Lunchtime!

The big kids are constantly arguing over who gets to sit next to Hudson at meal times.  But his high chair doesn't pull up to the table. Hudson is already crawling up the chairs (we have a tall table), so I decided to try out his Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair as a booster instead of a high chair.  And the verdict is in - he loves it.  And so do the big kids!

I was a little worried about his plate ending up on the floor - but the plate and the food survived the meal!

Brave

On Monday Brian and I took the two big kids to see Brave.  I think I might have been more excited about going to see it than the kids were.  They love going to the movies, but we don't really watch channels with commercials (thank goodness), so they didn't know much about the movie!

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I did my research ahead of time, so I knew to be prepared for some of the scary parts, as well at the main "premise" of the movie.  I'm glad that I was prepared because while Wyatt doesn't get too scared, we were prepared in case Reese got a little spooked when she saw the bears!  The kids arranged the seating on  the way to the movie so that Reese was next to Daddy and Wyatt was in the middle of Brian and I!

Before the movie.  The flash on Brian's iPhone flatters no one :)

The kids really seemed to like like it.  They had a lot of questions, but fortunately we were 4 of 9 people in the theater, and  no one else seemed bothered by their quiet voices asking questions.  It wasn't my favorite Disney Pixar movie of all time, but I liked the message of the movie, and I also liked that Merida was a Princess who didn't need a boy to save her :).  I'm actually excited that she'll be amongst the Disney Princesses when we go back to Disney World!

Swim Lessons: Week 2!

Last week was our second week of swim lessons.  Wyatt had a great week!  He didn't pass Station 6, but he's getting closer!  Because our swim lessons are through a local swim team, they expect them to actually do their strokes perfectly when they start learning, and Wyatt is currently learning the Breaststroke, the Modified Crawl, and the backstroke!  I can see his improvement every day when he's in their swimming, so hopefully he'll be able to move on to Station 7 soon!

Reese is....still not able to open her eyes under water.  She goes under by herself, she holds her breath and blows out, and she blows bubbles.  But she is scared of opening her eyes, and won't do it with me, to search for rings...anything.  That's the one thing that's really frustrating.  She can't move onto the part where she actually learns safety skills until she opens her eyes!

But she is having fun!

And so is he!

Every one's favorite part of swim lessons is jump time at the end!  Especially this guy!

There's also an excellent article in August's Parents Magazine about the dangers of swimming.  It was an eye opening read, even for me!  It was written by a pediatrician who lost a patient to drowning. Because of Brian's job, swimming and pool safety is something that we're extra cautious about, but it's definitely important to remember that you can never feel too confident in your children's swimming ability and that you have to stay vigilant near water!

iPurge

I haven't done a phone purge in awhile, and the reason for that is pretty simple.  My 3GS died and few weeks ago and I'm using a "loaner" 3G until I'm eligible for my free upgrade in October.  The result is a slow camera and a slow phone that I just don't feel like dealing with most of the time! 

I've taken these over the last few weeks to send to Brian at work during the day.  It's a good way of keeping him "updated" throughout our days!

I am on a cleaning and organizing spree right now (Wyatt and Reese's closets and rooms are done, and so is my pantry).  I'm working on my bathroom and closet this weekend.  But I digress.  When Reese and I were in her room, she mentioned that she wants a new dollhouse for Christmas.  I know which one she wants because I totally want to get it for her, but I told her that she needs to clean up her small one and keep it clean before I'll think about it.  When she went to put everything away, this is where she put the Daddy! Ha!

I also cleaned out our filing cabinet a few weeks ago, and I came across Noelle's original papers.  We've talked about getting her certified pedigree for a long time, so I finally went ahead and ordered it that day!  Love it!  I've been trying to do some research on her line so that when the time comes for us to get a family dog, we might be able to find a "relative."

Last weekend Wyatt chose Jack Hanna as his Saturday morning show, and Reesie chose "I Love Lucy."  She thought it was funny, but Wyatt kept talking about Desi smoking.  He was basically waiting for him to drop dead on TV, because that's what he thinks happens when you smoke!

The kids love their dry erase boards.  Wyatt drew this picture of our family the other day, including his baby sister!

Wyatt was a really good boy yesterday, so after I put them all to bed I ended up sneaking him out to watch the first 3 innings of the Yankees/Red Sox game with me!  He was very, very, very excited!  This kid knows how to give a play-by-play, too!  I was in my bathroom cleaning the counters, and he ran in and said, "Mommy, A Rod hit a pop up to outfield that got caught, but Curtis Granderson tagged up and scored a run!"  When I asked how Curtis Granderson got on base he said, "He hit a double Mom."

