Texas Here We Come

The 4 of us made it to San Antone yesterday for our annual family vacation with the Larson's!  We are spoiled with them always living in great, warm places - we don't need to go anywhere else!!  We've already hit downtown SA, the pool and had great Mexican food - so our vacay is off to a great start.  See you on the 15th!!



Swim Lessons Part 2

Mia had her second week of swim lessons this week and is doing better than ever!  She is now jumping off of the diving board onto the noodle and practicing diving off of the side.  She is doing great holding her breath and swimming under the water to her teacher.  We went to our local pool on Friday and it was  like we were with a different kid - she only wanted to be in the deep pool and was jumping off the side, going down the slide and dunking her head repeatedly!  Go Meemers go!!

McCleary Visit

We had a great visit earlier this week with the McCleary family!  Leslie, Kevin & Cullen made their way back to Des Moines after a 2 week long midwest road trip to hit the reunion and see Leslie's family.  It was great spending a few days with them here before they headed back to Denver.  The kids had a great time together and it was fun showing them around DM!  Come back soon!!

A good midwest meal - corn, steak & potatoes!

Tractor rides!

Love this one

DM tour, included the Capitol of Iowa!

Looks like the heat got to them!!

MHS 15 Year Class Reunion

I had my 15 year high school reunion a few weeks ago and was thrilled that so many of my closest girlfriends & their families headed back to Moline for it as well!!  We had a fun-filled weekend enjoying each others kids and catching up with one another.  It was great going out Saturday night with the girls & our husbands, as we don't get the chance to do that very often!  It's always a treat to get to see some of my oldest and dearest Moliner friends.  Love you guys!

At the Bettendorf Children's Museum

Pre-party before the reunion with Courtney, Leslie & Kristin

Of course our group was the last one to leave!

Nice jacket, Kev!  

Wild & Wacky Fun

Mia had "Wild & Wacky" day camp this week at the Waukee Y.  The kids did crafts, songs, games and water activities.  She had a ball, as did I, having to entertain only 1 child during the mornings!!  YEAH for summer camps!!

Mia's "wacky Wednesday" outfit

Swim Lessons

Mia had her first week of swimming lessons last week and did great!  I was going to hold off until next year, but she had been getting very anxious in the water, especially going into the deep end and putting her head under water.  My neighbor friends told me about a woman who does private lessons out of her home and uses college students as teachers.  I thought we better go for it to get her more acclimated in the water and I am so glad we did!

She was so scared the first day, crying on the side of the pool and not wanting to get in.  By day 2, she must have asked me 100x that morning if it was time for swim lessons yet.  She jumped right in and has gotten so brave - swimming by herself with the noodle, fully dunking her head under water and jumping off the side onto the noodle - in the deep end!!  I am so proud of her for coming such a long way in a such a short period of time!  Week 2 starts next week, followed by our trip to San Antonio after that.  Hopefully getting to spend a lot of time in the pool over the next few weeks will really help!

An iPad Education

Mia is obsessed with the iPad!  I'm not complaining because she is actually learning a ton of great things from some toddler app's that we've downloaded.  It's amazing how she can operate it so easily and find all of her games so quickly - definitely a child of the millennium!

She's been great with her letters for a long time, but never wants to practice her numbers (definitely her mother and father's daughter)!!  We found a fun game where she has to choose the number that is said and then gets stickers as rewards.  She loves it and has made learning her numbers fun!  

VBS: Wild About Jesus

Mia attended Vacation Bible School at Hope Lutheran this week and had a ball!  We have been so bad about going to church, so I thought this would be good for her.  There were a TON of kids attending, so Mia met some new friends and got a little religion too!!  

Anatomy: 101

Mia has never inquired much about Sam's privates, but the other day I was changing him and she asked why he had "that" and she didn't.  I said "that" is a penis and boys have them and girls do not.  She agreed and said that her privates look "plain" because she likes to eat "plain" english muffins and "plain" toast for breakfast.  Gotta love how a 3 year old brain works.

Haircut Mishap

Well, Sam had his 1st haircut last week, at the hands of big sister Mia!  Not quite how I had planned for it all to go down...the kids were eating lunch in their respective seats, I ran outside to spray some weeds and when I returned about 5 minutes later, Mia was standing next to Sam with her little scissors (gotten out of the craft box) and told me she was giving him a haircut.  They were both all smiles, as the chunk of hair laid on his tray!  She then reminded me that I had been saying how Sam needed his haircut...

I then noticed another large pile of hair on the floor, took a closer look at Mia and she had taken a chunk out of her bangs!  YIKES!!  Sam's hair wasn't too bad, just a slight bald spot right on top, but Mia's bangs, cut up to her hairline, are really messed up!  I guess she had too much fun cutting their hair, as now she says she wants to be either a doctor or a hair "salonist" when she grows up.  At this rate, I think she needs to go the medicine route or at least until she gets a little more finesse with the scissors :)