Em and Lem

 We had a nice but quick visit from Cousin Emily and baby Lemmie, who were en route to Toronto.  Matthew and James were curious about Lemmie, but of course he's too young to actually play with them.  Lemmie did like the trampoline, Stanley, and Stanley's toys, though!

He's a rather serious boy, and only wanted his mommy to hold him.  Still a cutie, though!

ROC Playground

 The boys really liked the indoor areas in the Strong museum, but James spotted a slide across the street, and immediately wanted to go check it out.  It turned out to be a pretty cool little playground, with a spider web climber that was also good for American Ninja Warrior training.  :)

Apparently this little park sometimes has water features, but they weren't on despite the beautiful weather (which was fine with us, since we hadn't brought swimsuits!)  They did have live music going on just a little ways away, which we enjoyed from a distance.

Rochester Rocks

 We road-tripped to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester on Saturday.  It was awesome!  We didn't even see the whole thing, but we spent all afternoon there.  And it was closer than we expected -- just a little over a hour from our house.

The boys loved the climbing wall, and the display that turned them into Lego figures.  Mike was pretty excited that the special exhibit was about driving (video) games that you could play.  :)  Matthew, of course, wanted to do an art project at the art area.

The boys also had fun at the animal vet area.  James liked the big version of Operation (taking out the plastic pieces without touching the edges), and loudly announced to Mike, "I didn't get electrocuted!"  Matthew liked the place where you could scan your stuffed animal.  It had messages like, "Check your animal's fur."  As the last thing, he scanned his dragon that he got from the gift shop, and he was delighted that it said, "Your animal is just fine!"

The merry-go-round had one cart that spins around like on a teacup ride -- of course the boys wanted to go on that one, and spun themselves dizzy.  :)

"Don't try this at home"

Crafts with Grandma

 Grandma had to head home on Tuesday, but the boys (especially Matthew) enjoyed doing some craft projects with her before she left.  Mattie's perler bead creations included a turtle, a shark, and a rainbow!  (Perler beads are little beads that you place on a plate with little pegs to make a design, and they fuse together when they're ironed.)

Cone of Shame

Stanley's eye surgery went fine today.  It sounds like they were able to remove all of the growth next to his eye, but the doctor still didn't know what it was (beyond that it wasn't a cyst).  Apparently it's something kind of unusual (she described it as "fiberous"), but they're sending it off for a biopsy, so we should know more in a week or two.

The poor little guy has to wear the cone for a week to ten days (he has three layers of stitches, which should all dissolve on their own) -- he is not amused.

Boing

 Thanks to Auntie Nora (and Grandma), we finally assembled the trampoline that Grandpa got the boys for their birthday.  (Thanks, Grandpa!)  The kids have been having a great time on it!

We also signed the boys up for a couple of days of gymnastics camp next week.  They went with me to do the paperwork, and after seeing the gym, James is super-excited to go. (He and Matthew are really looking forward to the trampolines and the foam pit.)  Hopefully it will live up to their expectations!  :)

Birthday Swim

 Daniel's Birthday, Part the Fourth:  Swimming!

Matthew and Daniel had a great time at the pool (and another little boy who was probably around Seth's age made friends with Matthew and followed him around most of the time), especially trying to splash Adrian.  :)