4th of July 2013

We are not huge Independence Day people. My favorite holidays are Christmas and Thanksgiving followed by Halloween and Valentine's Day. I've just never really gotten into the 4th of July. I don't have any special traditions for the day. But I guess it is never too late to start.

Lucy has really been into learning about the calendar. She loves to see the next event coming up and knowing what she has to look forward to like family birthdays and the holidays. I've been making an extra effort to send birthday cards to cousins living out of town. Since she is old enough to know what is going on and enjoy things more, I'm making an effort to make things special for her so we can create lots of fun memories.

This year for the 4th of July, we didn't make a huge effort but we actually woke up a little earlier instead of sleeping in to participate in our neighborhood parade and breakfast. Everyone meets up at the local library for the flag ceremony and then walks to the park for breakfast. People are encouraged to decorate their bikes and wagons and strollers. Fortunately for me, my friend Marnie bought lots of decorating supplies for her kids and shared them with Lucy so she could decorate her bike. I pretty much sat and chatted and held Grey while Marnie did all the work. She even bought Lucy and Aeli matching shirts and made matching headbands for them.

Here is Lucy in her new, matching shirt and "P-Day" shorts (as Brandon nicknamed them - they actually are part of a matching Boston Red Sox outfit that her Uncle Chris gave her), and her red glitter Target shoes. And of course, her birthday bike decorated not by me at all.  

Do you like the cupcake liners on her training wheals. I wish I actually used those to make cupcakes instead...

We decorated the stroller to the extent that it was already red...meaning we didn't decorate it at all. And I put Grey in a red onesie and navy pants. Aren't we so patriotic? He fell asleep on the walk from the library to the park and Brandon and I were able to eat our pancakes in some peace. However, I pride myself in our breakfasts at home so this giant community breakfast didn't really satisfy me. It's hard to compete with real maple syrup on your pancakes but at least we had some fun company of the whole neighborhood.

And Brandon, in his standard gray t-shirt and khaki shorts. There is a little blue in his sneakers, I guess.

Usually the one behind the camera, I had on a navy shirt and jean capris with a red scarf around my neck which Emily made fun of me for. We had a barbeque at Adam and Kim's house that afternoon and the girls had a blast playing together and swimming in the pool but I didn't get any pictures. Maybe someday, we will do a little more for the 4th but our level of effort this year was just fine for me.

Meanwhile, my cousin, Megumi from Japan who now lives in Utah really embraced this American holiday and she is not even a citizen! Check out these pictures she posted on facebook. She is actually one of those people who sees an idea on Pinterest and does it!

I'm in awe. Someday...maybe I will have a strawberry patch and raspberry & blueberry bushes by that time so I don't have to spend a small fortune on patriotic colored fruit. Or when my kids are old enough to help me instead of helping me now.

That night, we mooched off some fireworks that our neighbors bought (the Jacobsens and Jonssons) and watched them set them off in their backyard. I recommended that next year, that a bunch of us neighbors contribute money to buy a whole lot of fireworks to watch together. Lucy is terrified of holding sparklers so I didn't get any pictures of her holding one. She also kinda isn't crazy about the noise of fireworks in general either. Grey and Brandon stayed home. 

Fireworks - July 3, 2013

Since Grey was born, and even before then, Lucy has loved going over to Aeli's house to play. These two girls have become such good friends and just play together really well. It's so nice having Aeli just a few houses away for Lucy to play with. And Aeli's mom, Marnie, graciously takes Lucy on many of their family outings. Fireworks on July 3rd was no exception. Brandon and I were able to enjoy a relatively quiet night at home taking care of Grey while Lucy was able to fill her social quota. Marnie sent me these pictures from the park. She provided the kids with lots of glow necklaces and bracelets. I think I sent Lucy with some snacks like juice boxes and chips to share.

Marnie invited us along too but we thought it would be a bit much to bring a baby. And generally, I'm not a huge fan of fireworks (although I have lovely memories of fireworks in Japan). Lucy came home so late and was exhausted but I think that she love it. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors and friends who provide entertainment for Lucy. I'm a little sad that we (Brandon, Lucy, & Grey) didn't share in this memory with her but so grateful that she can still enjoy these times even with our limitations of having a baby. Cause aren't fireworks so magical as a child? I love the little village that I live in that helps to raise my children.

Dancing Ham - July 3, 2013

Me: Ewww! You have an awful lot of boogers in your nose. Do you want me to pick them out.
Lucy: No.
Me: But they're gross!
Lucy: Every one wants to see them.


