Swim Lessons

Noah and Rachel started swimming lessons today out at Green Meadow Country Club - Kind of ironic, since that is where I learned to swim. Love that. =) Noah did very well. Elizabeth basically said he knows how to swim and will be doing fine, then will forget to do it and she would have to grab him. He needs to get a lot stronger at it. He also needs to learn to kick behind him and not under him. She said she plans to put some fins on him on Friday to see if that helps him with it. Rachel had her very first lesson/experience today. Elizabeth worked with her on blowing bubbles and kicking. She said she loved it - had a lot of fun even though she got water in her nose and that hurt a bit. They are both excited to go back and Rachel kept asking how soon Friday was?? =) I love that they are excited about learning to swim. Swimming was such a huge part of my growing up years. I would love to put them on the swim team when they get a little bigger. Kate was desperate to get to the baby pool. I had to wrestle with her for over an hour. She discovered how very much she loves the water at the splash pad (and even crawled in the shower with me this morning with her jammies on...). It will be interesting with her at the lessons. She is walking better and better now. So cute seeing her toddle around!

Finally...Time for the Splash Pad!! =)

We made our first trip to the splash pad about a week ago. The kids loved it as always, although it was a little odd to hear them say that they were cold... It was over 90 out there! Crazy. They did seem to have fun though when they were in the water. We met Renee and Alex and also Laura and Mekenzie there to play. Kate had her first testing of the shooting water and seemed to absolutely love it. She would crawl over to the water shooting up, sit there and play and play and play. Rachel enjoyed showing Kate the ropes and also playing with Mekenzie, while Noah enjoyed running through the water, shooting the water cannons, standing under the huge water bucket and playing with Alex. Good times.

Learning Tree Quilts

Rachel's preschool had each class put together a quilt to auction off to help raise money for their program. It was a silent auction and the quilts hung in the hall in the church for everyone to see. The quilts were just amazing! Each quilt came from one of the preschool classes and it incorporated all the kids hand (or foot) prints. There was a bee quilt, a sock monkey quilt, a turkey quilt, fireman quilt, and lots more! Rachel's class did a basic handprint quilt. They were all soooooo cute!! Look at the detail on some of these pieces!! Beautiful! You can click on each photo to see the details up close. My favorite's were the bee/sunflower quilt and the sock monkey quilt. =)

Predator's End of Season Soccer Party!

Noah had his end of season soccer party today at Gatti's Pizza. He had his last game this morning (which sadly, I missed due to being at the vet with our Phoebe-dee, so no photos). His team didn't win this morning, but the coach said it was probably one of their best games. All the kids played stronger than they ever had. The kids were all really excited to eat pizza, get awards and trophies and then eat cake. It was nice to see them all having fun together at the party. Noah has really enjoyed playing soccer this season and has improved a lot. He won two awards - Most Improved Kicker and also Player Who Gave 110% Effort. We were really proud of him this season and we're looking forward to watching him play this fall. Until then he has Soccer Camp at Maryville College in June followed by Basketball Camp the week after.

She took 11 steps this evening...

Kate has been trying hard all day to walk, walk, walk. She'll take a few steps, plop down, get back up, try again... She's a determined little thing!