Swimming Lessons - Part 1

Funny how sometimes a slip-up can actually lead to something unexpected and fun isn't it?  It doesn't happen often to me, but when it does I have to laugh at the progression and how things turn out in the end.  This whole post has to start out with an explanation about a slip-up on my part.  Turns out with everything that was going on at the beginning of the year, I had meant to, but totally forgot to sign Zach up for spring outdoor soccer.  Although that doesn't sound really bad, I have to tell you that he has been looking forward to outdoor soccer for quite a while.  Last year we signed him up for indoor soccer and although he had a good time, he decided that outdoor was his favorite and after a 2 year break, he was all excited to do it again.  So excited in fact, that he had his sister convinced that she wanted to do soccer too.  So in order to keep from having 2 in soccer at the same time and trying to coordinate games, practices, etc., we agreed that Zach would do spring outdoor soccer while Hailey was finishing up dance and Hailey would do fall outdoor soccer, with Zach doing flag football right after.  It was a wonderful plan and I'm sure it all would have worked out wonderfully, except for one thing.  There wasn't anything in the plan to account for a busy mom forgetting to sign up Zach for spring outdoor soccer.  Well, that one thing that would mess up the entire plan happened and I forgot.  At first the kids were a little upset, but we explained the mistake and promised that we would sign them both up for fall outdoor soccer as soon as sign-ups started (yes, I guess we're going to go through the pain of 2 doing it at the same time, even though that's what we were trying to avoid in the first place).  They were happy and started reminding me daily not to forget - of course we were still 2 months away from fall sign-ups at this point, but I suppose I deserved that.  

Although things were worked out, I still felt bad after the whole forgetting thing, so I started searching around trying to find something else for them to do.  Baseball wasn't really an option due to the tremendous increase in fees from moving from the recreation center run league to Little League, so that wasn't going to work.  Luckily, I stumbled upon swimming lessons.  Once I mentioned it to the kids and saw their excitement, all past mistakes on my part were utterly and completely forgiven and I knew I had found the activity that would make up for my forgetfulness.  I got up early the morning of registration and got them into the last 2 available spots for Level 1 swimming at the time that worked best for us.  The kids were thrilled when I let them know it was all set and the only thing left for them to do was be excited the remaining 4 weeks until lessons started (let me tell you, it was a long 4 weeks!).  

The week after school got out, the lessons started and they had a blast!  There were only 6 kids in their class and it was nice for them to have such one-on-one attention.  Since this was their first time in actual "swimming lessons" I wasn't sure exactly how this would go.  But they both surprised me by completely loving it and looking forward to it every single day.  Since it was just a Level 1 class, they spent more time just getting the kids used to being in the water and doing some simple things.  I was amazed as I watched my kids who moved from kids who would yell and scream any time any water got in their faces, to actually choosing to put their heads in the water as long as they could.  In fact, by the end of class they were doing it without even plugging their noses - something I don't think I can even do!

The also practised gliding on their backs and stomachs, bobbing in the water, and even using their arms in the traditional swimming motion.

Zach was by far the most fun to watch - he would always be dunking his head in the water whenever he could.  He absolutely loved it!  Once I noticed that he stayed under for a full 7 seconds - pretty impressive if you ask me!

Tate and I enjoyed going and watching the kids as well.  Tate was such a good boy and stayed in his stroller or sat in a chair next to me while the kids were swimming.  I was worried that he would try to get in the water himself, but other than saying it a few times, he didn't really try to get near the water, which was nice.

The kids had a blast and before we knew it, the two weeks were over.  I promised them I would sign them up again (for Level 2 this time since they both passed Level 1), but after a crazy couple of weeks back and forth I was thinking maybe we would wait until next year.  Of course I forgot enough about how hard it was because I just signed them up for a Level 2 class starting two weeks from tomorrow - what was I thinking?  Of course they are so excited and can't wait to go swimming every day for two weeks again!  Hopefully we'll be a little more organized this time and things will run a little more smoothly.  If not, then it's only 2 weeks and the amount of fun the kids will have will be well worth it!

I be 2!

Yes, can you believe it?  My little baby turned two this month - where has the time gone?  He's moved from being a baby to being a little boy and I can't believe it.  We have been very excited about his birthday around our house because we finally found some things to get him that we didn't already have!  Any of you who have a few children, especially of the same gender know what I'm talking about.  I've found it's really hard to find something to give to the younger child because you pretty much have everything from when the older child was that age!

