Swimming Lessons 2010

Today was the last day of swimming lessons for my two middle boys.

I was looking forward to watching them show off their new mad swimming skills.

But while they prepped with their teachers, this is what I got to watch instead. Ellie and Logan were strapped into the double stroller so that I wouldn't have to try to chase them down while I was watching the boys swim. They started out by playing peek-a-boo together. Sadly, it didn't last.
Next, Ellie started to contortionize (not a real word, I know), which Logan did not really appreciate.

So he ate her.

Which she did not appreciate.

So he gave her his coloring book to help her be happy.

It did make her happy, but it didn't make him happy to be without his book, so he yanked it back. Wow! Look at his face.

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He gets that from his father, I am sure.

But here's what I really came to see.

Not the greatest pictures because my camera doesn't have much zoom and I didn't dare get too far away from my youngest monster (did you see the previous pictures?). Still, you get the idea.
The boys did great.

And we all survived the morning, so what more can I ask for.

Gavin with his AWESOME teacher, Luke.

Parker and his class in a train with their cute teacher.

Parker jumping off the diving board (he was a little annoyed that his teacher was there to catch him and he had to wear a life jacket...oh well).

Gavin jumping off the diving board.
This is how Gavin does everything in life, head down and barrel right through whatever it is. He has such a sweet intensity, he makes me laugh.

Hooray for the fun of summer.

The Big 1-0

This month, Bryce turns 10 and so this past weekend we had a party to celebrate the exciting event.

Bryce really loves the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books so we went for a Percy Jackson themed birthday party.

First, we blindfolded the boys and gave them a foam sword lined with lipstick. We twirled them around and then let them have a shot at cutting off Medusa's head. The lipstick left a red mark to let us know how close each boy came to decapitating our Gorgon (for all you Mom's out there, this was a HUGE hit...who knew lipstick could be fun for 10 year old boys).

(P.S. No making fun of my horribly ugly Medusa...let's just pretend I am a great artist and that she is that ugly on purpose).

After a rousing game of capture the flag, spiced up with water balloons, we smashed our monster covered pinata. Unbeknownst to Bryce, Josh and I had filled the pinata with empty tin cans instead of sweets because one character from the book, Grover, the satyr, eats tin cans as his favorite treat. It was a different kind of "can"dy (hardy har har). We did have real treat bags on the side so there wasn't too much whining.

Finally, we headed to the back yard for our water relay race. The boys were broken into two teams, the Poseidon team and the Zeus team. They had to race around the yard jumping on stuff and throwing things and getting wet...all those things that ten year old boys do best.

After the relay race, we let them play in the pool and on the water slide for the rest of the afternoon (my parents bought a bounce house and water slide for the grand kids and were sweet enough to let us borrow them both for this...thanks Mom and Dad).

It was a really fun party, in fact, we had a hard time getting the kids to go home. The final child left an hour after our scheduled end time, but Bryce felt spoiled and had lots of fun so mission accomplished. We love our oldest boy and are so glad he is part of our family.

Happy Birthday, Texas...You are awesome!!!

Only Half a Green Thumb

I'm not sure what it is, but I cannot keep plants alive when they are inside my house. I love gardening and when I plant things outside, they grow beautifully and I can manage and care for them and life is fabulous, but the moment I bring a member of the plant world inside the walls of my home, I kill it. I cannot tell you how many plants I have handed over to my father because they were on their last leg....and he cares for them and they grow into beautiful, blooming pictures of health, but for me they struggle to survive and gasp for breath until eventually they wither and die.

The flowers in my yard to great, our vegetable garden grows well, but anything I try to grow inside is DOOMED. Go figure.

Last year I bought a fern like plant (because if nothing else, I always hope that things will be different and somehow this plant will survive). The tag said it was the perfect houseplant because it sits in this little trough so that you only have to remember to water it every other week or so. Perfect, right up my alley, this should be great.

Twice now, I have realized that the thing is nearly dead and gone to find that there is no water in said trough and probably hasn't been for a few days. I can remember to water the outside plants almost every day, but the inside plants I forget to care for. Sigh.

Now, the plant needs to be divided, but that means certain death for my lovely fern, so I have been putting it off for over a month. Maybe I should call my dad.

Some highlights of our last week (since I don't have the patience for a real blog entry)

*Ellie FINALLY started crawling...she hasn't really even been rolling to things so this is sort of out of nowhere, but we are excited about it.

*Parker and Gavin started swimming lessons.

*Bryce scored two goals in his soccer game.

*I survived my first week of relief society (hooray me!!).

It has been a crazy week, but I am ready for the next one (I guess...do I really have a choice?). Life is good.

On to Bigger and Better Things

Last week, Parker officially finished kindergarten.

I can hardly believe he is old enough for that.

He can hardly wait to start first grade...to eat lunch at school, have three recesses, and walk home with his siblings instead of his mom.

His teacher, Mrs. Timothy, has been incredible.

We LOOOOOOVE her!!!

It has been awesome to spend time in the classroom watching her interact with the kids. We have always been blessed with fabulous kindergarten teachers, but she may be my favorite ever. Parker is reading like crazy (PJ ended up with the most reading minutes in his class...brag brag, proud Mom :)) and has learned so many other fun things. Sadly, she will be moving to another school next year. I would love to have other kids in her class as they get old enough.

The last day of class the kids put on a little program showing off many of the things they learned throughout the year. I didn't get many pictures (thanks to a screaming baby) but here is a little sampling.

Also, as a side note, I am also moving into a different arena. I have been serving in the primary (and loving it) but this weekend have been given the opportunity to move into relief society and serve there. I have NEVER been in relief society before (after 15 years of "adulthood" I guess it is about time) so I am a bit nervous, but the relief society president (Lyndsay Gardner) is incredible and I look forward to learning from her. I am, in all honestly, sort of excited for the chance to try something new, and to get to know the sisters in our ward (since I already know their kids pretty well). Should be interesting, and a great chance for growth.

!!!!!

Breastfeeding and babies with new little teeth do not mix.

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I will leave it at that.

FHE Activity

An awesome friend of our recently let us borrow a Wii game called "Just Dance."

We love it.

So we played it last night as part of our family home evening. We had a great time.

Half the fun is laughing at everyone trying to do the dances (we are not a dancing family).

What fun.