Summer swimming lessons

Holly and Sam had developed a fear of swimming so Christina (my sister) and I took them to her pool once a week and taught them how to swim. This was us on the last day of our lessons.

Sam's 6th birthday!

I can't believe you are already 6! You are so much fun. You still make me laugh everyday.

Your favorite things now are Legos, Star Wars, and Iron Man.

You are really good at building with Legos. You built the lego speeder that Dad got you for your birthday with hardly any help at all.

You are awesome at dunking yourself in the pool. You can stay under for a long time and almost have swimming down too.

You are getting really good at reading. I don't know where you picked it up but one day you were just reading.

You are starting Kindergarten this year. Mrs. Baldwin's afternoon class. I know you will love it.

For your birthday we went to the zoo with Audrey and Morgan the day before. They were spending two days with us.

The next day we ate pizza at Pier 49 and then watched Kung Fu Panda 2.

Saturday we had a few friends over for a Star Wars birthday party.

Love you Sam! I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Just practicing

I took the kids to memory grove to practice using the manual mode of my camera. I didn't get many pictures. Holly was really upset with me so most of the pictures of her were solemn. But it was good practice anyway.

Pioneer Day parade with the neighborhood.

We moved into such a fun neighborhood. For pioneer day all of the kids dressed up as pioneers or in red white and blue. They decorated their bikes and went on parade. Afterwards we had a neighborhood picnic in the bishops yard.

Camping!

The kids and I went camping with Rob's family. Rob unfortunately was stuck home finishing writing Feedback. Christina came along to help me out. I couldn't have done it without her.
The kids all fished for the first time. Audrey and Ethan (cousins) actually caught a fish and there family ate it for breakfast the next day.
We had deer come to visit and squirrels that attacked whenever we ate. a few weeks later there were bears in our campgrounds. So glad we weren't there for that.
We had a huge rainstorm the second to last night and we got soaked. Christina the kids and I left a day early.


Holly fishing




Crafts that grandma Wells brought for the kids.




Playing games with Uncle Dan


The deer that ventured up to our campsite.

bedtime songs

Holly's request for a goodnight song.

"Something not too long but not too short. Not too soft but not too loud. Not too fast but not too slow."

. . . .

Sam's request for a goodnight song.

"Black-eyed Peas!"

(wearing a long blue night shirt and black winter gloves Sam headbangs while I sing. . . "I've got a feelin'. Woohoo. That tonight's gonna be a good night. That tonight's gonna be a good night. That tonight's gonna be a good good niiight."

Sam fills in: "Here we come. Here we go. We're gonna rock. . .pppparty everyday. pppparty everyday."

Nice!

Rob got a starred review from publishers weekly! Woohoo! So exciting! Here is a link to his blog about it.

Zoo and the Rueschs

Birgitte and the kids came to visit for a day. We had such a fun time. The Dinosaurs at the zoo were so great but being with friends was definitely the highlight.