The few weeks leading up to his birthday, we kept telling him that he would be turning 2 and would try to show him how to hold up two fingers.  Once he got the hang of it, he ran around telling everyone "I be 2!" and doing some sort of crazy version of holding up two fingers - I wish I would have gotten a picture of it because it look like some crazy gang sign or something, but bless his heart, he was cute!

Since his birthday was on a Sunday, it made it possible for a bunch of family to come down and celebrate with us.  We had some dinner (yummy spaghetti and garlic bread), then we went to opening presents.

He got an outfit and a spiderman ball from Nana and Papa,

Some blue bickies (also knows at Cool Ranch Doritos from Uncle Taylor), a monkey swim shirt from Hailey, and some Elmo pj's from Zach.  I wish I had pictures of all of these things, but I left Jeremiah in charge of the camera and somehow we progressed from taking pictures of Tate to taking crazy pictures of the kids and Taylor.  Most were blurry, but we did get a really good close-up of Taylor's nose.  Maybe I'll post that one later - I'm saving it for blackmail!

Jeremiah and I gave Tate new tennis shoes, new sandals (both of which he got a week or so early because he was in desperate need!), a Mickey Mouse telephone, a toddler Mickey Mouse scooter (which he obviously loves!), and 

A soccer ball beanbag.  Tate went from present to present and we had to laugh because every time he would leave the beanbag to go to something else Libby would leaning and climbing on it!  I think that's a hint Kylie and Jedd!  :)  Nice close-up of someone's feet in this picture huh?  Like I said, I got some pretty strange pictures - I don't think I'll trust the camera to Jeremiah next time.

After presents, we decided it was time for dessert.  He told me he wanted cupcakes (although I don't think he knew what the other choices were).  We couldn't decide between sports balls or Mickey Mouse as our party theme - so we kind of did a combination of the two.  We found these cute star candles that had a 2 on them - he wasn't so sure what we going on when we slid the plate in from of him.  

But with Nana's help, he attempted to and then finally blew them out.

He didn't waste any time digging in to the cupcake once those crazy candles were out of the way!

These are my Mickey Mouse cupcakes - nothing too fancy, but he knew right away what it was and that's all that mattered to me!  We also had some sports flags to stick in them along with ice cream.

We were so grateful to have so many come down to celebrate Tate's birthday.  Nana, Papa, Taylor, Kylie, and Libby all made the drive down.

Somehow Papa got these glasses put on him and wore them for most of the night just to make Tate happy (or because he forgot they were there, I'm not sure which).

Libby was so funny with the sports napkins - she spent most of dessert opening and closing it - it's funny my kids did the exact same thing!

Here's our birthday boy one more time sharing some ice cream with Nana.  I think that smile means it was a pretty good birthday.

Happy Birthday my Bubba - you are so cute and sweet and we love you so much!

Pinewood Derby Time - Vroom Vroom!

Zach loves scouts!  In fact, to say he absolutely loves it would be an understatement.  He loves going every week to the different activities and is really cruising through the requirements to get his bear.  Pack meeting is another fun time for him - they do so many fun things and he looks forward to it every month.

This last month was the annual pinewood derby.  Last year they did rockets, so this was the first time he was able to design and build his own car.  He had a blast doing his car with his dad.  The two of them spent a bit of time out in the garage cutting, sanding, and sanding some more.  Then he painted it and got it all assemled.  


After much anticipation, the night of the pinewood derby arrived - Zach could hardly wait to get over to the church and race his car.  Here he is all ready to go - does that smile say excitement or what?

Here's his finished car - they had to add a bit of weight to the top of the car.  But isn't that the coolest car you't ever seen?  He named it Blue Thunder.

Here's the track all set up and Zach's car racing against the others.

Here's another race - you can see Zach's Blue Thunder third from the left - all ready to go.

Hailey and Tate had a great time watching the races too!

Tate was hilarious - every time they did a race, he would squeal and get all excited.  He was loving it all - and he was really happy for his big brother.

We didn't take any of the top 3 places, but he did get the award for the most sporty looking car - we decided that was pretty cool!

We sure are proud of our cub scout - he is doing so great and we love coming to see him participate in all the activities!  Way to go Zach, we love you!