Me: Did you wash your hands?
Lucy: Yes.
Me: No you didn't - I didn't hear the water.
Lucy: I did in my imagination

Here is a picture of Lucy before her dance class. While Lucy was super excited about her swimming classes this past summer, she was not as happy about going to her dance class. We invited a friend from church to go along with us (Liani) since her mom has some vision problems and is not able to drive. The summer dance session was just six weeks from June 12-July 17. There were a few girls from her last class but a lot of new girls and a new teacher. I'm not sure what it was but Lucy often did not want to go. But she still looked super cute in her dance clothes and loved prancing around the house and posing for the camera.  

I often resorted to pleas and threats to get Lucy to go to dance class since we had pre-paid for the class and I didn't want to money to be wasted. Also, I wanted to her to learn about commitment since she was the one that wanted to take dance and I wanted her to complete what she had started. Perhaps it was because we carpooled with not only Liani, but her mom and brother. Liani is supposed to be in Lucy's class at church but she has only come about twice in the beginning of the year because she doesn't like church and does not like to be separated from her parents, especially her mother. So when she started dance, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that she would have a hard time being separated from her mother. The teacher let Liani's mom stay in the class as long as she participated and danced too (parents are not allowed in the class except for the first and last day of class). This often made Lucy clingy and want me to stay in class (which I would not do because I had Grey and I often would run errands like going grocery shopping during the class).

There was also contention over car seats on the rides to and from dance class - I had an extra car seat for Liani and a booster seat for her brother but Liani's parents had already let her use a backless booster seat even though she was still three and even smaller than Lucy and her brother not use a booster at all. This made Lucy upset because she was dying to be a big girl in a booster seat and I was still firm that she had to be in a car seat (even though she was already four but not yet 40 lbs which is the recommendation). I think it was hard for her to see someone younger and smaller than her in the booster seat. There was also tension over where the children sat. Sometimes, Lucy wanted Liani to sit next to her but Liani wanted to sit next to her brother in the third row. This would cause Lucy to be really sad. Other times, Liani wanted to sit next to Lucy and Lucy would want space and Lucy would scream at Liani that she didn't want her next to her and then Liani would cry. Oh, the drama! Although Lucy loves going over to Liani's house to play, she only goes every other week or so and her friendship with her is much different than with Aeli who she sees multiple times a week and plays together with beautifully (although they have their tiffs every once in a while too.)

Needless to say, I think we were all happy when the dance class ended. Liani's mom told me that they would not continue in the fall because she felt like she could just dance with Liani herself at home. Another sigh of relief. As for us, we decided to take a break. Just recently, Lucy has expressed a desire to do dance again but not strongly. And with the start of pre-K and its additional cost, I'm not super interested in spending more time and money at this time. So I think we will wait a while...maybe a few months or next semester or next year.

Lucy's Swim Lessons - June 24 - August 15, 2013

In addition to Lucy's dance class this summer, I signed Lucy up for swim lessons at the local recreation center. It's so nice to have a facility so close with so many offerings (literally, we can bike there). For the swim lessons, you can choose from doing it once a week every Saturday for eight weeks, twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for four weeks, or four times a week Monday-Thursdays in the morning for two weeks (for a combined eight classes per session). Since we didn't have much else going on, I figured we would do the Monday-Thursday class in the mornings so we could keep our evenings and weekends open.

The swim lessons just lasted half an hour so we could choose between a 9:00, 9:40, 10:20 or 11:00 am class. We ended up doing three two week sessions and mostly opted for the 10:20 am class so I could have time to get ready in the morning and do a chore or two.

This little guy was such a champ all summer. Sometimes, he would nap before the class, other times, he would fall asleep on the drive and nap during class, and then other times, I would have to rock him to sleep during the class or while Lucy was showering or getting dressed. As much as I would like my kids to have more of a schedule, we need some flexibility too and I was glad that he could just go with the flow.

Since thirty minutes isn't very much time to get anything productive done like run errands or go back home and it was hard to read while taking care of Grey, we kinda just hung out and watched Lucy.

Our recreation center's swim program offers the Starfish Swim School and has colored stages based on abilities. The program starts on white but Lucy started on the second stage which is red since she already loves the water. I just wanted to sign Lucy up to keep her busy but once I saw the quality of the program and how much the kids were learning about safety and building a foundation for swimming later in life, I was really satisfied in my small investment (just $24 for each 8-class session!).

The maximum number of students for each class is six and the ages of the kids can really vary. In Lucy's first session, there was one girl who was the same age as her and six and eight year old sisters and an eight year old boy. I'm glad I got her started early. My only problem with the swim lessons is that they had the kids wait on the side of the pool while working with each child individually and I could see Lucy shivering like crazy from being so cold!

Lucy trying to keep warm!

Some of the skills they work on in the red stage is front and back floating and front and back streamline.

Lucy doing a back streamline.

Waiting in line to practice jumping in the water and surfacing on her own.

Absolutely no fear of jumping in the water (even though she can't reach the bottom and doesn't have any flotation device).

