The Gym

The kids started swimming lessons at the end of July.  They go every Saturday morning, and then they usually stay and swim a little after.  Michael also takes them during the week while I'm at work.  They usually go swimming on Tuesday nights and then sometimes they go other nights as well.  It's good exercise and it reinforces what they are learning.  Plus, it's just fun and it's something special that they get to do with Boppa.

But since they usually go while I'm at work, I don't get to see the progress they are making.  I happened to be off on a Thursday earlier this month, so we went to the gym so they could show off. :)

I got a picture while I was at MOMCON of Olivia climbing the rock wall.  She had wanted to do it for a while, but there are limited hours.  She finally got a chance and she loves it and wants to do it every time they go to the gym.

That is a look of pure joy, because previous to this night she had only climbed as high as the turtle (where her right foot is).  She was so proud of herself for moving past that!

She likes the "fall" down too, so she might have given up early a few times just to fall. ;)

I just kept calling out other animals I wanted her to try to get to.  One of our Bible lessons for school was "I don't quit.  I persevere."  I said the first part to her to encourage her.  She finished the quote and it pumped her up! She got to this point (or just past it) a few times.  I think she shocked everyone--including herself.  But she was so proud!

We went from the rock wall to swimming.

Olivia has been dying to show me how well she's doing.

And I wanted to get a few videos for their grandma

I had heard so many good things about a local swim school--but it was so expensive.  I heard some not so great things about taking lessons through the Rec, so I wanted to avoid that.  I hadn't heard too much about the gym, so I just wasn't sure how it would go.  It was the cheapest option out there for us, and it is the most convenient so we went for it.  I have to say, we have been so, so impressed and pleased with the progress our kids have made.  It has been the absolute best choice for us and for them!

Olivia's confidence has grown by leaps and bounds and she's no longer scared of the water.  Her progress has been slow and steady, and this past weekend she passed the 8 points she needed to. She moved up to the next class!

Logan is apparently the star of his class.  I'm not even lying when I say that when he started swim lessons 3 months ago, he had only been in the pool a handful of times and it was all the month or two right before that.  We just never had much opportunity the first two years of his life.  The teacher uses him as the example for every class and all of the other parents are just in awe and impressed.  I guess he's just a natural.  They've been talking about moving him to the 3 year old class (with no parent in the water) for awhile now.  The only thing that was holding him back was that he hates to float on his back.  Hates. It.  But after this last month's assessment they decided to move him on.  So even though he won't be 3 for 3 more months, they are going to move him on.

I'm so thankful that Michael's job pays for his membership to the gym, and that we are able to use it to help our kids grow and learn new things.

Landon's Birthday Party

About a month ago we went to our friend Landon's Birthday party.  We go to their house every other Sunday night for life group, and both of our kids just love the Taylor family!

These are the same friends who have a boat.  So Landon's favorite thing right now is to practice surfing, to go out on the boat, and to do anything in the water.  It's kind of hard to throw a surfing party in October.  Plus, they have a LOT of family and friends.  So they rented out the place where Landon takes swimming lessons.  It was perfect!

All kids 3 and under had to have a parent in the pool with them.  Then anyone who wanted to take a quick swim test could.  If you couldn't pass, you had to wear some type of floatie.  Olivia cannot swim the length of the pool alone, so both of ours were in puddle jumpers.  They are use to swimming with Michael without them, but they didn't mind too much.

They actually spent a lot of time going down a slide over and over.  Those pictures didn't turn out so well.  But here they are towards the end of the hour hitching a ride with Boppa.

The Birthday boy and his sweet Mama.  I didn't take a picture of all of the decor, but they had it looking super cute!

They even had a surfing photo area set up.  The kids thought this was great.

Happy Birthday, Landon!

The Little Mermaid (Children's Theater)

I have been wanting to take Olivia to the local children's theater for a while now.  I just think it's good exposure to the arts, but also I knew she would love it.  It hadn't worked out until recently.  I saw that they were doing The Little Mermaid and knew we had to go!

She had no idea what to expect.  She kept calling it a puppet show. Ha!  But she was excited non the less.

It was the perfect Mommy-daughter date!

She thought it was funny to keep folding herself up in her chair. :)

It was actually the Junior Theater, so the kids were ages 8 to 12.

In awe!

Sebastian was an 8 year old little girl, and she totally stole the show!  Her accent, her facial expressions, her body language, and her funny lines were all just so perfect.

