splish splash!

the kids and i met up with some friends at a little water park this week... i am thankful that we chose the ONE day this week that it did not rain! this park is the perfect size to let the kids play while the moms sit and chat. this may very well be the only moment that my kids were standing still all day...


the kids loved playing with lily, jake, and grace. it was so crazy bright... they really were having fun, i promise!


lily is right in between amelia and caroline's ages, so she is the perfect playmate for the girls. jake and grace are who my kids think of when they think about getting older... you know, like when you say, "you can do that when you're older"... my kids will say, "when we're jake and grace's age?" they are such an example of servant-hearted teenagers and always show great care in talking to my children, so i have no problem with the fact that my kids think they are the best thing ever! this little water park is not exactly geared toward teenagers, but jake and grace were super sweet and played with my kids or sat with hallie so i could get in the water a little bit.

so speaking of my kids looking up to jake and grace... when we got to the water park, jake asked me if ethan would go down the big water slide. i laughed (ethan was not around) and said, "i'll give you $10 if ethan goes down that slide." (his mom quickly told him he would not take any money from me.) i told jake there was no way ethan would go down that thing. well... 5 minutes later, ethan and jake come walking up, and ethan is ready to go down the slide! it only took his favorite teenage boy bribing him with $5...


once he'd climbed the stairs and headed into the slide, it seemed like forever before he emerged at the other end! and emerged is the best word... he didn't fly out or come swooshing down.... he came out verrrrrry slowly! he scooted to the edge of the slide and plopped in the water. it was very anticlimactic, but if he was happy, i was happy! (this picture must be from a later trip down because he's going a lot faster here.)


ethan loved the slide and went down it over and over, eventually figuring out how to go faster and faster. i reminded him that he was not getting $5 for every trip down that slide!


thank you, jake, for encouraging ethan to try something new! he was so glad that he did!


while everybody else was splashin' around, hallie slept in the breezy shaded picnic area. i brought her out in the sun to get a quick picture, and woooweee, was it bright! i bought this little sundress at a consignment store when caroline was a newborn, knowing that she'd probably never wear it (she was a november baby). i was right. then amelia was born in january. nope. she didn't wear it either. finally, this summer baby gets to wear the little dress just made for a trip to the pool! (and wow, doesn't amelia look gigantic?)


isn't it a sweet lil' dress? and hallie says, "enough already... get me back in the shade, please!"


i really didn't take a lot of pictures of the kids playing because they were on the move the whole day... and when i wasn't feeding hallie or reapplying sunscreen or getting amelia another snack, i was enjoying every moment of visiting with my sweet friend, dawn!

after dawn and her kids left, we stayed a little bit longer, and caroline made a new friend (which she was hoping to do that day, she told me on the way out there). this girl can strike up a conversation with just about anybody, and before you know it, she has a new friend!


i hated to make caroline leave right as they were starting to play together, but i wanted to make it to sonic before happy hour ended. the kids could've stayed until closing, but the minute i mentioned sonic, they were fine with calling it a day.

this was before the sonic sugar rush...


and this is after!


"wook! my tongue is bwwwue!"

the beach: my favorite field trip

the thought of september immediately conjures up images of backpacks, notebook paper, and pencils. (i would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if i knew your name and address...) we have begun our school year here at home as well, and i will most definitely be sharing more about that later. (later as in next week or as in next year... we'll see!) thanks to the lingering warm temperatures that are a trademark of living in the south, we still have the beach on our mind in september! we finished our school week last week with a great field trip to the surf and the sand. because it's been a few months since our last visit there, this was amelia's first time ever to walk on the beach! she was more perplexed by walking in the sand that i thought she'd be, and i enjoyed watching her take each deliberate step.


my favorite pictures from this day are these of all three of my babies. i think these are the first i have of all of them together at the beach. amelia is getting way too old too fast.


look at amelia in this next one. she has a lollipop for the first time (i think), and she knows she has arrived. i love how she is looking at ethan to say, "i got one too!"


she seriously giggled the whole time she gripped that lollipop stick...


ethan found a comfy spot to watch the storm brewing on the horizon.


after the kids finished their lollipops, they discovered that the sticks made great writing tools! i was tickled at ethan, who tried his best to get close to the sand without really getting close to the sand.


the beach spreads for miles and miles, and these cousins chose to draw on spaces less than 3 inches away from each other.


aaaaaand i'm not surprised....


in no time, the three cousins were happily frolicking in the water. we spent lots of time in the waves this day... the kids brought their boogie boards and had a ball!


when the thunder grew louder and the skies darker, we decided it was time to head home. we had no sooner gotten the van packed, the kids showered, and everybody loaded up when the rain came.


it has not rained a single day in september, and it would come down on the day we decide to go to the beach! but the looming clouds were a welcome relief from the sun, and we enjoyed our not-so-sweltering day. the temperatures are beginning to signal that it is sort-of-kind-of fall, but i'm hoping we can get back out there before we break out the pumpkins and candy corn!

just keep swimming... just keep swimming!

