4th of July

Our kid are finally old enough to know when they're missing out on stuff. Like the 4th of July. They may no understand why its supposed to be a fun day (although I think Allison's could probably tell you its America's Birthday), but they know that when the calendar says July 4th fireworks happen and they do NOT want to miss out.


Last year was our first foray into large-crowd, after-bedtime activities. We watched fireworks at the lake with lots of friends, but we decided then that this year we'd be going to the baseball game to get our fireworks fix (they post-game fireworks started 45 minutes earlier than the big show across the lake!).

As luck would have it, there was a carnival going on at the ball park too! Talk about kid heaven. We even let them go on rides for the first time ever (our kids are totally deprived). They had a blast. Carter was in LOVE with the "Wild Hogs" motorcycle ride. Big surprise...

The game and fireworks were fun too, but by that time we were 3 hours past our normal bedtime, and Carter decided that the fireworks were scary. In his defense, they shoot them off right behind the outfield wall, so they are very close and very loud. And in my defense, I was totally prepared with ear plugs for the kids. Carter just decided that they were still too loud, so he sat on my lap, crying, with me covering his ears through the whole fireworks show. The joys of tired kids... :)

Tired, calm, slightly grumpy and bored Carter...

Wired and silly Allison. I made her top the night before. She drew this picture of her wearing a flag dress a few days before the 4th and I couldn't get it out of my head. I didn't get enough fabric, so it became a top, but I thought it turned out so cute. :)

Busy Lindsey.

Swim Lessons

Allison and Carter have been in swimming lessons consistently for over a year. Its 8 weeks on, 1 or 2 weeks off year-round. In my mind, learning to swim is not a choice. My kid WILL learn to swim well enough to be able to survive a normal water situation. That means, bare minimum, being able to dog paddle to an edge/shore and knowing how to tread water. With Allison, we are finally making progress!

This was about a month ago, in the deep end, actually really truly swimming on her own! She needs to get more efficient, so that she can swim farther, faster and longer, but she's swimming!