Just Keep Swimming

The kids finished up another session of swimming today.  Jayden decided at the beginning of this session that he was ready to do some swimming again.  Guess he got tired of playing Go Fish with me while sitting in the hot humid pool building waiting for Willow.  And the timing couldn't of been better because I'm way behind on my Christmas knitting and now I've got 30 minutes to cram in a few rows.  ;)

My mom flew in from Washington last night, so she got to come to swimming lessons today.  Good thing, because otherwise I wouldn't of had these pictures.  Nanarazzi was in the house, while I was knitting furiously and watching on the sidelines.

Jayden is doing great in Level 3, he just has to master side breathing and he'll move up to Level 4!







Willow, just 2 days before her 2nd birthday has completed Level 1 and is moving on up to Level 2!  Wanda, who has been her swim teacher the whole time (she did the parent-tot class too) told me she wasn't giving up Willow and was going to make sure she kept her for Level 2 as well.  (usually there is just 1 teacher per level in a time slot, but Wanda is the resident grandma and I think what Wanda wants, Wanda gets, and Willow just happens to be one of her favorite students!)

Kid Quote :: 12

Jayden : "Hey Mom, you're the best mom ever....and you're not stupid"

(somebody been calling me stupid???)

Turkey Heads

We had a little visitor over today (my friend Sabrina's son, Lunden), so we made turkey hats!





not sure how we did this, but...everybody matches!!!

What Willow Wears :: 5

...while playing the piano....

Window Seat Coloring

We have this great window seat that is in one of our bay windows in our kitchen/eating area.  I love it and have had plans to make cushions for it since we got here, you know once I get the walls painted and some curtains for the windows made - I know we've been here for over 2 years, you'd think I'd have worked on a few more things... but in the mean time, the kids have completely thrashed the poor window seat.  They use it as their play table and there are more dings and scratches in that thing then I will ever be able to repair with a "repair marker".   Those cushions are going to really come in handy to cover all that up...that is when they are actually on the window seat and not thrown on the floor, which is what my kids are going to do with them.  If I were them, I'd put all my future cushions in a big ole pile and then jump off the window seat onto the pile.  But that's just me....

Anyways....I got a bug in my brain a couple days ago that I wanted to cover the whole bench with paper and let the kids color all over it.  They've been drawing and coloring like crazy and Willow has managed to figure out where the writing pens are and grabbed one and instead of writing on paper, she kept the tip of the pen in and scraped huge scrape marks all over the top of the bench - not sure Royal has seen that yet because I haven't heard the signature "Uggggggh" when he finds something else the kids have managed to destroy.  :)  Although writing it here is probably going to get him to come and inspect the window seat.  Good thing I covered the whole thing in paper tonight and let the kids color away!!!

Kid Quote :: 11

I sometimes have to hide my knitting books from Jayden because he has put together that if he sees something in there that he likes, he can ask me to make it for him, which I usually do.  He found my Knitted Toys book months ago and right away asked if I could make him the big snake out of it.  Funny that he asked, because I had already started on one for him for Christmas. So, I told him I would think about it and maybe I would make him one for Christmas.  Then we went to the fair and he won a snake playing a game and he kinda laid off me for awhile about the snake.  Until today....

Jayden (looking at pictures on the computer): Hey Mom, can you show me my Christmas snake?

Me : What Christmas snake?

Jayden : You know, the snake you said you'd make me for Christmas.

Me : Well, if it's a Christmas snake and today isn't Christmas, then I guess you can't see it yet.

Jayden : Ooooookay.  Fine.  (and walks off)

He comes back a couple minutes later

Jayden : Hey Mom, can you show me my Fall snake?

....too smart for me!.... :)

Mother Goose Parade...and more

Jayden's school had a mother goose parade today.  All the Early Education kids got dressed up like mother goose characters and then were paraded around the quad so other kids could see them.  Then they got to go through a library that was decorated and had about 8 stations where a "character" told and acted out a mother goose story or poem.  It was pretty darn cute.

Jayden chose to go as All The Kings Horses from Humpty Dumpty.  I looked and looked and looked for a mother goose story or poem that had a dinosaur in it, but no luck. :)






Willow got to go play at Lunden's house while Jayden and I were at school.  Sabrina sent me pictures. :)




Willow didn't take a nap at Sabrina's house, and Jayden was pretty tired from all the activity at school, and Royal was running with a friend after work so he was going to be late, and I didn't want to deal with 2 tired kids at home, so we drove to the zoo.  I know, we go there a lot, but there are 4 new snake exhibits that we haven't had a chance to go check out yet.  :)

This one isn't new, but it sure is impressive and was laying right up against the glass.  The Yellow Anaconda!


Some of the snakes were hiding in the back of their cages, but here is the Boomslang.  It attacks people by hiding in trees and jumps on them from above.  It's one of the few rear-fanged snakes that can kill a human, which it's venom does by preventing blood from clotting.  Sounds lovely...


Then after going and visiting some of our favorites - tigers, lions, zebras, giraffes - all with discussions on what would happen if we somehow got in their cages with them, we went and visited our old friends.....

....the hippos....


....and wondered which one was the one who ate Willow's shoe....