before the summer gets too far away from us, i have to share ethan's swimming breakthrough! a month or so ago, i bought the kids their own lifejacket floaties, called puddle jumpers. cousin karina and all her cousins on the other side of her family had them, and i'd seen the kids use them all summer, swimming away... meanwhile, my kids were in their humongo floats way too far above the surface of the water. not exactly encouraging swimming! it finally hit me that ethan and caroline would benefit from the same floaties! i was so happy to find them easily at target, and the next day, we joined the crew for a day of swimming! couldn't this picture be an advertisement for puddle jumpers?!

the swimming epidemic all started with karina learning to swim (in no time) from her momma. look at this little fishy go after just a couple of lessons! to say that i was one proud aunt would be quite the understatement.


well. ethan was not going to be showed up by his younger cousin. his exact words were, "a three year old?! swimming?! so with just a little prodding by aunt kristie and mommy, ethan was swimming with his face underwater. success #1!


he was on a roll, so why not jump off the diving board!? success #2!


and before i knew it, my boy was swimming to and from aunt kristie with no help! success #3!


this day was a busy one in the pool! ethan has loved swimming with his friends and cousin!


i am so happy to say that ethan is completely comfortable in the water and with his face underwater... so pretty much these days, this is all i see of ethan in the pool...


unless he's asking me to watch him go to the bottom (of the shallow end) to get a dive stick or to jump off the side doing some silly trick. he is loving it. and i'm loving that he's loving it.


after we took the pictures on the diving board, we told the kids they could jump in one at a time. so here they go! it started off with two year old ishen, who shows no fear...


annnnd caroline causes the traffic jam.


she has no desire to go underwater, though she is getting more comfortable jumping off the side of the pool in her puddle jumper. she will do it a couple of times per visit to the pool, but then she's content to swim around in her floaties and play on the steps. a few weeks ago, she jumped into the pool and went all the way to the bottom (shallow end) before coming back up. her eyes were HUGE when she came up, but she was excited that she touched the bottom! so that is major, major progress. she'll be swimming next summer. i'm not too worried about it right now. caroline also spends half of our pool time snacking...


i'm hoping to get amelia used to going underwater at a young age... here she is with aunt kristie for her first time "swimming"... after i snapped this picture, kristie took amelia underwater and let her go for just a second.


amelia really didn't mind it too much but felt the effect of keeping her mouth open underwater! she'll figure it out!


we've gone to mrs. nancy's pool with kristie and karina at least once a week for the last couple of months so that the kids can stay comfortable in the water. we also met tammy and her kids there one afternoon after naps. natalie has become quite the swimmer too, and joseph is getting there! i snapped this picture of the kids playing and then laughed so hard at joseph... you can hardly see ethan and natalie because they are making faces at each other underwater, and there is joseph in his floaties plus the baby float. :) he thought he was pretty funny.


on this day, sweet claire (2 1/2) decided she'd stick her face in the water too. she continued to do this the entire rest of the time we were at the pool. she was SO proud of herself and is now doing great in the water!


it's been quite a summer for these little swimmers! and with the temperatures staying (very) warm around here for several more weeks, the kids are happy to have more time in the pool before fall arrives!

keepin' cool

some friends and i spent a few days out of town last week for a homeschool practicum, and after our long days, it was so nice to relax and chat. the first night we went to jim 'n nick's bbq and oh.my.goodness. the cheese biscuits are so stinkin' good. i can still taste them. the next night, we headed over to the fountain play area at the local shopping commons. my kids have been pretty cautious of these fountain places in the past... but i had a feeling that amelia would have a ball in the water. for the first time in the last 4 months, i was so glad she wasn't walking. she could crawl all over the fountain area without me worrying about her slipping and falling. and that she did!


she was so curious about the fountains and the the intermittent spraying. she loved putting her finger in the holes...


don't know where she got that idea.


it was completely entertaining to watch amelia when the water came shooting out.





amelia did this over and over. she loved getting sprayed in the face! i knew she was just fine, but one of the boys in our group was so protective of her. as soon as he saw amelia all by herself, samuel would sit with her and make sure she wasn't leaning over the hole when the water came out.


so after dozens of water blasts to the face, amelia started standing up to wait for the fountains. she clapped and clapped at the quiet holes, as if to say, "c'mon! spray me already!"


and then my baby girl walked! on this slippery ground, with plenty of wild boys running around, amelia walked! over and over again!


and with each step, her smile got bigger and bigger!


i had to laugh that she did not choose the safest and most stable conditions in which to make her walking debut... maybe she'll be our little dare-devil! (she's been taking more steps at home now, too, and she is receiving a ton of applause from ethan and caroline for her new-found skill!)

and amelia wasn't the only one having fun at the fountains! these are not that clear because, well, caroline was having a blast. caroline kept running circles around amelia as she tried to walk... yes, let's make this even harder for her, you silly goose!!



ethan pretty much steered clear of the fountains and spent most of his time on the (dry) playground, so you'll just have to take my word for it that he was there. :) i bet the next time we visit these fountains, amelia will be running all over the place with the rest of the kids. until then, look forward to seeing many more pictures of my baby girl in her newfangled upright position! i knew she'd get there.