Back to Swimming Lessons!

The kids started swimming lessons again last week. They go Monday-Friday mornings for two weeks. Then we're taking two weeks off, then we'll start again. Kayda is in a preschool 1 level class. She's doing some things better in class, some things better when she swims with me. She is starting to get more comfortable on her back and she's starting to figure out floating. She loves jumping, though the teacher doesn't push her quite as hard as I do (I make her find her own way back to the top of the water). Dillon is usually swimming with me at the same time so I don't really get to watch Kayda. On Friday Grandma H came to swim with Dillon so that I could take pictures. Dillon has turned into a crazy water guy. He LOVES to go underwater, most of the time I have to use that as a reward to get him to do something else. Today in swim lessons he was jumping then swimming out to me, I was about 8, maybe 9 feet away. He was doing GREAT he even took a breath and continued swimming!

Sunshine Here We Come!

This week it's FINALLY supposed to start being sunny and warm (80's). The kids don't really play in the little round plastic wading pool we have so Daddy and I caved and bought a new one. It has two portions one of which is for sitting, one has a little slide. We set it up this afternoon for the kiddos. They LOVE it. It's going to make the backyard much more exciting for them. You can hook a hose up to it and it has two little spray spots to make it a "water slide". Dillon was trying to get a drink and Kayda turned up the water right as I was taking the picture.

Today we took the kids over to the pool to swim. We've got them signed up for swim lessons starting on the 19th. I wanted to prep Kayda a little since it's been a while since she'll be going into the preschool level classes and won't be with me. They both still love the water. It's just a matter of the actual swimming. At least we took care of the hardest part! The kids had a great time with Mommy and Daddy in the water. Hopefully I can arrange someone to be there for their first swim lessons to take pictures.

Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July! In memory of my youngest years in California I want to start decorating bikes and doing a bike parade for Independence Day. Unfortunately because I couldn't make fliers because my computer is busted in some way or another I thought we weren't doing it. The little neighbor girls thought otherwise! So they came over with some streamers to decorate Kayda and Dillon's bikes and they wanted to have their "parade". Next year we'll go for the whole neighborhood. I thought this was a great idea for kiddos and their sparklers. They just had a candle and they would go over and light their sparklers. The neighbor girls were quite adamant about Kayda and Dillon doing things with them!In the middle of our cul-de-sac barbecue it started raining, pretty hard too so, we all bundled up and as true Washingtonians...kept playing.After dinner we headed over to Uncle Pat and Aunt Sarah's for fireworks. Here's Baba and Ella.And of course the big boys have to have their fun.. tank wars!Dillon and Kayda loved watching the tanks. Dillon was sitting their with the squirt gun saying "BOOM BOOM" the whole time. Kayda had her ears covered!Here's cousin Nathan being very accommodating to his younger cousins. He came over and started having Dillon "shoot" him. Next thing you know they've both got him.Helping Daddy light jumping jacks. Run!Taking over Aunt Liz and Uncle Greg's blankets!They found a hill.
It was a pretty chilly evening. Kayda decided she wanted to go inside and watched part of the fireworks like this.