The show was an hour an forty five minutes with a short intermission.  Of course Olivia got a little treat, which just made her night.

Tickets were only $10!!  We will definitely be back to see more shows.  Who knows?  Maybe Olivia will be on a similar stage some day.  It wouldn't surprise us one bit. ;)

Our little mermaid had a great night!

Trick or Treat 2016

We went ahead and went to the princesses for our trick or treating adventure again this year!

Logan started telling Elsa a story and Olivia was talking Sophia the First's ear off! :)

With Elsa (whose business it is)

Sophia the First

and Cinderella

checking out her glass slippers from her fairy godmother

It wasn't quite as decorated and big as last year, but the kids still loved it.

There are quite a few houses in the neighborhood that go all out.  So it's good for trick or treating because a lot of people participate.

and people just sit outside and pass out handfuls of candy

We were out for about an hour and a half.  Thankfully it wasn't quite as hot as it was suppose to be.

The kids loved the decorations, all of the fun costumes they saw other kids wearing, and of course their full buckets of candy.  Another fun memory in the books.

The Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary

We have a little science museum in our very town, and every year during the fall they have a dinosaur exhibit on one of their trails.  I went years ago as a nanny, but we hadn't taken the kids there.  We had dinosaur week earlier in the month for Kindergarten, so I thought this would be a fun little tie in.  So last weekend when the temps were just slightly cooler, we headed out to explore.

Olivia loved it!

Logan was friendly with this one, but he was actually pretty scared of the large ones that moved and made noises.  Which I had anticipated. :)

Of course the T-Rex was the favorite.

After the dinosaur trail, we spent some time in this little Heritage village.  Both of the kids loved this little area, and probably could have stayed much longer.  But it was getting warm and we wanted to see more.

We walked through a little animal sanctuary, and did about a half mile of another trail (there are multiple trails!) before Olivia started complaining of being tired.

So we headed back inside to cool off and check out all of the things inside.

 There were so many things that either went along with themes we already studied, or will go along with themes in the future!

We plan on getting a membership here as well!  Not only is it educational, but there are also so many trails to explore.  True, wooded trails like we are use to in Ohio.  Plus, when the kids get a little older they have homeschool classes that you can take as well!  It's so fun to have this only 10 minutes from our house!

Frisco Square and Pumpkin Carving

Well, of course I'm weeks behind in blogging. :)  But since it's Halloween, I thought I'd try to at least catch up with holiday related posts before moving on.

Our church had a pretty casual "you can wear your costumes to church" thing and everyone got a small treat bag... So this was on our way to church.  

We went round and round about what they would be.  Eventually Logan chose Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so Olivia decided to match him and be Izzy.  And then I was talking to a MOPS friend and she said she had a costume we could borrow, so we didn't even have to buy Logan's!

After a small lunch break at home, we headed to Frisco Square for their Halloween activities.  We've gone each year (that we've lived in town.)

Look at his face!  He was thrilled he could just pick out whatever he wanted. :)

One thing we learned was to show up when it starts!  It gets crazy busy.  We showed up about 10 minutes before it was suppose to start and got half of it conquered before the crowds got crazy.

Candy!

I don't know if we were in the right place at the right time, or if they had just gotten out there, but we stumbled on the princesses and there weren't any lines!  Olivia walked right up and told them she had been drawing them earlier in the day, and just started carrying on a conversation with them.  Look at Logan's face!  Ha ha!

We walked past this and Olivia asked for a picture. :/

We were there about an hour.  It was hot, and it had been a busy morning.  We were all ready for a break.  We got gas station icees to cool off, came home, and relaxed while watching a movie.

Then it was dinner time!  Since trick or treat is on a work night, I felt it might get rushed.  So I made our special dinner for us on Sunday.  We had mummy dogs, a ghost banana, pumpkin oranges, and some pumpkin peeps. :)

Her thrill and excitement always make it worth it!

After dinner, we carved our pumpkin.

Logan was not thrilled with the pumpkin guts.  It took some convincing, but he did finally try to dig some out.

Olivia did much better.

Another after season clearance find from last year-- we got these packs of luminaries for pennies!  So while Michael worked on carving, the kids put stickers on their luminaries.

The kids chose a cat out of the choices that we had.  

A cat pumpkin, skeletons, and luminaries...

It was a busy, but good day.  I love creating these fun memories with my little family.

We have princess trick or treating tonight, and then that wraps up our month of all things "spooooky".