Cuteness

Today I was looking at some letters with Olivia. She knows the majority of her capital letters, but we've never really looked at lower case letters. I showed her a "b" today and asked her what it was. Her answer, "a up-side-down P." Of course being her mom, I thought it was cute.

Cherry Picking 2009

These are just such lovely shots of myself that I am so happy to post them...but it's for the journal you know. We went cherry picking at a farm in Mattawan with our friends Derek and Alicia. We didn't get many pictures, but the kids, especially Luke had a blast picking cherries. Luke didn't "need" the ladders. He was in it for climbing the trees. He did pick a bunch of cherries.

Olivia was mainly into running around, needing to go potty, and getting injured. Olivia at one point was running with so much joy to come and give me a hug. She didn't see the bucket I was wearing (I'm not sure how she could miss it), and ran smack into it. She hit her open mouth pretty hard, I was scared we would have a loose or missing tooth, but luckily it was just blood.

That left Ryan to pretty much pick by himself. We got around 20 pounds. I've never put up cherries before, I remember when my mom would bottle them, but I can't remember if I liked them, so we decided to just freeze them.

When we got home, I was washing the cherries and Olivia pulled up a chair and helped for a good 30 minutes. I made her take off her shirt so she wouldn't stain it with the cherry juice. She had so much fun, and she actually was very helpful.

Swimming Lessons 2009

The kids are all set and ready to go. We found some GREAT lessons at Brittany's Swim School. The kids loved being there, and it was so nice, because they accept 3 years old. Even though Olivia is a month and a half shy of 3 they let her attend. They both loved it, and I loved it because of the great progress the kids made.

Luke was in level 4 and he did a great job. I can't believe how well he is swimming. He is our fish.

These are the bars they used to help the kids practice their form when swimming.

Above is Luke doing an awesome backstroke!

Below he is doing the freestyle. Look at how far he's getting his arms out of the water!

Of course there's always time for free time. Luke was a diving fool. He was constantly running and diving off the diving board. The teachers were amazed he was diving every time he got on the board. Of course I could never catch a dive on camera, but his very last jump I was able to catch his silly fall (done on purpose) off the diving board.

They also had a slide that was fun to go down.

Olivia was in the level 1 class and she loved it. On the cold days, I tried to convince her not to get in the pool, but she insisted that it was her turn and wanted to go in. There were 10 kids in her class and 4-5 teachers. She loved almost all of them, but there was one she didn't want to do anything for. For Miss Brittany though, she would do anything. She felt very comfortable with her.

Above the kids are doing their Ring around the rosies. Instead of "all fall down" they would pick to do things like "stick our ears in the water, put our hair in the water, go under," or other fun things to get them ready to swim.
Here Olivia is sticking her face in for her friend Brittany

Livvy didn't really enjoy jumping into the water, but she did to show Dad how big she was when he came to watch.

Livvy was so proud to jump off the diving board. You'll notice that she really was thrown off, but she thought that was good enough. We were all so proud of her for doing it.

At the wall they would do Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, and they would help them "fall" into the water.

Brrr, a few of the days we had swimming lessons the temperature was in the low 60's. Luckily even though it was so cold outside, the pool was heated up to 88 degrees. It was the only way the kids didn't turn into Popsicles.

We loved swimming lessons here, and hope to return again next year. The kids want to go again after our trip.

World's Largest Breakfast Table

For those of you who don't know Battle Creek, which is just up the road from us is the Cereal Capital of the World. Kellogg's is there. What more needs to be said?

Each year there is the World's Largest Breakfast Table where you can go and enjoy free cereal, juice and bananas. I'm really not sure who hosts it each year, there are a number of cereals that are served. This year it almost wasn't held because of the lovely economy, but area merchants stepped up and sponsored it so the show could go on.

We were able to go this year. It was fun, there were a ton of people there enjoying free breakfast, and the kids loved to see the characters up and down the streets. Luke liked the live bands that were playing. We were only able to get a couple of pictures...silly Mom forgot the camera, but luckily Dad came through with his phone.

And yes, I do have a black eye, the fun of soccer.

Summertime

"Oh we're very very busy and we've got a lot to do and we don't have a minute to explain it all to you, for on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday there are people we must see. And on Wednesday, Thursday Friday we're as busy as can be."
I think that's how the words go to a Sandra Boynton song on our Philadelphia Chickens CD we own. I think this song and the book, "If you give a Moose a Muffin" describe my life all too well.
So I keep thinking I'm going to take the time to blog, but I get sidetracked and busy, and then when I have down time, I'm just relaxing. Never say that you think that next week you'll have more time, because it's amazing how those simple words can come back and bite you. :)
So anyway, I can't wait to blog about swimming lessons, and our fun summer activities and our upcoming trips, but they'll wait- just like my laundry (although that does get to the point of needing to get done).
How's your summer going?