Our summer (so far) in pictures

We've been having a great summer so far! I'm definitely enjoying the more relaxed days and not rushing from one thing to the next all day.  And I'm absolutely enjoying not having to wake Theodore up from his naps every day to pick people up from school!

Buttercup has started taking a new dance class, which she LOVES. She's the youngest in her class (as opposed to the other class, where she was one of the oldest) and she's learning a lot from the older girls. The girls are working on a cute tap routine for their summer recital, and the steps are definitely a lot more intricate than in her previous dance class -- but she's doing very well!




Buttercup loves for me to turn on the Swan Lake CD, and then she'll dance and dance in the living room. Sometimes she'll drag Oliver into it, too. She'll chase him around the house begging him to be her prince until he gives in. What a sweet big brother. :-)

Theodore also likes to dance, but mostly he likes to dress up. :-)


Another exciting thing that has happened this summer is that Oliver got his own library card! We went to the library last week (it's terrible how long it had been since I took the kids to the library, because Theodore + libraries = TROUBLE) and he was so excited to get his card.

Neatly signing his name:


Holding up his own library card! The librarian said he could check out 15 books at a time, and he ran off right away and immediately came back with 10 books all about snakes and dinosaurs. :-) 


In other Oliver news, his gymnastics coach asked him last week to join the level 4 boys' team! What's funny is that, after 6 months of appearing to be tired of gymnastics, I finally pinned him down and he decided that this was going to be his last month of gymnastics. So I canceled his lessons, and then 6 days later his coach asked him to join the team. Oliver said "YES!!" Ha ha ha ha ha. So now he's going to have gymnastics 4 hours a week instead of 1! 

Here are some other random summer pictures, enjoy!

Snowcone mustache!

Playing quietly (and mostly unsupervised) with Play Doh while I fixed lunches for the water park!

One of our many visits to Bull Creek:

Going to the "far away" children's museum:

Dr. Buttercup!

How can it be summer if there aren't any sweaty kids climbing trees? :-)

Running on the trail:

Riding the train downtown to the children's museum!

Jumping off the diving board:

And part of the reason for us having a great summer is that I've been bringing the kids to the Y childwatch a few times each week so I can get a good run in. Thankfully, they don't really seem to mind, and everyone is much happier when Mommy gets some exercise! Whoo hoo! :-)

Our garden!

We have a cute little garden now! Granddaddy gave us some plants and seeds, and Dennis (and Oliver!) built some raised beds for us to plant them in. 

It was a super hot, sunny day while they were working, so I set up the water table to help my big girl and baby boy cool off. :-)

Almost finished!

Taking a swing break from working so hard at the water table. :-)

A few days later, they filled in the beds and finished up the planting.

So nice!!! The empty-looking one in front is where Oliver planted his own squash and corn seeds. :-)

So far, we're been able to keep everything alive. Probably because we've been remembering to water, ha ha. Look at the cute baby watermelon!!

 And baby tomatoes! Yay for gardens!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my sweet hubby! This year I printed some "All About My Dad" pages that I found online and had Oliver and Buttercup fill them out. The results are adorable and hilarious!

Oliver's answers:
My dad's name is Dennis.
He is 33 years old and 6 and 3 in tall.
He has black hair and hazel eyes.
My dad likes to wear polo shirts and his favorite color is blue.
My dad likes to go to the Lego store and his car is a race car.
My dad's favorite sport is swimming and his favorite tv show is creepy ones.
He likes to cook eggs.
His favorite food is spaghetti.
His favorite drink is Sprite and his favorite dessert is cake.
My dad is the best at swimming.
My dad tries really hard to swim good. (Ha ha ha!!)
And he is so special to me because he loves me.

Buttercup's answers:
My dad's name is Daddy.
He is 10 years old and super tall. :-)
He has black hair and blue eyes.
My dad likes to wear clothes and his favorite color is orange. 
My dad likes to go to places, like Safari Champ (HA HA HA!) and his car is a putt-putt.
My dad's favorite sport is running and his favorite tv show is a grown up show.
He likes to cook hot dogs and weenies.
His favorite food is ice cream.
His favorite drink is lemonade and his favorite dessert is cake.
My dad is the best at being a daddy.
My dad tries really hard to help us get down from super high things. (HA HA HA HA HA HA!) and he is so special to me because he's my daddy and because I love him and because he likes eating popcorn. 

