Swim Lessons

Avery just finished a 2 week swim lessons class at Wirth Aquatic Center in Brookfield. She really liked it this year. Made a few improvements over last year, but she still has a ways to go before she can “swim” by herself.

There she is in her pink goggles.

One day they practiced safety procedures and they got to jump in with lifejackets on.

And on the last day they did “fun” stuff like jumping off the diving board into the deep end (they catch the kids). Sometimes I tell Avery that I’m going to call her Bravery. Because she has a hard time being brave sometimes. She would not jump in.

So finally they lowered her off the diving board into the teacher’s arms. Sigh.

 

Didn’t even get her hair wet. After that ordeal, I thought there was no way she was going to slide down the big waterslide.

But she did it! Good girl.

Camryn and I had fun watching her every day for 2 weeks. Luckily Cam is great at independent play. She would pull a couple pennies out of my purse and play with them for the whole half hour. Cute girl.

Fourth of July!

We had a nice 4th of July this year! It was a beautiful, hot day. Merrick took the girls to the Wauwatosa Parade in the morning. The girls had fun with their friends Paige and Peyton.
 
Apparently Camryn was a champion flag waver. And they got a good amount of candy for their candy bags, which was the whole point, right?

Then that afternoon we went over to our friends house for a barbecue. They set up a slip n slide and a kiddie pool and the girls had a lot of fun with their friends.


Then we went to Sussex Village Park to watch the fireworks. Camryn had so much fun running around in the grass barefoot.

My aunt, uncle, and cousins also showed up (they recently moved here) and joined us for the fireworks. The girls love my cousins. They have 2 teenage girls and 4 boys that are a few years older than my girls and they love to play with them. So cute. Here they are cuddling with Jacob during the fireworks:

I think my favorite part of the night was actually right before the fireworks started – someone nearby started setting off chinese lanterns. Like a lot of them. Totally just like the floating lights in the Tangled movie. Very magical. (Kind of dangerous too – floating fire?). I wasn’t able to get a good picture, unfortunately.
But the fireworks were good too and we had a really good time.

Hope you had a nice Fourth too!

At the Lake with Dad

Merrick got off work at noon on Friday because of the holiday and so we took the girls to Menomonee Park to go swimming in the lake. It was a really hot day but there was plenty of shade and a nice breeze so it was pretty perfect. I wasn’t going to get in at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant but I came along and sat in a nice chair in the shade with my feet propped up.
Oh and I took pictures of my cuties.



Here’s the big sandcastle they built:

And here’s Avery the Mermaid:

Fun times!

5th Birthday

So Avery said her birthday last Thursday was “the best birthday ever!” Pretty easy to please, I’d say. Especially since she didn’t have a friends party this year.  

At school we brought mini cupcakes and her teacher made her a pink crown to wear, which she loved. Then she had swimming lessons and afterwards we went to Chuck E. Cheese to play games for an hour.

By then I was exhausted because it was a really hot and humid day. So we came home and Avery opened up a few more presents and the girls played while I took a break!

When Merrick got home we took her out to dinner at Red Robin. We were both quite surprised when she ordered spaghetti and a side salad for her dinner. I mean, she could have gotten mac and cheese and carrots like Camy did. Or a corn dog and fries. What a cutie.

Then we played at Barnes and Noble for a little while, went home, had some cake and ice cream, and went to bed! I’m glad she had a good day. Camryn was pretty good most of the day but she did have her “moments” – using up Avery’s new Rapunzel stickers, whining about wanting Avery to open more presents right now, fighting over new toys, etc. But for the most part she was a happy helper to her big sister.

5 Years Old? Really?!

Yep, it’s true! My little Avery girl is 5 years old today! I can’t believe how grown up and beautiful she is! She’s been so excited to be five for so long. This morning she was saying the breakfast prayer and I quietly suggested she say something and she said to me, “I don’t need help with my prayer, Mom- I’m five!”  

This is the Rapunzel cake I made last night. Definitely one of my less ambitious attempts, and it was pretty sloppy but I’m 37 weeks pregnant so that’s as good as it’s going to get this year! (If you can’t tell, the yellow frosting is supposed to be Rapunzel’s hair.)

She was so excited to see all her presents on the table this morning! She requested scrambled eggs and waffles with strawberries for breakfast so we had that. She opened a couple presents, including this little outfit below.

She loves skirts so this was a winner for her. She’s got a busy summer schedule so she’s at summer school this morning until 11am and then we have swim lessons. After that we’ll try to run around and do some fun things for her today. And open the rest of the presents of course! (I decided not to do a friend’s party this year to simplify.) I’ll post some more pictures of what we do today later. Happy Birthday Avery girl!