Summer 2010 Pictures

Here's the post you've all been waiting for! Our summer in pictures. I ended up just putting them all in one slideshow, because some of the "events" were only two or three pictures and I didn't feel needed their own. Remember you can make the slideshow full screen by clicking the little box with arrows that appears in the corner after you start the slideshow. Enjoy!

Avalanche of pictures

Well, since I didn't make the time to make posts for each of these things, I'm grouping them all into one. However! I figured out how to put a slideshow right into the post, so I don't have to put in every individual picture. Good for me because it's easy, which means it's good for you because you'll get to see more pictures this way. Plus, you can make the slideshow fullscreen to see large versions (after starting the slideshow, click the icon in the lower right with the four arrows), and then click the "Show Info" button at the top to see comments for individual pictures. Use the left and right arrows on the keyboard to move back and forth through the images, or just let the slideshow run. Yay.

First up, building the raised garden for Heather.


A Day Out with Thomas at Greenfield Village.


Our visit to Memphis to see my sister's family. The first section of pictures are from our stop at the COSI science museum in Columbus, OH.


And finally, a trip to the Toledo Zoo with our friends the McKibbens.

Crafty

Hello Wilhelm Family! I have been waiting for something interesting to happen so I can blog about it but around here, things stay pretty much the same. Volleyball started last week and I play three nights a week on various teams. It's fun, but right now it's still a bit chilly, especially since it snowed on Sunday, I think you all know something about that! Next weekend I am in charge of a "Blanket Bee" to put together fleece blankets for our graduating seniors. I made these mask cards for their Banquet invitations. We have doing a Mardi Gras theme since some of the kids have traveled to New Orleans with us twice. The banquet will have Gumbo and fried chicken and corn bread among other Southern/New Orleans favorites.

Rich and I took a trip the other weekend back to his home in Connecticut. We got stuck in traffic for a few hours which was bad enough for us, but really bad for our stressed out dogs. Well, Rookie doesn't stress about much, but Jax was concerned and looked for comfort from his brother, nearly crushing him in the process. I know traveling with a toddler is difficult, I really do understand, but traveling with a puppy isn't much better!! Lots of crying and boredom, anxiety and stress, not to mention the mixed up schedules, and that's just the dogs!!








Jax says, "I'm miserable, are we there yet? Get me out of this moving crate!!!"

Rookie says, "Someone get this big baby off of me and get me my dinner!!"



No trip to Wallingford is complete without a side trip into New Haven for some pizza. Rich talks about how good New Haven pizza is EVERY TIME we have pizza somewhere else. Although, he is kind enough to not make comparisons when the pizza is homemade, smart man. There is some competition among the locals as to the best place to get pizza-Modern, Bar, Pepe's or Sally's. We had Bar the last time we went, mashed potato pizza! Mmmm. So this time we tried Pepe's.










According to Rich, what makes New Haven pizza so good is the crust, it has to be micro thin and crispy. Here he is completely hypnotized by the delicious, steaming hot pizza. And let me tell you, it was pretty fabulous! Besides the margarita pizza in the pic, that had fresh motzerella, basil and tomato sauce, we had a white clam pizza. Interesting, but I liked my tomato better!

We went to New Haven because Rich's friends put on a soccer tournament every year as a fundraiser for scholarship programs they have set up for friends' who have passed away and left children behind. It's been a while since I got to see some live soccer!! Who do you all fancy in the world cup?






So that's the news from Central New York! Hope you all are having a good start to your summer!



In case you were worried, the way home was less stressful. . .

Easter fun

We had an Easter get-together this past weekend at our place. Lots of fun was had by all. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Saturday morning, there was an egg hunt at the park down the street from us.



Here is Harvey's version of the cheesey grin. He says cheese whenever he sees the camera now, but he doesn't actually smile. He just says cheese.




Too cute.

Then everyone showed up. Heather made homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch, and then dyed eggs. Mom brought all the puzzles and games she's bringing to the reunion, and we had fun with those, too. We hunted eggs during a light sprinkle, and of course a short while later the sun came out. Oh well.


More cheese. Hillary read about this great idea to put Harvey's eggs in a whisk for dyeing so he wouldn't have to balance them on a spoon. It worked great.


Jim worked on his dyeing technique, too.





The group shot.


I dyed these eggs the night before using natural dye agents. The yellows were done with onion paper. Three were actually wrapped in the onion paper (and then in cheese cloth to hold the onion paper on), and they came out speckled. Three were sitting free in the pot, and they have more of a smooth finish. The blues were done with chopped red cabbage. They came out speckled because the pot was so full of the red cabbage, it pressed against the eggs and made the cool designs. The cabbage was pretty smelly, though. I think they all turned out great. I like the muted colors much better than the bright colors from store-bought dye.

