Swim Lessons

We started swimming lessons last week and the boys love them. It's a very basic class that is helping with our fear of water. Now they love the pool and want to go all.the.time. Sadly, we don't have a pool membership, and they have to settle for 30 minute lessons for two weeks. This is our last week of lessons, and I'm hoping that they will get brave enough to put their face in the water. The lifeguards aren't very forceful in making these stubborn boys get their face wet, but we have 3 more days, so we'll see what happens. Andrew's class has 5 kids and one lifeguard, and Jonathan's class is a mommy and me class, where the lifeguards tell me how to teach him to swim. Umm, maybe I should've told them that I can't really swim either and they should teach me first. And Hannah hangs out in her stroller. She's such a trooper since these lessons are right during her morning nap. She's pretty happy just to watch as long as someone gives her a toy every now and again. Maybe I'll start her in lessons next summer and she'll get her face in the water.

Fireworks!

The boys watching the fireworks, and yes, Andrew is that sweaty. It was so hot that night. There was no breeze and it was too hot to really enjoy the fireworks.

Someday he won't appreciate this picture, but I couldn't help myself.

chillaxing

brothers

We tried to watch our neighborhood fireworks on the Fourth, but it was so hot, we weren't really into it. Jonathan wanted to stay up and watch them, but he didn't like the noise and wore his noise cancellation headphones.

The best part of the night, was when the boys went home with Grandma and Grandpa for a sleepover. The boys were so excited and so was I, but it wasn't so great for Grandma and Grandpa. Jonathan didn't go to sleep until after midnight and was up at 5:45 am asking for a drink. Grandma sent him back to bed, but he was up again at 6:30. Such a short night. He was so tired when I picked him up that afternoon, but they had so much fun!

Happy 4th of July!

Here are some pictures of the cherubs on the 4th and Hannah in her patriotic dress she wore on Sunday. I loved it way more than she did. She had some trouble crawling in it, but I don't know that that is necessarily a bad thing!

Birthday fun continues

I love this picture! Andrew is investigating the contents of the box and Jonathan is soaking it all in.

So excited for more tiny Legos!

More Rescue Heroes!

Around here, birthdays last more than one day. And why not?! Sunday after church, we let Andrew open his presents from Grammy and Grandpa. They were a big hit! Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for the great presents! Andrew (and Jonathan) love them!

Birthday party!

Blowing out the candles

Happy girl, even if she didn't get a cupcake! (She did get a little bite of Freddy's frozen custard, which she LOVED!)

Andrew enjoying both birthday treats - chocolate cupcakes and a Freddy's frozen custard cake. So yummy!

Everyone was a little sluggish at this point. We were just finished devouring fresh salsa, homemade guacamole, hamburgers and hot dogs, watermelon, potato salad, and a Greek garbanzo bean salad. OK, so Andrew only ate very few items from this list, but we can't just eat from Andrew's limited menu!

The birthday boy!

All the little cousins wore birthday hats, even Hannah.

Luke and Jonathan sitting in as back-ups in case Andrew needed help unwrapping. He's about to open walkie-talkies. He was so excited for these! He also got a cool bug catcher, a Cars watch, and some books. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and the Eigstis for celebrating Andrew's birthday with us!

Birthday fun - part 1

Andrew with his new fish before they perished. Sadly the first batch of fish from Wal-mart only lasted about an hour. Not sure what happened to them. I guess they listened to the noise, saw that their new home was in the playroom and decided they didn't have the will to live at our house. The second group is still swimming strong - 4 days later! The best part was that the death of the fish was not nearly the drama I thought it might be. Andrew just sort of shrugged his shoulders and said, "They died." And that was the end of that. So I took those sad dead fish back to the store and told them they died on my son's 6th birthday and they gave me new fish without a blink a bonus one, just in case.

At long last, let the ripping begin. We made the poor boy wait until daddy got home from work. We won't be doing that again! It made for a VERY long day for all parties involved. And even after the long wait, he let Jonathan help him unwrap one.

A Birthday for Bear book and a new GoFish guys CD, Splash!

Tiny Legos! Just what he wanted, but they pose a serious choking hazard for Hannah.

And the hit of the day...Rescue Heroes! We had to do some searching for these. Thanks to Craigslist and a kid's consignment shop, we found them. Leave it to our child to pick a toy no longer in production.

Daddy demonstrating to the boys the cool features of the helicopter.

This was Andrew's dinner request. Pancakes with a face. But not just any face. He was very specific about what other foods should be on the face. He even drew us a picture several days before his birthday to make sure we were clear as to what he wanted for his birthday dinner. We were able to add the bacon without pre-approval. But really, who needs approval to add bacon?!

Happy 6th Birthday, Andrew!

8 weeks old

9 months old

14 months old

19 months old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old with your new baby sister

5 years old at the Air Show

First day of preschool - 5 years old

Happy Birthday Andrew!! How is it possible that you are 6 already?! It seems that we were just bring you home from the hospital. I had a nice little trip down memory lane as I looked back through old pictures to post on this blog. It was hard to pick just a few!

I also can't believe that you will be starting kindergarten in less than 2 months. You sailed through preschool and loved it. I know this summer has been hard because you miss your friends and teachers. You were super sad your last day of school and didn't want to say good-bye to anyone. We are so glad that you love school and learning!

You constantly amaze us with the things you come up. You are so smart and creative. And you always want to know how everything works. Your current fixation is my sewing machine, which I do not let you help me use.

Your mind and your mouth never stop working. They are both always going and sometimes we have to ask you to stop talking. You still have some special Andrew words: constructions instead of instructions. I've started to correct you, but I'm going to miss that when you stop using that. Your new big word that you use all the time is situation. "Daddy, I have a bathroom situation." And you still call your brother "Jonavin."

You love your brother and your sister so much. When Jonathan has rest time, you will often ask when he can come down and play because you miss him. You two are best buddies and I hope you always are!

You have started reading/memorizing books. Your favorite ones to read are the Piggie and Gerald books by Mo Willems. You master these after we read them once or twice, so I think you also have some site words memorized.

You still have a TON of energy and are in constant motion unless you are asleep. You sometimes exhaust us and we struggle to stay ahead of you, but you always delight us. We love watching you grow and can't wait to see the man you will become. (Actually we can wait. It's OK to be little and slow down a smidge!) We love you Andrew!