetical order of letters in KINLEY is 76 and this makes KINLEY arithmetic buddies with words like Decisive, Sharing, Smiler, Valuable, Esteemed. Add "Courtesy of PokeMyName.com' tag and feel free to distribute, copy, republish this interesting, accurate and also useless report about name KINLEY. :)

Check yours out.

I Heart You...

Well, most of you. But chances are, if you are reading this, I do heart you. So please have a lovely and splendid Valentines Day!

The Minnesota Zoo

We checked tickets out of the library to the Minnesota Zoo, so Alisha and I went. We saw all kinds of animals, half of it was closed because of winter, but there was still plenty to see. We started with the Minnesota trail, it is a nice little walk through all the wildlife you would find in Minnesota. Here is a taste of it...

coyotes...

bald eagles...

and some of the nastiest fish I have ever seen. (it really is no wonder that I don't care for being in fish infested water.)

Then we walked the tropical path...

Here we saw alligators...
Monkeys...

I mean monkeys... (sorry my bad)

and a large fish aquarium... (please note Grace and Kate)

Then we ended our trip at the ocean stuff...

dolphins (hard to tell, I know, they were just so excited to see us that they wouldn't hold still.)
BIG sharks... (another reason for the water phobia)

Some pretty awesome sea horses...And Tanner was trying desperately to touch the sting rays, but not the leopard sharks in the small pool. He finally succeeded.

Happy Valentines day soon, Happy Birthday to Morgan and Jennie this week! And, it will be above freezing for the next week! Goodbye to some of this snow! Have a nice weekend!