Recipe:
Enought water to cover the eggs
1-2 Tbsp vinegar per cup of water
1/4 tsp alum per cup of water (find it with the spices in the grocery store)
As much dyeing agent as you can fit in the pot and still fit the eggs

Add the water, vinegar, alum, and dyeing agent to the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Add the eggs and simmer for at least 15 minutes, or until they achieve the color you want. The blue ones took about 30 minutes for me, which will probably make the eggs really tough, so we're not planning on eating them.

Jump City

This happened a couple weekends ago, but I thought I'd share some of the photos from a trip we took to Jump City. It's basically two big rooms full of those carnival-style inflatable bouncy structures. Harvey had a great time. I was just getting over being sick, so I probably overdid it, but it's tough to just stand and watch when your two-year-old is having so much fun and calling to you to join him.

Also, in case you don't know about it already, we have a Flickr account set up that we occasionally upload photos to. Most likely we'll make a blog post when we put up new ones, but there are a bunch of old ones there now that you may now have seen. Check them out at our Flickr account page.

Click on the photos below for bigger versions.

24 Hours of Swan

Aren't you all jealous?? I got to spend a great 24 hours with Alison last Thursday/Friday. She was in town to visit her friend who was home for a visit from Thailand. We had a great time, stayed up too late watching Doctor Who, and beading, oh the beading! We went to breakfast the next morning at Harvest Moon Cafe, I think you've all eaten there by now. Anyway, we were so excited about our next adventure and busy corralling a toddler out to the car that we forgot to pay! The hostess had to run out to the car. I was really embarrassed. We'll have to wait awhile before we show our faces there again. Alison has some great pictures she and Harvey took, including a video of them singing Monster Songs. She promises they'll be up soon.

Not much going on otherwise. Harvey was sick all weekend and I have a sinus cold but it seems to be getting better. We are planning on going to New York for Alison's birthday next weekend but everybody needs to be healthy by then.

Well I'd say my visit to the Hutchinsons went well, and here's the proof! Harvey and I had fun singing monster songs (the monsters live in the blanket fort), playing with play-doh, and taking pictures, most of which I deleted but there were a few keepers.

From The wilhelms To The Wilhelms (and swan)

I'm kinda nervous, i've never done this before...... blog. all is well here on 224 sheridan, O.J. and I are just rapping up a game of "fight ball", where we dribble a soccer ball around the living room and tackle each other in order to steal the ball. His growing quite proficient. He came at me from across the room the other day and gave me a full on soccer slide tackle and i'll be damned if he didn't come up with the ball. He recieved his first notable haircut the other day, we took off about 5 inches of golden child hair. tear. But his new hair dew is really hansome and we should feild less comments about how beautiful our little "girl" is. Jen got a job at boyne highlands at the ski ticket booth. The hours work well with our schedual and the time interacting with grown-ups is a bonus for Jen. beside all that i'm slowly plugging away at the seemily never ending project in the dining room ( with the help of dad). I'm hoping ( and praying) that we can rap that thing up in the next couple of weeks.

The Northern Region

So here I am freezing cold in my house. I have a broomball game tonight (thursday) and there are rumors that it will be canceled for being to cold. Our game last saturday was canceled because it was to warm. Ah the beauties of northern Michigan. I have no new photos to post but I thought I might just give you an update on life at Tech. With the warm weather they have had to pause the ice statue building which is really lame considering that is the heart and soul of winter carnival. I hope that they are as good as past years sence mom and dad are talking about making a trip up here.
There are ups and downs to being back from Germany. Even though I miss it badly I am very glad to see my friends and family again. I also am ready to graduate and start making some money! haha.
I hope that all is well for everyone and I will see/talk to you later.

Hi Wilhelm Clan! I figured if I didn't get something on here soon I'd be in trouble! I've never blogged before so this is all very exciting, unlike my life which is generally very droll and routine. But, today tt's a beautiful sunny (freezing) day here in Central New York so Rich and I decided to take the dogs to the dog park. Jax is now about 6 months old and Rookie will be 14 in March. The top pic is three way tug of war with other full grown labs, then tug or war with a gorgeous blue/grey great dane, then chase with two great danes and Rookie making friends with one of the danes. My roommate Laura and I took the dogs yesterday and Jax slept for a good 10 hours after all the excitement so today should be pretty peaceful now with him konked out :) Hope you are all doing well and thanks for a great Christmas visit! It was wonderful to see you all despite it being such a brief trip.

A Blooming Magician

Lately Harvey has been fascinated with all of Kurt's slight of hand tricks. This morning he decided to try them out himself. Let me know if the video doesn't work for you.


He's also showing off his ABC song and the humongous mess he made in my front room. Oh well, at least it is only one mess at a time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Mom,

This is your childrens' Christmas present. We each promise to post at least one story a month, with pictures when possible. Alison will also make occasional appearances.

We love you and look forward to sharing stories and pictures.

Love,

Heather, Jacob, and Adam