Weekend at Grandma's

While Eric and I were having our date night the kids were having a sleep over at Grandma's lake house. We were all happy to see the lake has risen and it is touching her dock for the first time ever (she only bought it 18 months ago.) On Sunday we went on an adventure up in the mountains and saw a waterfall and went swimming. It was a beautiful day for playing in the lake.

At Grandma's dock.

Viewing the falls at a state park.

Swimming in all her floatation devices.

Sam

Date Night

Tonight was one of those rare times that Eric and I got to go out without the children. We had dinner and then we attended a performance at the symphony (how grown up we are.) The music was a collection of music from South America that was really upbeat and exciting.

Splash

Yesterday, Sam had a practice swim meet with his swim team. Sam has never like individual competition so he was nervous and not sure if he wanted to participate. Although I explained to him this is a team sport I tried to push that really you are competing against yourself, trying to beat your own time and not to worry about the other kids. Moments before his first heat (back stroke,) I am a wreak with a pit in my stomach as I have just watch several children before him have melt downs out of fear...what if Sam can't make it across the pool, what if things go badly and he is scarred, embarrassed... who jumps in to save him if he begins to drown. I slip my cell phone out of my pocket just in case I need to leap in and save my child...ugh, I fight every urge to grab him and run home knowing it is okay to fail. The buzzered rings, he jumps...OMG, he is kicking everyone's butt! OMG, he doesn't even take a breath, he just flies across the pool and hops out. He didn't even realize how much further ahead he was. I run over to him and wrap my arms around him- YES! You are the best! He has the best time for his age group at 33.4seconds. Next time I will bring my camera and leave the nerves at home.

A Special Sunday

This Morning Eric was baptized during the morning service of our church by senior pastor Tommy Willingham. Surrounded by family, friends and the congregation of SUMC Eric professed that he accepted Jesus into his heart.

Eric's Mom and Brother joined us for the celebration. Our family.

Rainbow Ranch

What a day! We went on a fishing adventure to our local Rainbow Ranch Trout farm. We fished with corn and brought in 4 whopper fish. We also got to feed some monster size fish and eels as well a duck. Luckily they clean them for us, so all we need to do is go home and cook them. Of course, Sam put 2 and 2 together and isn't so sure we should be killing animals.

The best way to fish...stocked ponds : )

Can we go fish now, Mom. Our first catch.

My happy boy.

Okay, I'll touch it.

Come here Momma duck, I've got some corn.

Sam enjoyed being the ones who nets them.

The biggest catch of the day.

Sam holds his catch one last time.

Josie's Gym Day

Every Monday Eric takes Josie to gymnastics. This is one of her favorite times since it is just her and her Daddy. Sammy has all these activities that he gets to go to, but this is the only one that is all hers. Funny Story: One time Eric couldn't find her leotard and she refused to walk out on the gym floor in just her shorts and t-shirt. Luckily they had a leotard in lost and found that she could wear that day. My girl has to be stylish, no exceptions! We are in big trouble.

So dramatic during warm ups I hope she can see where she is going

Rope climb

Back bends

Future Olympic gymnast in training

Somersaults on the balance beam

Jumping into the pit of foam

Daddy and Jo - Monday mornings are the best

Lego Party

We celebrated Sam's birthday a bit early this year and the theme was the ultimate LEGO party- Star Wars style. Sam loves legos so this was perfect for him and all his buddies came out to party. Everyone had a blast and we finished it off with kids meals from BK and homemade cup cakes. On the way home Sam said "It was the best party ever!" And that is exactly what ever parent wants to hear.

Go Bulldogs!

Today was the Sam's last game of the soccer season. While it was a great season, I think we all are looking forward to having our Saturdays a little less planned out. Sam had a great coach with a great bunch of kids.

From a Tiger to a Wolf

Sam had his crossover ceremony with cub scouts where he officially completed all his tiger cub requirements and crossed over to being a wolf cub scout. Scouts hasn't been exactly what we expected it to be, but he has a best friend (Miles) because of it. Turns out Miles had just moved to our neighborhood and he has a 3 year old sister, Ausha. We think the parents are great and see a great friendship budding amongst all of us. So while our thoughts of hiking through woods and shooting bows and arrows turned into indoor crafts, over all we got a lot out of scouting... friendship.

Culture

In attempt to expose my children to some culture we went to see the African Children's Choir perform. We were pretty far away from the stage, but since they had a big screen to view the performance I thought we would be okay. Sam was really interested for the first 2 songs and then you could say he saw all he needed to see and became bored. Josie who I thought would love it since she is a little performer herself, was a bit freaked out. Between the large crowd and loud clapping she was nearly in tears with her hands over her ears yelling "clap softer." We left after about the 4th song. While the little bit we saw was pretty neat to me, I think I will wait a few years before I attempt anything like this again.

Photo Fun

In honor of Mother's Day I had a little fun taking pictures with my loving children. I ended up taking all these pictures myself at arms length.