Good thing he got in his high def baseball last night, because this is what my TV looks like today.  See that crack?  That's the smaller of the two. Hudson decided to channel his inner-rock star in a hotel room and beat up my TV with his Elmo guitar.  It actually wasn't a hard hit, but it cracked this Samsung!  Of course, this TV is basically brand new (we got it last summer for free after our really old TV went out), so I called Brian in hysterics.  He is dealing with the Geek Squad for me, and hopefully they will fix it soon!  Brian thinks we might just need a new screen.

After the TV went out on a 100 degree day, I busted out the play dough (I feel like I am using every trick in the book to keep them entertained when we're stuck inside).  They discussed what they were going to build, and Wyatt and Reese agreed on an aquarium.  Here is Wyatt with the Mommy and Daddy turtle and all their eggs!

And Reese with her "magical seahorse."  She made a sting ray, a crocodile and a fish.  But she spent more time telling me their "stories" than she did on the construction of them!  Ha!

The Zoo

We went to the zoo on Monday morning after swim lessons.  Even though it was Brian's day off, we didn't have any plans.  After lessons we realized that we had everything we needed for a trip to the zoo, so off we went!

Brian stopped in the gift shop with the kids to take out cash and to get some water, and while he was in there, the "Daddy, can I please have...." started.  The kids are actually really good about not asking, but they like to look at everything, and I think that with Brian's schedule right now it's a little hard for him to say no!  Ha!  Fortunately Reese wanted $1 sunglasses, and Wyatt requested a $6 safari hat, so we didn't break the bank!

Posing together by the tigers and showing off their new "toys!"

They were so good to each other all day.  I love the moments when they're loving and kind and sweet and helpful to each other. It almost makes all those other "moments" worth it!

Wyatt was a big fan of getting his picture taken with his hat on.  Reese told him that he looked just like Jack Hanna!  Ha!

These bears were so funny trying to climb into their hammock!

Hudson got out of his stroller for a little bit (it's not so easy to manage all three running around!), and he had a great time watching the bears!

Reesie always likes to pretend she's an otter!  Always!

Hudson also got a kick out of watching the otters and the gibbons.  He has started paying attention to Zaboomafoo on TV lately, and he likes to shout the animals that he knows and what they say!

We had never seen the tigers in the water before, and this guy was trying his best to get on this ball!  He would get on and fall off, and then get back on!

She is a Daddy's girl for sure!  I was so happy that she wore the hat all day, and was patient while I reapplied sunblock!  I always feel so proud of  myself when I spend a day in the sun with her and she doesn't look red anywhere.

The monitor lizard was right up against the window, so they were busy checking it out!

After we walked through the Asian and African exhibits, I was spent.  Wyatt really wanted to go to the barnyard and to look at the snakes, but there was no way I could make it there!  The snakes would have been fine because it's air conditioned in there, but just walking there might have killed me.  We had their swimsuits from their lessons, so we changed them and let them play in the splash area of the zoo!  We don't do it very often, but it was hot and we were prepared, so we figured we should let them. 

They were actually super cute because they were pointing out empty fountains to each other and running around together (even as we shouted, "no running!").  I'm so excited that Hudson is going to have a little sister to have fun with, too! 

Our Fourth!

We had a low key holiday this year!  We woke up and cleaned (the playroom mostly - it gets super messy now that Hudson is dumping toy bins all day), and then I eased them into their routines early.  Early lunch and early quiet time!

After everyone woke up (or really, after H woke up and the big kids were allowed to leave their rooms) we got everyone packed up to head to my Mom and Dad's house for swimming!

Wyatt and Reese LOVE to swim, but Hudson has been taking his sweet time warming up to the pool this year!  He wasn't very interested in it until last week when he walked over to the pool and wanted to stick his foot in.  From that moment on, it's been all he wants to do there!

The big kids had fun jumping off the diving board and swimming.  I let Wyatt take two jumps without his life jacket.  I waited to catch him, but he actually did a great job swimming to the ladder by himself!

We had BLT's and pasta salad for dinner and the kids got bathed and in their jammies.  They were wiped from a long day of being in the sun and playing.  Once we got home I agreed to let them watch one show on TV, but they were really out of sorts so everyone went to bed!  I guess the benefit of no naps is a 7:00 bedtime! Ha!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday, America!  We painted these American Flags yesterday (yes, the stripe count is off, and Reese decided hand prints were more fun than actually painting stripes), and the kids had SO much fun!  After they painted the flags, Wyatt asked if he could "paint an ugly picture to send to the King."  Ha!  Can you tell we've been talking about Independence Day lately?

We are going to have an early lunch and early naps and then head over to Didi and Pop Pop's house to swim and have fun this afternoon!  No fireworks for us - we have some scaredy cats around here!

And for fun - here are two 4th of July preschool activities that we've been working on lately!

Source: childcarelounge.com via Brittney on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Brittney on Pinterest