First Annual Tomasino Cousin Camp 2010

Johnny's parents and one of his brother's family came to visit the next to last weekend of July.  My sister-in-law and my 3 nieces stayed for the week after everyone else went back to San Antonio.  We had so much fun hanging out and getting to spend time with them.  Zoe started walking while they were here and the twins loved being able to help her practice.  Eli was in heaven with the girls.  He is like the mother duck and they just follow him around and do whatever he tells them to.  Sometimes he can't be bothered to call them by name, so he'll just say, "Cousins, come on cousins!"  And generally they come running.  We did this last minute, but will definitely plan ahead and do it again next summer.

• 6 nights and 7 days of cousin fun
• movies and camp-outs in the living room in a tent, on an air mattress and the couch
• 2 afternoons of bowling
• 2 trips to Half Price Books
• swimming
• a day at Wet Zone
• an afternoon in the sprinkler
• lots of yummy home cooked meals
• story time at the library
• bugs, snakes and spiders at the library
• samples at Costco
• a nap here and there
• homemade cupcakes to decorate
• the moms were even able to sneak away one night and go to a movie =)

June Catch-up

Swimming Lessons

Eli took swimming lessons the first two weeks in June.  From the beginning, he was nervous about putting his face in the water.  That however did not turn out to be the thing that stumped him.  He did great with that.  He would dive down and get things on the bottom of the pool, with his hand being held.  Floating was his near downfall.  The lessons were at a woman's house.  She has taught for over twenty years and is very good.  She is no nonsense, safety first.  There were only five in the class, one of which is his friend.  The lessons were each thirty minutes long.  Parents are only allowed to watch the last ten minutes on the last day, to keep the amount of distractions down with the limited time she has.  

He did great and was excited to tell me all that he had done for the first five days.  I'm not sure what happened on day six.  He cried and told me he was "not going back anymore."  Ms. Katrina's rule is that if you come in crying, you go first.  If you start crying during lessons, you go next.  I could hear him screaming from the front yard.  It was very hard as a mommy to not walk back and grab him out of the pool and hug him.  I really stressed to him that I trusted Ms. Katrina so he could too.  He was not so sure =)  By the end of the class, he was successfully, but not happily, floating and swimming with his hands stretched out and holding on to her. 

                                            Floating with Ms. Katrina

                                              With his buddy David

                                                      Happy boy =)

Face in the water

                      The whole class (Ainsley, Eli, Lilly, David and Hannah)

VBS

The third week of June we had Vacation Bible School at our church.  Since I volunteered, Eli got to participate in the preschool program and Zoe went to the nursery.  He had a lot of fun and loved singing the songs.  By the end of the week, we were all 3 so exhausted, but had had soooo much fun!

Birthday Girl

On the 30th, Zoe turned 1!!!  We just had cake and a few gifts at home.  We decided to give our family one more year before asking them to travel here in April and June for birthday parties.  Zoe will play with just about any toy, but her new favorite is baby dolls.  When we go down the toy aisle at the store and get to the babies, she goes nuts and tries to stand up to reach them.  It is adorable.  She hugs and kisses them and pats them on their backs.  She is such a sweet girl!

  

Agua!

 
This is at one of our city spray parks.  There are several different things that spray or dump water on you.  Eli and Zoe are both all about the water.  This was the third time that Zoe has been.  Each time she gets a little braver and crawls around more and more.  This particular part is her favorite.  As Eli puts it, "Zoe just goes NUTS when the water comes on."  She hits and tries to grab the water.  She doesn't mind having it right in her face or being splashed.  All the other moms are so amazed at how much she is into it.  It is so funny to watch.

Going south on Highway 287

We were on our way home from my cousin Davin's wedding and Eli was sound asleep after not napping for three days.  Zoe had gotten fussy because the sun was shining directly in her eyes.  Johnny put a t-shirt out the window to try and block some of it.  Zoe however, decided to play with it instead.  She was playing hide-and-seek with herself in the mirror and was having quite a good time.

Bathing Beauty

Zoe walks the length of the couch, for the second time ever, to model her new swimsuit =)

Spitty Spitter

This is from a couple of months ago.  Johnny was filming Zoe in the car while waiting at Sonic.  At the very end, she grabs the camera for a second.

Earth Sprinkler

My Aunt Misty got Eli a sprinkler for his birthday.  It is about 3 feet tall.  It looks like a giant beach ball with the Earth on it.  You connect a water hose to it, and it sprays out in 4 different places.  He had a blast playing with it in the front yard yesterday.

Our next door neighbors came over to play for awhile and visit.  Their son, Caleb will be 2 in June.  Eli just loves him.  Caleb was a little more cautious getting in the water, but I'm sure after a couple more times will be out there running around with Eli.  I even put Zoe down on the driveway and after awhile, she was crawling more and more into the water and getting wet too.

 

When we got inside, they were both so filthy and Johnny wasn't home, so they took their first bath together.  Eli has been waiting to be able to bathe with his sister for a long time, so needless to say, he was very happy.