Other Summer Happenings

 We love going to the Dinosaur Museum with the Slacks.  No, they are not in any of the pictures, But they are our museum buddies.  My girls love playing with their girls. And the dinosaur museum is nice and cold and dark which is awesome on a hot summer day.

 The girls "surprised" me one day with their outfits.  They were trying to make me laugh, and also I think stalling from their chores, which by the way...chores are a daily battle around here, they drive me insane.  I am sure this has been a problem from mothers since the beginning of time, but seriously.  Why is it so hard to get kids to help out around the house?  Anyway, my favorite thing about their outfits is the tape on their foreheads.  I *might be really weird and sometimes put tape on my forehead to smooth away the wrinkles on my forehead.  I probably shouldn't admit to that in public. But it's true.  I got the idea off of some yahoo article most likely, and have found it to be somewhat effective.  At least for 2 minutes my forehead looks like I got botox.

 Here we are at Dairy Queen after a swim meet, for the swim team DQ night.  If you zoom in on the pictures, you will see why I try the tape trick on my forehead. ; )

Phoenix Children's Museum

 Last week we spent the night over at Rachelle's house in Prescott. I got to see Rachelle's new baby and we had fun getting out of the heat and playing with out friends.  Rachelle and I even stayed up watching a movie, and neither of us fell asleep which is somewhat of a miracle.    Then a couple days later she came down to Phoenix and we got together at the Phoenix Children's museum.  Chloe rode Oscar around on these mini bikes.  He's pretty chill about being the girl's real life doll.  I think he likes all the attention so it is a win-win situation. Of course we didn't manage to get any pictures of us all together, but they were there, and we did have a fun time.

And just like that...it was over.

 Swim team is already done for the summer. I cannot believe how fast it went.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching our girls compete in their weekly swim meets.  They both made huge improvements.  Don could tell you exactly how many seconds they shaved off, and I know he has told me, but I can't remember what I was doing 5 minutes ago, so.... Macie's very first race we had to coax/beg/coerce her into the pool.  And that backstroke will long live in my memory as one of the coolest things I have ever seen her do.  To see your kids do something that you know they are scared of, and to do it with grace and style...best thing ever.  We could only convince her to do one race the very first swim meat, but by the next swim meet she was willing to try 2...then the next meet 3,,,and for the last few, she did all 4 strokes.  And she had the time of her life.  As she swam, we were able to get close enough to cheer so she could really hear us, and her smile was priceless.  Her backstroke, she had a permanent smile. And the breast stroke, every time she would come up for air, her face was beaming.  She loved hearing us cheer her on.  And she loved being a part of the team and playing with all the other kids.  Chloe is so good to her and makes sure she is always included.  Macie was the youngest swimmer on her team.  We were also so proud of Chloe.  She made huge improvements also.  At her last swim meat, she placed 4th on the IM and in backstroke, and she won her very first medals. She has a lot of ribbons, but these were her fist medals.  She was really excited.  At one of the city meets, she was disqualified from the IM for swimming the wrong stroke, and she barely missed qualifying with her backstroke.  This was the city meet that would produce the kids who would get to compete at I don't know, the multi city meet?? (I know basically nothing).  Anyway, Chloe was so bummed that she failed to qualify because it would be her first chance to win a medal, and Don told me during the drive home, Macie tried to comfort her by telling Chloe, "Chloe, you can have my medal...."  Don and I are so proud of the girls. They are good girls.  The highlight of our summer has spending time together as a family at their swim meets.

 And this is little Oscar looking longingly into the pool.  He loves the water too, I am hoping that means his swim lessons go a little better his year as we took him out at the beginning of the summer because he hated them,

 Last week Oscar really improved on his basketball skills. He can now put the ball in the basket.  He would make a basket, we would all cheer, and then he would walk over and give me a big hug.  He did this over, and over, and over again.  Did it fill me joy that he picked me to hug after every basket? Um, yes of course it did.  I like being the favorite around here.  Dad will probably trump me eventually when Oscar figures out I am terrible at all sports, but until then, I will enjoy the perks of being the number one woman in his life.

 Here are some pictures at the end of the season award ceremony for the Dobson Dolphins.  The girls had a great time.  They had a slide show at the end, and Chloe told me she was laughing so hard at the pictures that she peed her pants.

 They have been looking forward to getting their trophies for a long time. I asked Macie what she was going to do with the trophy and she told me, "Play with it."

 Chloe got a pin for swimming 1/2 mile during the stroke-a-thon.

Macie also received the "Delightful Dobson Dolphin" award for her age group.  Basically it was the good sportsmanship award.  She was so excited to hear her name called and so cute walking up to the front to get her certificate.  She loved, loved, loved her coaches and always wanted to say goodbye to them after every swim meet.  And I love the way she says "coaches." Her voice is just the best.

A couple other Macie moments.  I was desperate for her to go to sleep one night, so I gave her my phone and put it on the lullaby radio station.  She ended up in my room halfway through the night.  And in the morning she told me that "lullabies don't help me go to sleep."  I guess they had woken her up.  It is not that funny when I write it down, but the way she said it was really funny to me. It was like ...Mom that was a dumb idea...why would you think lullabies would help me sleep?  

At one of the swim meets, Macie said to me, "Mom-why do they keep saying....Boogeeeeeeers..." It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. But then I realized she was talking about how they say at the beginning of the race, "Swimmeeeeeeers, take your mark." She thought they were saying boogers.

Oscar Turns 1

Oscar is now a year old (sniff sniff).  That whizzed by fast.  He is now walking.  He took his first steps probably about a month ago, but it took him a few weeks to switch over to upright.  He is still getting used to it, but he is doing pretty well.  The first steps he took were from one arm chair to the other.  He practiced that for awhile.  Then his cousin Troy came to visit last week, and that really motivated him.  I noticed a huge difference within hours of troy being here. He became much more determined and interested in walking. Now he almost exclusively wobbles around like a drunk man with his bottle.

Oscar had a pretty laid back birthday. He didn't seem to mind. But Chloe was ticked.  She wanted it to be mind blowingly awesome. But after a weekend of 4th of July partying, I was pretty much partied out.  He did get to go swimming in the morning while the girls were at their lessons.  And also, we participated in a promotional  photo shoot for Joe's Italian Ice, where he was stuffed full of ice cream and italian ice.  I can't wait to see those pictures. 

After that Chloe and Don went to a swim meet, and I ran to the store to buy a much too expensive cake.  The Martz's and Sutherland kids came over and we had cake and ice cream sandwiches. Oscar received a basketball hoop, a gift Don has been planning for months, ever since he found out Troy has one and loves to make hoops with his all day long.  Oscar isn't that into yet.  I hope he decides he likes it because it is huge and ugly.

We love Oscee.  He's a dreamboat.