The boys first movie

I kept wondering when would be a good time to take the boys to the movie theatre for the first time. Harrison can't sit still most times to make it through a movie in the playroom. Lately on Sunday nights, we have a movie night at home. The last couple times, both boys have done really well so when I saw Cars 2 coming out I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to take the boys. Harrison was scared at how big and dark the theatre was so he sat on my lap the whole time. They enjoyed eating popcorn and relaxing. Since Sunday, they keep asking when they get to go back and watch another movie :)

Hiking

I went on a hike Saturday morning with some of the women in our neighborhood. It was a nice time to fellowship and get some exercise in at the same time. Take a look at this rock. I don't know if you can tell by the picture but there are a lot of little seashells on it. It is really hard to imagine that hundreds of years ago this rock was under water. But with earthquakes and settling, this is how much our earth has changed. Now this is a desert area. Isn't that a hard concept to grasp?

Here is a pretty little creek that ran next to us on our path.

Some of the women on the hike.

Swim Lessons part 2

The boys finished their swim lessons. They absolutely amazed me at how much they loved going each day and how well they did. I want to sign them up for another session but I think I am going to wait a couple weeks since they go every day. Here are some pictures from their lessons...
William coming up for air William jumping into the water. Jim, his instructor, asked him the last day if he wanted to jump off the diving board but he respectfully declined :)

Underwater swimming for Will

Off he goes

William titled this picture "The run jump."

Harry on the board

Harrison swimming

I love Harry's face in this one. This is probably the reason why he swallowed a lot of water.

William and his instructor. He had to jump out and then swim back to the wall by himself.

If you can't see William in this picture it is because he is completely under water searching for the blue ring. :)

Harry blowing bubbles.

They got a certificate at the end and candy from Jim and Nikki. William's certificate read:

" William kicks and scoops, is jumping from steps and wall, blowing bubbles, face in water, crawl stroke, kick boarding, retrieving toys from underwater, Good Attitude :) "

Harrison's certificate was different than Will's because of the age group. He mastered: jumping in, climbing out, Ice Cream scoops, kicking, retrieving submerged objects from steps, floating on back, bobbing, elementary backstroke, face in water and blowing bubbles. His instructor wrote, "Harrison was really a joy to work with. He was polite, well mannered, and so much fun. He improved so much from day 1 and I hope he continues with swimming."

I'm so proud of you boys. You are natural fishies :)

Cooling Off

Last week we got to our swim lessons and the parking lot was practically empty. It's never a good thing when you tell a 3 and 4 year old they are going swimming to find out the pool is closed for maintenance issues. The boys were as expected....very disappointed. We headed out for ice cream but they were still sad they couldn't go swimming. We went to Target next where they decided on this little number :)

It may be small but it does the job!

Father's Day 2011

So Thursday as Scott walks in the door, the conversation goes like this:
William: "Daddy, Daddy! Guess what? We got you two books. A lion book and a new bible!"
Me: "William, what did we talk about? What is a surprise?"
William: "We aren't supposed to tell Daddy we bought him a Bible for Father's day."
Then later on in the night while speaking to Scott's mom on the phone, he tells her the same thing with Scott right next to him. I guess you can guess how Christmas will be around here this year. No Surprises. Then Friday after Scott walked in from work, Harry grabs his hands and leads him to our room, he brought him in and showed him behind our door and said, "see Daddy, here is where Mommy hid your presents and we wrapped them for you!"

Harry comes to church with me to work. On Thursday I gave him the project of making Daddy's crown for Father's day. I thought it would take a couple minutes but he was so meticulous with where he placed the gems. It actually took him hours! And we had to go back to the store because two packages of gems were not enough.

So this morning he was very excited to give it to Scott. And he made it clear that he had to wear it all day long!
And he did! He even wore it to church (obviously took it off in the Sanctuary but had it on everywhere else) and lunch and he is still wearing it.

Here is "the lion book" William was referring to. It is about a little lion cub who is thankful for his daddy. He made Scott read it to him right away this morning.

And the Bible! As if he didn't know what he was getting :)

Happy Father's Day! I am so blessed to have such wonderful Fathers in my life. I have an amazing husband who is the best dad I know. Of-course my Dad taught me morals and ethics and is an excellent role model. And then I am so lucky to have gained another dad through marriage and he is an awesome supportive dad as well.

Harry's Day

William has been in preschool for a full year now. My thought at the beginning of the school year was that Harrison and I would have some bonding time together. And even though we did, it wasn't quite what I had in mind. Because it is easier to work at the church with only one kid in tow, I would work the mornings William was in school. Of-course Harry is a great helper and very good. And he enjoys going to church. William's last week of school was last week so on Tuesday I surprised Harry. Instead of heading to church, we headed to ChuckECheese. I wish you could see his face. I bought 90 tokens! Harrison was so shocked that every time he said, "one more time?" I would say "yes" and hand him a coin. 90 coins last a long time but even longer when you get there so early that the workers unlock the machines for you so that you can play for free! Here are some pictures from our fun morning!

And I had to add this one. The boys are loving swim lessons. I am so proud of how well they are doing. It shocks me that after only 5 lessons so far, they are so much more advanced than I thought they would be. They are my little fishies!!!!

Swim Lessons 2011

The first day of swim lessons began today. I signed them up for a 2:1 ratio lesson for two weeks Monday-Friday classes. I figured it would be easier for our kids to have classes every day than to spread it out over weeks. And to my surprise, MY kids were a very few of the only 3-4 years olds NOT crying!!!! I say this all of the time that William can be very anti-social and not daring at all. Well he got there and was impatient to get into the water! Harrison was a bit more reserved but I think it is because he is coming down with a cold. The little boy that was with Harrison screamed bloody murder for a good 20 minutes. This is the first time in a very long time that I didn't dread doing this by myself. Scott even called to wish me good luck ahead of time because taking the boys to lessons of any sort has become a nightmare at times because William does not like to participate and then Harrison will follow suit. I think we are really going to enjoy these next two weeks of lessons.

I'm so proud of them because they did everything the instructors asked them to do. And Harrison kept telling me about "Nikki" his instructor the whole way home. (Harrison is in blue) When I showed William the pictures I took, he said, "That's my new teacher friend, Jim."

Look at his smile! Yay!!!! When we got home, they asked when we get to go on vacation! I think they associate our trip to Palm Desert (our mini vacation) to swimming at the hotel pool. Believe me boys, I'm ready for vacation as much as you are! :)

Archer Tidbits

Oh the lovely conversations we have.

Preface: Harry kicks a puzzle piece under the refrigerator.
William: "Mom, we need to get the puzzle piece out from underneath the refrigerator."
Me: "I can't Will, I'm can't move it."
William: "Oh yeah, we definitely need someone strong enough to move this. Oh yea, God is strong! Lets get God!"
Me: smiling "Yes William, God is strong but I don't think he is going to move the fridge for us."
William:" Well maybe Spiderman, he is strong too. But you know God is stronger and he would beat Spiderman in a fight."

Other things I don't want to forget that are cute. When Harry visits us in the middle of the night, he is so polite. It is really hard to turn him down when he wants to get in our bed. He comes to my side and puts his cute little face to mine and says, "cuse me." That's signal for move over, I'm coming in! When we aren't already asleep he comes to my side and says, "peas I seep with you?" And if you have seen Harry lately, he gives the saddest more defeated look.