Swimming Lessons

We are in the midst of swimming lessons. The boys love to go to the pool every day. They love splashing and playing in the water.

Warming up:

My cute helper. She is so sad that she doesn't get to go swimming too. She tries to climb through the fence. I had told her she couldn't take swimming lessons until she learned to walk. It's not any surprise that she started walking that same week. She still doesn't get take swimming lessons this year, or next. It's a hard life.

 Look at the smile on this kid's face. He is so happy to go swimming every day!

 Learning to float.

 Being an Alligator. When asked to be his favorite animal, he said that he was a "Walkie Talkie Doggie." And he crouched around on his hands and knees and barked. (I love him!)

We are starting up a second session and look forward to swimming as a family together!

Happy Birthday Math Hero!

 I am going to be catching up over the next few days. I'm pleased with my efforts to take time to remember all the awesome things we are doing. We have been busy with visits, birthdays, swimming lessons, playing and being a family. We have had days of temper tantrums, but also days of tenderness and love. We love summer and are having a blast!

I've decided to go in reverse order. So this post is the most recent and the future posts this week will go further back in time. (Wow, cool! Time Travel!)

My birthday was Saturday. It was fun to get ready for it. The boys went shopping a week before, and the three year old told me what I was getting from him. Which is part of the charm of children.

Unwrapping presents. I loved having Hopeful Hero help me, and claim different presents. I also realized that I talk a lot as I open the presents. Most of the pictures are mid word.

This is a present that I bought myself. I was afraid that I wouldn't get my favorite cereal--which is an important tradition in our home. I wrapped it up and Friendly Hero was really confused why I was wrapping my own birthday present. When I pretended to not know what was in the present, he called me on it. "Mommy, you wrapped it. Of course you know what is in it!" The look on Bug Hero's face until I opened the present was pretty awesome too. He was confused and upset that I would buy my own present. Until he saw that it was cereal. And then he laughed. Because that's how we roll. 

I feel so blessed! I got a few new shirts and lots of playmobil. Can we all take a moment to enjoy the awesomeness of playmobil? Thanks.

And then for my cake. I made a chocolate cake with strawberry jam between the layers and covered in strawberries. I also feel super fancy for the garnish that I cut of the strawberry in the center.

I turned a prime number this year, and we didn't have enough candles. So we made due with 6. 29 is almost a multiple of six, so it works, right?

Walking!

The Hopeful Hero is WALKING!! We are so proud of her! She is still at the stage where she walks as much as she crawls.

She started a week ago, when we had the missionaries here at our house to feed them. She started at the piano and walked over to our book cases. We thought it was because she wanted to get away from the missionaries, but she crawled back to the piano and did it again. For two days, that was the only route she would take. But now, she'll walk in any direction, and even turn around and get diverted from her previous route.

We are so proud of our little girl. She is proud of her new skills. She is proud of herself!

Pre K Graduation

Friendly Hero graduated from Pre-K. It was a really cute ceremony. The teachers had asked each child what they want to be when they grow up. Friendly Hero wants to be a dad. They sang a few songs and we laughed a lot.

 Sitting Down.

 With his certificate.

With a friend that came to our house once. I helped her learn to ride a bike without training wheels. I was touched when she said she wants to be a bike teacher when she grows up. I asked her at the end who taught her to ride a bike--and she said her mom did. And I laughed really hard. Everyday I came to pick up the Friendly Hero, she would ask if I was picking her up too. We loved this friend!

Moving

We are not moving. Our friends moved this week. And it was really sad. Happy for them, but sad for us. We have played with these friends a lot in the last few months especially. Probably three or four times a week.

I am very grateful that the five year olds don't mind the tag along brother. Here is Friendly Hero with his friends that he went to Pre School with and the super hero is the one who moved.

Here is Hopeful Hero with her friend. I will miss this little girl the most. She always loved me. She had the biggest smile and "HIIiii!" when she saw me. I think I was her third favorite adult. She always was running to catch me and hold my hand.

I will also miss their mom. She became one of my best friends here. I loved that we could talk about anything and everything. I enjoyed how she and I could share recipes, ingredients, ideas and laughter.

Good luck in Saint George! We will stop by as often as we can.

However, as they prepared to move, their little boy would talk about his new house. That caught on in our home. Usually Friendly Hero can be heard, "I get to build that LEGO and you, Peaceful Hero, can have a turn at our new house." Another thing he often says, "You can't use that LEGO piece! We will build with it again when we get to our new house."

A Month Ago

A Month Ago, we were getting ready to go somewhere. Hopeful Hero picked out a shirt for her dad. And then she wanted to wear it. She is so adorable!

We convinced her after a little while, that while it was fun to wear Dad's clothes, they do drag when you are 13 months old.

Weekend 10

We had a great weekend! We got to go to the local Zoo. I love this little Zoo. There is maybe 20 different types of animals. And I love the randomness of the animals. We have monkeys, barn animals, two bald eagles and three types of Australian animals. Totally random and awesome! We also went at the perfect time, all the animals were awake and moving around.

 We also had my cousin and her new husband stay with us over night and we loved talking and playing with them.

 Hopeful Hero LOVED the baby goats. And they loved her. One bigger goat liked her foot and decided that she tasted good. The goat then slipped her entire foot into its mouth. Hopeful Hero was less than pleased.

 Her she is as she glares at the goat.

 We played in the groundhog exhibit. And loved the bubbles.

 At the wallaby exhibit, Friendly Hero got sniffed over by a wallaby. It was really cool.

 Hopeful Hero is so fun to take pictures of. And she loved watching the wallabies hop around.

 The train was the highlight of the trip for the Friendly Hero and the Peaceful Hero.

 The two boys decided that the train was Captain America because he had two American Flags on it. I love that they can decide things like this because they only know the names, and make up adventures for super heroes to go on.

 And I love this quick snap of Peaceful Hero. He is getting so big!

We had a great weekend!