It's Getting Hot in Here

We had a fun week - with both my dad and my husband gone, my mom and I have been looking for ways to entertain the kids with out exhausting ourselves too much.  The kids would spend all day, every day in the pool if we would let them - but I am not willing to go unless James is napping - at least not with out more adults to help out.  So the kids were determined to practice their swimming lesson stuff.  They are doing really well - they are becoming little fish.  Eileen and Anna are very comfortable and pretty independent now - Aaron and Evie still need close watching, but they are getting more confident - I just worry now about them being too confident.  Eileen can now dive in and swim across my parent's pool (which isn't all that long - but still a decent distance)  And Anna can kick her way across the whole pool in stream line position.  Aaron is great at putting his head in the water and is starting to kick and doggy paddle, and Evie is loving blowing bubbles.  They also all like the one on one time with Grandpa.  

Tuesday we went to Lori's house - It's amazing how with close friends, time and distance apart doesn't create weirdness - it just gives you more to talk about when you get together.  The kids all had a blast too - they all got along well and had fun running amok in the toy room.  :)  

Wednesday Sandi dropped off Taz for us to watch.  He's a sweet happy boy - but he is at that age where he wants to see everything, touch everything, and put everything in his mouth.  He is adorable - but busy!  I think he really liked having the older kids to play with and they liked helping 'take care' of him!  We had fun blowing bubbles and playing together.  

Thursday the kids and I met Sandi and Taz and went to the sprinkler park - i meant to take pictures - but I was too busy trying to keep James from over heating..... the kids had a blast though - when James is just a bit older places like that will be great - but it was too hot to be in the sun and dry - and he was too little to be able to get wet.... :(

My dad got back into town on Friday night, and he had fun looking for projects to do with the kids - he got some wooden toys to build with them (those are still in progress)  They included sanding and painting and gluing (all a bit advanced for Evie and Aaron) - we got through the sanding and some painting

Sunday morning - Dad made a volcano for them - they loved watching it erupt!!  The experiment only ended when my parents ran out of vinegar!

James is now officially rolling over - he has done it plenty of times before - but as of today - he is rolling in both directions and doing so consistently.  We also discovered that he can sit up all by himself - he falls over once in awhile - but he mostly doesn't need support to stay up.  Of course, Evie likes to help him anyway!  

Texas Fun

We've been keeping busy this week - Dan has been around - but ended up having to spend a lot of his time here working.  He realized that another company that they compete against have 8 people doing what he does - and that doesn't include all the travelling!  So he figures he is pretty awesome!  (and he's right)  We got to spend some time out wake boarding and tubing on the boat (and getting sore!!)  and we spent a bunch of time out in the pool - the kids swimming lessons are going really well - now the only problem is that they want to spend all day, every day out in the pool practicing!  

We went to the zoo with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Sandi and Taz.  The kids had a blast and tired out the grown ups good!  We started out with the carousel.  Evie was so excited to ride a monkey (really it was a gorilla, but she didn't know the difference) 

Eileen and Anna love feeding the birds - it's one of their favorites and we try to hit it every time we go.  The worst part is trying to get them out when their food is gone.  :)    

It was funny, this little penguin was happy to swim around and pose for us.  

And of course the kids HAD to climb on every statue they saw.  This one was outside the Giants of the Savannah exhibit.  When looking at the elephants (they were a little ways away) we were trying to point them out to Aaron and he kept saying that he couldn't see them - when we finally got him to see them, he said "Oh!  I thought those were rocks!!"  

We had some of our local friends over for grilling and swimming.  The kids had tons of fun with their friends and we had a great time too!  We love our home in Colorado - but we still miss our good friends in Texas!

Dan took off this morning for another trip, but before he left, we did his special Father's Day breakfast.  I had the kids fill out little things with questions about their dad and grandpa.  Aaron claims that Daddy is 1 year old.  Anna said that it makes daddy happy when she does nice things.  Evie had a general theme to her answers - she was quite concerned about Dan going on his trip - because most of her answer were about that.  Eileen said that Grandpa knows a lot because he knows how to swim.  Their answers were pretty amusing.  We will miss him, but at least we have Grandma to help out and a pool to entertain while he's gone.

Texas Here We Come

Ummm - so I lost a week somewhere.... Last week - the kids were off school and so we went up to the cabin for a few days and got to spend time with Frank and Tina and Grandpa and Aunt Joan.  The kids loved playing up there.  They had lots of fun with cousins and Great Grandpa.

Grandpa took us up Mosquito Pass in the truck.  The girls really enjoyed climbing "boulders" and going over the bumpy road.  The weather was beautiful, if a little windy, and the kids would have been great if they had remembered sweaters - I finally went to a small thrift store in Fairplay and found some cheap sweaters for them.

Grandpa brought up a bunch of pictures from when he was young and when my mom was young.  It was a lot of fun looking through them and seeing pictures of relatives that i know and knew and seeing them when they were my age.  My grandparents were good looking people!!  And it's fun to see them as a young married couple.

After the cabin, we went down for my choir stuff and to get ready for Texas.  The older 4 kids spent a couple days with Aunt Tina to help me get stuff ready (it's amazing how much more I can get done with just one kid), then on Friday and Saturday I had my choir concerts.  The kids came with Frank and Tina to the Saturday concert - this is the first time they have been to one of my concerts - I think they enjoyed it - the whole concert was aimed at kids and was full of fun stuff.

On Monday we headed down to Texas, we made good time and were able to make the trip in one day.  The trip was mostly painless - and the kids were really good.  Tuesday we slept in a bit and then spent some time playing in the pool.  The kids had a blast.

James got to try his first solid meal - with both mommy and grandma putting food in his mouth and restraining him he really did well - he even kept most of it down!  

Sandi and Taz came over and played in the pool with us - Taz is at that rough age where he is so excited to be in the pool - and too wiggly to restrain, but is totally fearless - so before long, Sandi decided it was nap time for him. The kids loved having him around (as long as they kept their hair away from his chubby little fists!) and loved playing with Sandi in the pool  

On Friday night my dad got back and on Saturday morning Dan got in.  So we spent the afternoon in the pool again.  My dad is giving swim lessons to the kids - Eileen and Anna are really excited and are learning fast.  Aaron is a bit cautious but enjoys the time.  Evie is really a bit young to do more than try to stick her face in the water - but she scared us all by trying to copy her big sisters!  Thankfully she did nothing worse than scare us and scare herself - we caught her quickly!  Now we are looking forward to some time together and some time with Dan - the kids have really missed him (well, for that matter, so have I!!!!) and they are so glad to have him back!