Everyday, we are so thankful for great neighbors that enjoy our kids. The Smiths borrowed the blow-up from a friend so our kids could come over and play one day! And they loved it! When the water got too cold, the hot tub warmed them up until they were ready for another round on the slide! Thanks Cory for the great photos!

A Fairy's Dream...

Well, it only took 4 months from the time we started and almost two years since we have been in the house... but we got a room redone! The girls were so excited when we started their room. They really didn't want to lose the red shag (I knew that was the first to go!) but we talked them into a nice neutral color since we were using their two favorite colors on the walls - pink and purple. They got to help with the paint but unfortunately not with the wall paper. What a mess but it is done! Yeah!

more summer fun

More Summer Fun...The girls surprised me with a tea party for my birthday. It was so cute. They had everything ready: the cucumbers, goldfish, pretzels, fruit snacks and marshmallows (cubes of sugar for the "tea"). The girls had pop and of course they knew that I preferred "tea"-water. It was one of the best birthdays!

Swim lessons are still going great! Kaelsy is getting so good at putting her face in the water and doing her front and back floats. Her favorite thing to do now is swim under my legs and dive for diving rings! Ella knows exactly when it is time for her to get in the water. As soon as she hears the music and sees the water features come on, she is on a mission for the water. No stopping her. The other day I introduced her to a different part of the pool - the kiddie slide. She did not want to get off of it. Kyre took a break from the bigger kiddie slide to show Ella how it should really be done. What a kid. Teagan showed us her "no fear" attitude and went off the high dive. We missed her other attempts on a previous swim lesson but did not miss this one. She amazes us as they all do in such a wondrous way.

Summer has begun. Teagan and Kaelsy finished their first session of swim lessons and passed! But much to my encouragement, we will be putting them in the same level for second session. Kaelsy did awesome putting her face in the water and letting her instructor help her do her floats. Teagan is swimming like crazy now and even dived from a kneeling position in the deep end on the last day! Ella is loving the water, too. She loves getting sprayed and does not mind her splashing siblings at all. Thank goodness summer is finally here!

Kaelsy graduated from her first year at preschool this year! What a difference it has made in her social skills!

Brady and Kyre did the Father/Son Camping weekend. Kyre got an alligator on the way to the campsite after Brady had to pick up a few supplies at a small store and he would not put it down the whole trip. What a kid. Too bad Kyre got a pretty bad cough that cut the trip short. I think they had a lot of fun!

Birthdays. We have had a few. Teagan and Kyre got to do a combinded one this year. Kyre wanted Batman and Teagan wanted Rapunzel. I have to say that the cake turned out better than I thought it would. The kids loved it at least. Kyre had the Batman theme going with getting a new costume and Teagan got books and a new DS! The DS is something that she has wanted for over a year. It is a good thing that her dad is such a gamer and thank you Grandma for getting her other passion - reading taken care of. Poor Kaesly doesn't understand why Kyre and Teagan get to have a carnival every year for their birthday. There is one perk for being born around Memorial weekend...the rides at Spring Fest. And then Miss Ella turned 1! Poor girl being the last... got brownies for her birthday. She didn't seem to mind though. I was all tuckered out with end of school year stuff and it was all I had in me. Thank you Betty Crocker!

Soccer 2011 was a great one for the girls. It started out very cold for the first couple of weeks and then finally got warm for the last few weeks. Teagan is so competitive and all she wanted to do for the 8 weeks of soccer was to practice and practice! In fact, now that it is over, she still wants to practice. Kaelsy went from watching to actually getting in there and going after the ball! Well...until next year or if Brady gets his way, until fall...