Hailey's Kindergarten Program

At the beginning of the year, back in August, it was hard to picture the end of the year.  But before we knew it, the end of the school year was upon us and school was almost out.  Hailey has loved kindergarten, just like we knew she would.  Not only did we discover she was leaps and bounds ahead of almost the entire class in almost everything, we found out that she picks up on things very, very quickly.  Her teacher affectionately referred to her at the "Mother of the Class."  I'm still not sure whether that's a compliment or not, but I choose to take it as one because she is always making sure everyone is happy and doing what they should be.  Although that type of a mentality can border on a tattletale, we are choosing to try and nip that in the bud and think that it will serve her later as a characteristic of caring for others.

With the end of the year came the most anticipated final kindergarten program.  Hailey was so excited and was very tight-lipped about any of the songs they were singing or other things they would be performing because she wanted it to be a COMPLETE surprise.  

She was so excited when she saw us finally walk through the door, I thought she was going to smile her whole face away.  She was so darling, standing in her place in the back row.

They did a couple of songs that were just darling.  My favorite was one where they sang about our country and got to wave their little flags.  

In addition to the songs, they also did some reading for us.  This was Hailey's group - they read The Three Little Pigs.  She was one of the narrators and did such a great job.

 As usual, she pretty much refused to do any of the actions during most of the songs.  There was one song, however, where she finally kicked in gear and did the actions.  It was darling!  After the song was over, so was her action-doing, but we did get one song of it, so we're grateful.

Nana and Papa came down to see her program and Tate spent most of his time on Nana's lap eating M&M's - what else?  

We had to get a picture of the special girl with Nana and Papa too.  She was so excited that they could come to see her program.

Her Dad couldn't make it, but Tate and I were there to cheer her on and we got the entire program recorded on the video camera for him to see.

At the end of the program, they were each presented with a kindergarten portfolio with all of the art work, projects, and other things to keep as a reminder of their kindergarten year.

We didn't want to forget to get a picture with her teacher, Mrs. Mikulecky - Hailey has absolutely loved her and so did we.  She was an extremely wonderful teacher and we know that she did so much to help Hailey and the rest of her class have such a great year.

Well, there she is all ready to move up to 1st grade next year.  She would have gone the day after school got out if we would have let her (she was actually under the impression that was how it worked), but we talked her into taking a couple months off for the summer.  So she's eagerly anticipating the move to 1st grade in August when school starts again.

Way to go Sis, we are so proud of you!  You did great on your program and in kindergarten this year.  We love you so much!

Ahh Summer!

You know it's summer when the days get longer, the temperatures get warmer, the shorts come out, and so do the popsicles!

This was Tate's first try at a popsicle - he liked it at first, but then when it started to get too cold for his hand, he was done.  Of course he kept coming over to get another taste every few minutes while I was holding it.  Guess he liked it, just not the holding it part!

These two definitely keep me smiling, as well as our oldest who was off playing and riding his bike when I took this picture.  Love my kids and love that summer's finally here!

Hailey's Toothless!

Well the day finally arrived - on May 8th Hailey finally lost her first tooth!

You would think with the amount of times she was wiggling it that it would have come out sooner, but we still had to be patient and wait for it to come out all on it's own.  If you ask Hailey, it was a VERY LONG WAIT!  But she loved the dollar and note she got from the tooth fairy and can't wait to go pick out a prize at the dollar store.

Once she saw herself without her tooth, her first words were "I have a whole in my teeth!"

Finally she can say she has lost a tooth and more importantly, put a tooth up on the "lost tooth board" at school - she was one of the last ones and so afraid it wouldn't come out before school was out!

She's now impatiently wiggling the next one over trying to get a jump start on the next tooth loss - silly girl!

Hailey's Dance Recital

After 4 months of dance classes and much practicing, it was finally time for the much anticipated dance recital.  Hailey was so excited and looked so darling in her costume.

Look at that smile - darling!

Here's the group all ready to perform (she's the third from the right, standing up in the back row).

And during the dance.  She did so great, I was so proud of her.  She remembered every step and didn't miss a single thing.  Good thing she inherited her coordination from her dad and not her mom!

We were so happy to have Nana and Papa come to see the performance - the even got there early and helped Jeremiah save us some seats (the kids and I were at Activity Days and had to come a bit later than we would have liked).

Hailey loves her Nana - she was so excited to show Nana her dance costume!

Of course Dad, Zach, and Tate were there too.  I was worried, but they had fun watching all the other performances.  

Of course her Dad brought her some flowers - she loves flowers and thinks it's so special to get them.  I agree, getting flowers from her Dad is the best!

And just because I think she was the most darling one there, I'm including a little video clip so that you can see for yourself!

Way to go Hailey - you are quite the dancer - we are really proud of you!  Love you Sis!