Oh look! Daddy didn’t lock his computer before heading to work this morning!  I’ll be a good helper-boy and lock it for him.  But first……  🙂

As you might have deduced from the lack of updates on this e-communications thing, the summer has been INSANELY busy — but it’s been a lot of fun too.  June, May, and April were fun months too but July has been a blast!  As the oldest kid I started the month by calling a  meeting of my siblings to discuss our blog names. We agreed that some changes are in order and that we’re going to pick animal names.  Squeaker is now “Squirrel” since she has the attention span of that dog from the movie Up!; Cruz is now “Turkey” because he’s so goofy and makes so many faces; little boy is now “Rooster” because he’s always the first to wake in the morning — and he lets us know about it rather loudly.  Bumblebee wants to be “Turtlebee” because she likes turtles and bumblebees.  When I tried to explain to her that there’s no such thing as a “Turtlebee” and that we can’t just make up a name for things that don’t exist she said I could call her Unicorn instead.  Touche…  she shall be called Turtlebee henceforth.  As for me, “Junior” is fitting me less and less with each passing day (kinda like my shirts, but I digress).  I know I want to pick a good mountain climbing animal for my animal name but I cannot decide between “Fox,” “Coyote,” or “Deer”… what do you think?

And on the topic of names: I’m going to refer to “July” as “Super Busy” from now now, and Super Busy 2014 was super fun!  Daddy took us all to Saint Louis for a long Fourth of July Super Busy weekend.  We stayed with our friends in Chesterfield — the Chesterfielders — which was great because they have a swingset, a big driveway, and bikes!  I love riding a bike so I took the opportunity to do a lot of that.  Turtlebee wanted to ride a bike too but she hasn’t been able to reach the peddles on her bike — and wasn’t so sure of herself and her balance — so she hadn’t ridden solo before.  I told her she could ride on one of the Chesterfielders’ bikes like her scoot bike at home, which she did.  I went back to playing and then — ZIP! — someone went riding by me on a bike.  I was going to tell the Chesterfielder boys to slow down on the bike but it was Turtlebee: SHE WAS RIDING A BIKE BY HERSELF!!! I was really happy for her and she was super happy and excited too — I’ve never seen her smile that big!  Until she crashed.  She didn’t get hurt though, and she didn’t cry — and daddy was proud of her for figuring out how to ride the bike too… he just reminded her that she needs to look ahead to ensure there isn’t a solid object in her path.

The best day of the trip was the 4th of Super Busy! In the morning we went to the Saint Louis Science Center where we met up with friends of daddy and mommy.  Daddy said they are in the witness protection program because they changed their name a couple years ago but I think he was joking because mommy made a laughing face.  The Science Center was fun: we saw a robotic T-Rex, stood in a Tornado booth, read some science fiction about animals turning into other animals over millions of years, but best of all we got to see the balls rolling through a complex and suspended maze of rails!  That was so neat — I could watch that all day.  And the bridge over the freeway was neat too!  I got to watch a semi pass RIGHT UNDER me!  That was so neat I started laughing!  After that we went to the Space part of the Science Center where daddy spaced out and lost track of time on the flight simulators… I think he wants to learn to fly an airplane.

We knew the dino wasn’t real, nor the “bones” we found amid the shreds of vulcanized rubber.

And then went outside and — you’ll never believe this! — WE GOT TO RIDE ON A SCHOOL BUS!!!  Yes, a real, yellow school bus!  This might have been the neatest part of the trip!  I’ve seen these things drive by every morning and wondered what it would be like to ride on one. But they seem to have some fundamental design issues and I’m convinced that it was designed by a government committee. Consider: school buses are meant for hauling children but there are no seat belts or air bags (not counting the driver).  We rode the bus to the Fair Saint Louis where we got something to eat, walked around for a bit, and then headed back to the Chesterfielders’ to rest up before the fireworks that night.  The fireworks were LOUD but I wasn’t scared!  I held Turkey’s hand and told him not to be scared either.  We all liked seeing the pretty colors but I think the fireworks were made in China: they kept blowing up.  My brothers and sisters all got to wear glowing bracelets.  Turtlebee was happy to have a purple glow-stick-bracelet: she kept raving about it and dancing with it!

Fireworks over Chesterfield!

The next day we all — including the Chesterfielders — went to Grant’s Farm!  Did you know they have a tram there? Riding on that was even more fun than riding on the school bus!  Apparently the owners of Grant’s Farm can’t afford lawn mowers because they had animals everywhere to eat the grass.  I saw elk, deer, a couple buffaloes, some longhorn bovines– and I can’t remember what else.  Then we got off the tram and went to see colorful birds, a trained elephant, more birds over by the big pond, a parrot in the bird house, and ate nachos and pizza for lunch!  Also, and I’m not sure when this happened, but Rooster slipped away and found Mrs. Chesterfielder’s cherry pie-cake and sampled it. For some strange reason he acted very hyper after sampling the dessert.

That night we visited daddy’s sister and her husband and family, including my cousins who are all so tall!  Since I’m bigger now I wasn’t afraid of their dog Nikki but Turkey acted like a Chicken around the dog.  I’m sure he’ll learn doggies are nice by next Super Busy.  I like playing with “Broken Kevin” the yard flamingo.  I know he was broken because the top part of him came off.  Fortunately my uncle is a mechanical engineer so he can fix Kevin!

Remember I said Super Busy was super busy? I’ve written this much and I’m only to the sixth of the month!  What else happened? Oh: I LOST MY FIRST TOOTH!  Well, I didn’t lose it — I gave it to mommy — but it’s the first time I’ve had a dental detachment!  Sure, Turtlebee lost a tooth before I did but I have extenuating circumstances.

Also this month: we helped a lot in the garden! Well, Turtlebee and I helped; Turkey kept walking into the garden and walking on the watermelon vines, the potato plants, and other things.  The garden makes great food!  We have picked cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, tomatoes, eggplant, jalapenos, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, squash, and a few green beans.  And tomatoes.  And cucumbers.  LOTS of cucumbers and tomatoes!  Dad and mom canned their first batch of tomatoes so we’ll be able to make fresh taco soup this winter! The garden is growing so fast!  The last time I checked there were three watermelons — I can’t wait until those are ready to eat!

Left: the melons section of the garden. Right: the tomatoes,
carrots, corn, potato, Squirrel and mama section of the garden.

A mega-cucumber and fine art in the kitchen.

We’ve been praying a lot too: mommy’s new baby will be here in the middle of August but it wasn’t head-down or even feet-down; after some treatments mommy says the new baby is head-down!  We’re so happy to hear that because it means mommy won’t have to go to the hospital for the new baby to be born!  Daddy keeps asking us if we want this new baby to be a boy or a girl.  Turtlebee says she wants a little sister; Squirrel was trying to decide if she wanted a new brother or sister but then something distracted her.  I want a baby brother so that when I pretend I’m a priest and pretend I’m saying Mass I can have more altar boys.

Guess what else: Squirrel, Turtlebee and I completed our latest round of swim lessons!  For Squirrel it was her first time taking swim lessons and she did great!  Turtlebee and I both passed our “Advanced Tots” class and are ready for “Level 1” now!  (Okay — technically we completed the lessons on August 1 but most of our lessons were in July so it’s still valid!)

And that pretty much wraps up the news from Super Busy.  I don’t want to be too much of a spoiler but something big is about to drop and Turtlebee is already taking notes since she called dibs on writing the August update.  Until then, please pray that the baby in mommy’s tummy arrives healthy, happy, and without emergency!