1st Grade - watch out - here comes Anna!

Today Anna starts the 1st Grade.  Wasn't it just two days ago that she started kindergarten?  And wasn't it last week that we were taking her home from the hospital?  Our sweet baby girly is growing up right before our very eyes!  

Much like last year, Anna continues to love reading and this year she wants to become a writer when she grows up.  She is going to write about horses when she grows up, and when she turns 50 she want to start riding them.  

Anna in her classroom!

 And waiting for school to start, being silly with a classmate.  (and squinting in the sun)

Olivier's video

The boys played with digital cameras tonight and Olivier was taking videos of himself (he was making a horrible screeching sound at one point, I will spare you that).  I did manage to get a clip of him watching the video he took of himself.  Love the laugh and our silly boy!  

Happy Birthday Rhys!

I still can't believe it has been three years since you have gone from this sweet bundle of joy...

To this silly three year old!  

 Happy 3rd Birthday Rhys!  We love you, we love you!

Mason loves cherries...

Can you tell?  :-)

Swim lessons

The kids started swim lesson on July 7th and at the end of the first week the boys seemed to be making some progress (mainly with bravery) but no significant difference from the prior years (yes, we are on year three of swim lessons during the summer).  

Well, at the end of week one and the first two days of week two, things started to "click", especially for Anna!  She really went out there and tried and look at her swim!  Yes, swim!  With her face in the water and all!  Very exciting!  She still is working on breathing but she is getting the first major step!  Yeah!  I am very excited about it!

The boys have discovered the fun of jumping off the diving boards.  No fancy jumps but great to see them have the courage to do it!  Mason had a great time!

As did Olivier!  On Olivier's second time around he did a cannon ball!  And almost all we have heard about it since is how Tim (their coach) caught him by the ankle instead of grabbing his arm.  :-)

And Olivier who is willing to try anything went for jump off the high diving board today!  His coach didn't think he would actually do it but surprise surprise in jumped Olivier!  

4th of July Fun!

Today we went down to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa and visit Great Grandma Pauline.  She was so very excited to see the kids and was very surprised.  And I think they had a good time visiting with her, and seeing all the birds in the aviary!  

 One of the boys took this photo with my camera of Great Grandma and Grandpa.  It turned out great!

 Just before dinner we went outside and let the kids do a few sparklers.  I think Anna did one and then she got too scared.  Poor kid!  She did lead a game of musical chairs later on that was cute to watch.

 Olivier didn't mind but often just stood there and watched until the sparkler went out.

 Mason was full of smiles!

 While we were waiting for it to get a bit darker, Olivier decided to put on Matt's hat and sunglasses.  Very silly, especially since I can still see one of his eyes!

 I didn't get too many photos from the rest of our fireworks but I did get this awesome one of my mom with a sparkler.  The boys let her have the last one.  So cool!

Anna stayed outside for one firework and then stayed inside and watched.  :-)  Safer there!

Pre 4th of July fireworks!

Tonight we went to a local fireworks show at the end of a baseball game.  We didn't go to the game, just for the fireworks!  And maybe that was a good thing, the Blues (our local team) won 17-2 which likely would have made for a rather boring game.  

It was the first show the kids have ever seen.  It started out great.  I took a few photos, this being one of the better ones.  

And I took a short video:

After that, well, Anna didn't do so well.  She continued to insist that we "had" to go home and she was scared we were going to catch on fire.  She also didn't like the loud noise.  And to think I was worried about Olivier!  You can hear her in this video.

After, we asked the kids who liked the fireworks.  Mason is the only one who said he did.  Well at least one like it!