Proof

These pictures are proof that Rhiannon took tennis lessons this summer; they're also proof that I wimp out occasionally. For some reason I just could not bring myself to cross the invisible line past the chain link fence and onto the tennis court to get some better pictures. I've got one more day--hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep and wake up with some gumption. :)

Regardless, it's safe to say that tennis has been a lot of fun. Rhiannon has practiced forehand, backhand, forehand volley, and overhead strokes. It's been an upbeat, healthy way to start our Monday and Tuesday mornings the past several weeks. We'll miss it!

Rhiannon gets help from Chris on her overhead shot

Before class with Coach Tim and his assistant Chris

Photos by Wade

Wade likes to take pictures. I didn't realize how much he enjoyed it, though, until I went to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer and found he'd taken over 90 shots! Here were a few of my favorites:

Music...

I hear a wide range of music being sung throughout the day. And I do mean WIDE. Everything from Primary songs to Coldplay to Rock Band favorites to High School Musical to the latest tunes the kids have picked up at Vacation Bible School this week. Yep, you read that right. Rhiannon's best friend invited her and Wade to their "VBS", and they are really enjoying it. Rhiannon loves the Bible story plays, and Wade likes playing on the playground and eating the snacks. I thought it was good, too, that Rhiannon noticed differences ("they say prayers differently than we do," and "I like that song, but we probably wouldn't sing that in Primary because it sounds like rock and roll music, right, Mom?") It'll be fun to invite Rhiannon's friend to some Primary Activity Days when they pick back up in the fall.

Enjoy a few more musical moments, thanks to my dad's super video skills when they were here last month...

Harmonica "skills"...

Wade singing "Move Along" by the All-American Rejects.

(Nice job by Drummer Brant and Guitarist Jason, too. :))

(WE LOVE THIS SONG). :)

Family work and family play

This morning all four of us worked out in the yard before the heat rolled in. Sometimes it's hard for me to get in the mood to do yardwork, but I was enjoying it today. We got a lot done.

After that we got cleaned up and went to the Fair Oaks Mall. We stared at the long line of people waiting to get an iPhone, got a few things at JcPenney, and then we ate lunch at this fun place called Todai, which has an international seafood and sushi buffet. We'd been there for dinner, but this time the food was so much better (maybe because we got there right when it opened?). Jason got his sushi fix, the kids ate well, and I devoured some yummy miniature cream puffs from the dessert buffet! Our final spur-of-the-moment stop was at a Borders bookstore. The kids each got a book using some coupons they earned from the library's summer reading program. I just love seeing their eyes light up over books!!!

I'm slowly collecting reviews on the new Batman movie. Has anyone seen it? My dad gave it 11 out of 10 stars, and my brother Jordan liked it, too. Hopefully Jason and I will be able to see it before the summer is over.

Let's see, one more random note on gratitude. Wade had been pretty grumpy earlier in the week and it was starting to drive me crazy. I know everyone has bad days, but I couldn't understand what was making my little 4-year-old act like such an old man! Finally one night before bed, I asked him to tell me 5 things that made him happy. Immediately his mood changed and he went to bed with a smile on his face. The rest of the week I asked him to give me a happy list whenever he was unreasonably pouty or ornery or cranky or sad, and it helped him feel better and "move on with his life" every single time. If it works for him, I'm sure it can work for me, too.

Think happy thoughts! ;)

A little confidence sure goes a long way

Initially I was going to call this post "Taking the easy way out." ;) The past two days I've been watching a lot of kids, 3 one day and 3 another day. One friend had doctor visits and the other was going to Girls Camp. It's been interesting being a "mother of 5." You could definitely say that I've taken the easy way out, though, and utilized the wonderful, fabulous, worth-its-weight-in-gold Pool Membership!

Yesterday, in particular, was sure a breeze. Counting the two hours that my friend's kids had swim lessons and swim team, we were at the pool for almost 4 hours, ordered pizza, and had ice cream with Rhiannon's tennis group. THEN we came home and popped in a movie and devoured tons more sugar until the kids' dad came by at 6.

Now, in my defense, I did have several back-up "bored?" activities, but no one was terribly interested. We played so hard at the pool that we were all more than happy to just chill out at home. I was really lucky, too, that our visitors were SUPER GOOD kids who got along great with Rhiannon and Wade.

