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.

Eli's Actual Birthday Day

We had a very busy day on Eli's actual birthday, April 30th.  Johnny started the tradition of boy's birthday McDonald's breakfast with him a couple of years ago.  So he started his day with his daddy.

Next, I took the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium for the afternoon.  It was a nice day aside from the TEN school buses in the parking lot.   I wasn't even thinking about TAKS being over and teachers wanting to get out of the classroom for the day for a nice break.  I guess my mind is no longer on school time, YIPPPPEEE!!  Anyway, we had a membership at one time because Eli loves it so much.  His favorite part is the shark tunnel you walk through.  I wasn't able to get too many pictures because of the herds and herds of school kids everywhere you turned.  He still had a great time despite the massive number of people that were there =)

On our way out of downtown, I was talking to Johnny on the phone and took a wrong turn.  I was on an unfamiliar street and trying to make my way back to the highway when I saw a waterfall and giant sculpture of a heard of longhorns crossing a river.  We parked and walked around it for a few minutes.

To end Eli's birthday celebration, we took him out on a catamaran on the lake and to dinner at Gloria's.  He has seen the sailboat out several times and asked about going on it.  The cruise was about an hour and a half long and we got to see the sunset.  There was a group on board for some sort of fundraiser and when they found out it was Eli's birthday, they had everyone on board sing him Happy Birthday.  He also got to steer the boat.  We had a great time.

 

By the time we made it to Gloria's and got a table, it was close to 9:30.  After ordering, Eli asked Johnny if he could sit in his lap until his food came.  I think he was awake for 3 minutes after that.  Johnny ate his dinner with Eli sound asleep in his lap.  We had told the waiter that it was his birthday, so he brought him a slice of tres leches cake in a to-go box.  Johnny carried him to the car and he didn't wake up until we got home.  Then he was hungry, so he ate his entire pupusa and 2 bites of cake.  It was a long, but fun day.  I still cannot believe that my baby is 4 years old!