I love these!!! This is definitely going to become a new tradition. :-)  

Swim test

At the YMCAs in our area, kids have to stay within an arm's length of their parents until they pass the swim test (25 yards in the lap pool, without touching the bottom or sides of the pool). Buttercup has been ready to take the swim test since she turned 4, but the rule is that kids have to be 5 years old to take it. 

It wasn't such a big deal at first, but over the past 7 months she has grown more confident and capable in the water, and she has really, really, really been wanting to swim with Oliver in the lap pool. I've been taking Theodore and holding him in the lap pool while she swims, but he only wants to be in the shallow water where he can stand up and splash, or wade out until he's shoulder-deep and do his own "swimming."  So when we go swimming, either Buttercup is mad at me because she has to stay in the "baby water" with Theodore and me, or Theodore is mad because I have to take him in the lap pool to be close to Buttercup.

Well, that all changed this morning! We were at the Y and Oliver and Buttercup wanted to swim in the lap pool. I was near them in the shallow water with Theodore, but was definitely further than an arm's length away from Buttercup. She was swimming halfway down the lane and back, over and over again, and doing fine. The lifeguard asked me if she had on a swim bracelet (indicating that she had passed the swim test), and I said that she wasn't able to take it, because she was still 4. Then I asked if she could go ahead and take the test, since she was obviously doing just fine and not having any trouble keeping herself afloat. The guard watched her a little bit longer and said that if she was close enough to being 5, she could go ahead and take the test. I said she would be 5 in October, and the guard said that was good enough. :-)

So Miss B got to take the swim test this morning, and she rocked it! We are so proud of this big, big girl!!!

Wearing her new swim bracelet!!

Oliver was so excited that he now he has a constant companion for the lap pool and slides!!!

Not related to swimming, but these are pics from this morning -- the kids biked 4 miles while I ran next to them pushing Theodore in the stroller. :-)  They loved biking in their swimsuits!


Showing off their guns! 

Accidental garden

The kids have always loved to plant different things outside in the dirt.  When Oliver and Buttercup were younger, they would plant twigs, flowers, or whatever else they would find in the yard. (Of course, as they got older, they learned that leaves and sticks won't grow. ;-))  

After they started preschool, they would occasionally bring home a small pot with a seed that they planted at school, and we would remember to water it for a while, but would usually end up forgetting and the plant would die.  

One day last month, Oliver came home from school and told me all of the information he had learned about seeds and plants in the science lab that day. He asked if he could have some beans to plant outside, and I said, "sure!" I wasn't sure what would happen, but it wouldn't hurt anything to try. 

Well, wouldn't you know it? They sprouted!    

He planted them all by himself, in front of the kids' dirt pile. I just think it's really cute how he planted them in a (mostly) straight row. :-)  Great job, Oliver! Now we just have to remember to water them . . .  

Buttercup's garden picture

Buttercup drew this garden scene the other day. Didn't she do a great job?? She drew herself next to a rainbow plant, standing in tall grass. I love it!!

A sweet note of apology

One morning this week, I took the kids to play at Bull Creek with some friends. We had to leave earlier than our friends since Theodore was ready for a nap, and Buttercup and Oliver were both very disappointed that we had to leave "so early" (although we had been there for over 2 hours) and both chose to disobey me instead of walking to the car when I asked them to. 

When we finally were all in the car, I told them that, as a consequence, I would not take them to the farm the next morning like we had planned to do, and instead we would stay home all morning. Buttercup screamed the rest of the way home (of course) while Oliver silently pouted. When we got home, Oliver stopped me in the kitchen and said, "Mom, I'm going to write you an 'I'm sorry' letter and I'm going to use my best handwriting." 

After I had gotten Theodore and Buttercup down for their naps, I went to the table to check on Oliver, and he handed me this note:

It reads: "I am sorry for not obbeying [sic] you. Can you forgive me. Thank you for taking me. I shood [sic] have been a better listener."  

I love his neat handwriting, curlicue letters, and heart punctuation!! My sweet boy. :-)