SWIMMING

Shelby is learning how to float and even swim a little on her own this year and is loving every minute of her lessons. She asks to stay for open swim everyday too.










Tyler is swimming farther and better this summer already just after one session. He moved up from level 2 to level 3 after the first session. He even tried to swim with the flippers during open swim to help keep him afloat longer.

4TH OF JULY

For the 4th of July we were invited to a friend's house for dinner and fireworks. The kids have only seen firework shows we have never done fireworks ourselves so this was definately an experience. Tyler loved all of it. As he was holding a sparkler his words to me were "Mom, look I have fire." A little scary to hear!! Shelby wasn't too sure about having fire in her hands. Once they started the other fireworks the loud noises scared her and she just wanted to sit in my lap and cuddle under a blanket to keep warm and plug her ears. After about a half an hour Tyler sat down with us and asked "When are the fireworks going to start?" I couldn't help but laugh. I guess he was waiting for the sky show so we had to explain to him that what we were doing was fireworks. He seemed a little disappointed that there wouldn't be any big sky fireworks, but he got over it quickly and we enjoyed the rest of the evening.

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST 6 MONTHS

Tyler won second place in the Young Author's Contest this year for his book The Case of the Missing Dog.






Riding bikes...Tyler without training wheels for the first time and Shelby doing better at staying on the path.




Easter




Tyler's science fair project. He was trying to find out if lemon and lime juice could keep an apple from turning brown. He found out that lime juice kept apples from turning brown better than lemon juice, but that apples with lemon juice tasted better.




Shelby's dance recital. She danced to the song In the Merry Old Land of Oz. Her grampy and grammy brought her these beautiful roses after the show which she LOVED!!




Shelby's all finished with preschool and here she is with her preschool diploma. She is so excited about starting kindergarten in the fall!




Tyler turned 8 on June 20th. He had his party at Grampy and Grammy's house with a jumper again with 5 friends. This year we decided to have water balloon games which they loved, but I didn't get any pictures...bummer!




Thanks to many friends and family we were able to get season passes to Great America again this summer. Here we are getting ready to spend another fun day there.

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

It must be a new tradition for us to have someone sick for Christmas. This year it was Shelby. It was Christmas Eve and we actually had to take her to the doctors on the way to Grampy and Grammy's house because the night before she woke up with ear aches. She ended up having a double ear infection. Once on the medicine though she started getting better by Christmas day, but on Christmas Eve after opening presents she needed a little rest.


One of Tyler's favorite gifts this year which he had asked for many times was the Lego Castle.


He also got more Star War figures which he was excited about.


Shelby really wanted to get Pochantas because she was the last Princess she needed to complete her collection. It was in a package from Tyler, but Shelby was convinced that Grampy and Grammy had gotten it for her so when it was her turn to open she kept choosing from the pile from Grampy and Grammy. She kept getting disappointed when it wasn't Pochantas. So finally my mom said to me, "Can't she open that soon so she'll be excited about what she's getting from us!" So here she is opening Pochantas and saying "YES!"


Grampy and Grammy got Tyler a Sponge Bob bowling ball. In another post I will put the pictures from our bowling game with the new ball. They actually pulled off a little scheme to get Tyler to the bowling alley ahead of time to have him measured so his ball could have the holes drilled for him so he could bowl right away. Tyler had no idea.


One of Shelby's favorite gifts this year was her new cat which she has named Abby.



Another favorite gift for Shelby was her new doll house.


Here are Tyler's favorite gifts that he spent Christmas morning building.