Let's see, other things of note:

Rhiannon has a killer tennis backhand. She got high fives and "I'm Not Worthy" bows from the British tennis coach yesterday. It was fun to see her excited about that. She also jumped off the diving board for the first time at her Primary swim party last night.

On Monday Wade held onto the pool wall and "swam" over to the 4-5-foot-depth area of the pool. He also FREAKS me out when he "jumps" into the 2-foot area and ends up doing either a half-dive or belly buster. It's great that he has this new-found confidence ever since he realized it was fun to put his head underwater, but I've had to tell him that he's got to take swimming lessons and learn some things before he can be in deeper water. Both kids will have lessons TODAY. ;)

~2 weeks until our New Jersey/New York trip to see Derrick, Traci and Max!

~3 weeks until our family beach trip!

Summer is...

Is it Friday ALREADY? Man. The only bummer about our summer so far is that it's going by too quickly! Inspired by others' posts and my dad's request for pool pics, we took some fun ones this week to share.

Summer is... learning to pedal (Wade)

learning to balance (Rhiannon)

splash bombs!

water beds and puffy, bright-blue skies

a cozy, warm towel after hours of swimming

kicking your feet up

exploring and trying new things!

We've been trying to ride bikes here and there. There's a nice park not too far away that we go to for "bike practice." After several minutes on the basketball court, I wanted the kids to try a trail down by the lake. Hmmm... It went okay. Wade was afraid of going down the "hills" too fast, and Rhiannon was scared that she'd start moving backwards if she tried pedaling up the "hills." It was funny and aggravating at the same time. Baby steps, er, pedaling for now, I guess! :)

Funny!

We love Stephanie Greene's Moose and Hildy books. A few weeks ago The Show-Off caught my eye at the library and ended up being a total blast to read out loud. Wade can almost read it by himself. Rhiannon is "into" fairy series books right now, and honestly isn't terribly interested in a book if it's NOT in a long series. I remember going through that fun stage, too. We're enjoying reading Prince Caspian out loud, too.


I need to get some pictures of Rhiannon at tennis lessons and of the kids in the pool. Seriously, this has got to be the best summer ever, and I'm so happy that we're NOT scheduled to the minute like so many other families seem to be around here. It's nice!

Good call!

A year ago we celebrated Independence Day quietly. We were driving cross-country to get to Virginia and stopped at a little town outside Indianapolis, IN. We ate at Pizza Hut for dinner and may have watched a few fireworks on the hotel TV. We were TIRED. Luckily for us, we'd celebrated a day early with Brant and Chris, our pitstop in Kansas then.

THIS year was different. In the morning we joined friends from church for a fun 4th of July activity. There was a great turnout at Burke Lake. My favorite part was being able to just sit back and enjoy visiting with people. The kids found plenty to do with their friends who were there, too.

Funny 4th of July hats--they were pretty easy to make and a big hit at the ward party

That night Jason made a very Good Call and drove us to Reagan National Airport. We parked in the parking garage, put on some rain ponchos, and then walked up to Gravelly Point Park where we watched the fireworks show at the National Mall a safe, much-less-crowded distance away. The other fun thing was being about 400 yards from the airport's runway and watching planes fly right over the top of us. It was awesome. We'd been toying with the idea of skipping it all together, but I'm so glad we went, even with the rain. Now we'll be able to say that we did in fact see the fireworks of the Nation's Capital!

Another funny side story is that we ran into some friends from the ward and ended up watching the fireworks with them. They'd invited us to go to the Mall with them earlier in the week, but we'd balked at the idea. It was fun to see them and get a second chance to hang out with them. :)

Enjoy the "Grand Finale," minus my annoying moment where I'm trying to capture the plane flying overhead. :) Happy 4th of July!

New discoveries at the Natural History Museum

Rhiannon, Wade, and I checked out the new butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum today. We'd never experienced anything like that before and definitely enjoyed ourselves. Each butterfly was so unique and beautiful! Here were two of my favorites:

Walking into the room...

Rhiannon loved every minute of it. A pretty little orange butterfly landed on her, and she said, "Oh! The butterfly LIKES me!" The hot, humid room was starting to "bug" me and Wade after a while, but we still had a great time.