On the last day of class of the two-week session, the kids were rewarded by going on the big red slide. Unfortunately, Lucy was too scared to go on the slide so she missed out. Usually, she is so fearless but every once in a while, she lets her fear get the best of her. I know she would love it so much if she just tried it but I want her to make that decision of when she is comfortable on her own.

Here is the little evaluation we received at the end of her session. She wasn't able to master two of the skills for the red stage so she had to repeat it for the next session but I was fine with that. I would rather she is really comfortable with each foundation skill before she moves on to learn new things which build on that skill. And it didn't matter to her - she just had so much fun in class and didn't really think of it as "learning".

Since Lucy loved swim lessons so much for the first session, we decided to continue it and invited her good friend, Aeli to come along. Since Aeli's parents work, she usually goes to daycare down the street (where I used to send Lucy - that's how they became such good friends) but I just had her come to my house in the morning to play with Lucy until swim class and brought her to daycare after we were done (or sometimes, let her play all day at my house with Lucy which was actually great because it kept Lucy busy).

This picture makes me laugh because Aeli is so much taller than Lucy and they are only a year apart. I love what good friends they are.

This was the only other picture I got from the second session. It was the last day and Lucy finally went down the slide! Actually, her teacher for the second session (who is 17 and goes to our church and used to babysit her) kinda pushed her down. And she had so much fun! I'm so glad that I got a picture of it. Her old teacher from the first session was able to meet her at the bottom.

Here is her second evaluation. She passed all her skills and moved on to the yellow stage which I was so happy about because I was worried that Aeli would pass and Lucy wouldn't and that they wouldn't be in the same class anymore. There are multiple color stage classes going on at the same time so if they weren't in the same class, we would have to coordinate to find a time with both a yellow and red class. But fortunately, we didn't have to worry about that.

After the second two-week session of swim lessons, we took a break for a few weeks because we were going on vacation to California. But we started up again in the beginning of August right after we returned from out vacation and Aeli's older brother joined us (in a different class - so glad we could find a good time that offered both classes and wasn't too early at 9:40 am). Even though the classes were only half an hour, our excursion often ended up being closer to a full hour because the girls would take a shower together and then get changed and they took so long. Poor Willem (Aeli's brother) just had to wait in the lobby for us but I warned him it would be a while with these crazy girls.

Here is the third evaluation. I was a little confused because they used the same evaluation for the red stage and not for the yellow stage even though the girls were signed up for yellow stage. But it didn't really matter since it was the last session of the summer. I think that I will start her in yellow for her next class anyway since she will have had such a long break from it. The third session was a little crazy anyway because her normal instructor was not able to teach for most of the session because she suffered a crazy sunburn so there were different teachers all the time. So I think that made it difficult for the kids to learn having a substitute each day with a different teaching style they could never get used to. But they still loved it and had lots of fun.

I didn't take any pictures the last session but it was pretty much the same. Lucy looked forward to it so much but it was the last morning session of the summer since school was starting in a couple of weeks. I'm very happy with her improvement of swimming although her comfort level with the water worries me a little bit because she is so fearless now and I think it is a good thing to have a healthy amount of respect for the water. But we will definitely continue the swim classes next summer. The swim classes are offered during the school year as well, but only on Tuesday and Thursday nights or Saturday mornings and I'm on the fence about whether to sign up or not because I want to keep our evenings and weekends open. But for the summer, it's perfect.

Now Lucy wants to be a dancer and a swim teacher. Fortunately, I think with this swimming program, it will be easy for her to become a life guard and swim teacher when she is a teenager which will be the perfect job in high school for her. I can't believe that we are starting to plan that far ahead.

Father's Day - June 16, 2013

Since Brandon did such a good job for me on Mother's Day, I didn't want to disappoint on Father's Day for him. I had him e-mail me several ideas of what to buy for him so it would at least be a little bit of a surprise. I also made good use of Grey's newborn pictures with Lucy - there was a Walgreens promotion to make a free photo collage and another promotion for a discounted card. 

There was also this cute print-out from Pinterest for Lucy to fill out that ended up being so cute. There was one for Grandfather's too but we never got to it so maybe next year. It's really fun seeing things from a child's perspective and I think it ended up being Brandon's favorite gift.

Here are all the personalized things I ended up doing with the pictures - card, photo collage, and magnet.

For gifts, I got Brandon a figure drawing book and anatomy book. I love that he is constantly working on his talent to become better professionally.

I know that this picture below is almost exactly the same but I thought Lucy's look of concentration was so cute. I think I do the same thing, furrowing my eyebrows when I am reading.

It's so hard to get a good group shot with kids - you can never get everyone smiling!

Cute one of Brandon.

Grey and Lucy cute - Brandon, not so much.

Lucy-cute, Brandon-awkward, Grey-pissed.

Happy Father's Day Brandon!