Awesome Weekend

Although I have two girls that have been fighting fevers all weekend...it was a great few days as we had our friends from NJ visit. Brooke had a fever Friday morning but perked up by that afternoon, however Baileigh was the next victim and was miserable Friday night. Apparently some bug went around at VBS this week and tons of kids had the same symptoms, mine included.

Thankfully both of my girls perked up at various times throughout the weekend...long enough to have some fun with the King girls and for me to get a few pictures.
After the Kings spent Saturday in DC we gathered again at our house for a cookout and some fun in the sprinkler.
Lila and Brooke...

We were sparred from all the mosquitoes thanks to our tiki torches.

I'm thankful that I have a friend like Melissa whom my daughter chooses to hold hands with while walking instead of mommy. Thankful...didn't say I wasn't maybe jealous.

All our girls being silly giving each other some love.

I'm not a professional...but if you knew this group you would be really impressed at my skills and ability to get all 6 of them looking at the camera with cute expressions!

I love this shot of my girls...just hate how old they both look.

So now its back to reality and fighting fevers. I know it may not look like it from these pictures, but Baileigh and Brooke crawled into bed tonight with 103 fevers. This has made it a rough start to summer considering Mckenna also had a bug a week earlier. Hopefully we can shake it quickly and I'm also hoping that we didn't share our germs with the Kings!

Good Grafitti

The girls aren't really supposed to write on their playset...but when I saw what they had put on the outside of the fort it was really hard to discipline them.

Write A Caption For This Picture...

Father's Day Hugs and Kisses

3 Months Old

Yesterday marked 3 months for Morgan! Hard to believe its only been 3 months...feels like she has always been one of our girls.
She is full of expressions and frequently found just smiling away regardless of what is going on around her.

This is her "excited to see you" face...cracks us up!

My Facelift!

Its impossible to not notice the new look of my blog thanks to the talents of my friend, Heather! Seriously though...the colors, the design, the font are all perfect and completely capture my blog and I really appreciate her listening to my paragraphs of ramblings about things I did and didn't like.

Her skills are available for you, too...check out her handy work at Moritz Fine Designs. In addition to blogs she does a ton of other things like invitations, business cards, birth announcements, photo story boards etc. If you like the look of my blog please leave me/her a comment and let us know, as well as checking out her website.

Oh, and I know you're wondering...yes, that is me in the left hand corner juggling life...minus about 40lbs.

In case you're wondering...

This is what a second grader looks like!

Burke Lake Park

Today we met some of Brooke's preschool classmates at a local park for a playdate. This park has a small train and carousel in addition to the traditional playground.

The girls on the train.
The whole gang...the kids on each end are siblings and then Brooke and four of her classmates in the middle. Mckenna looks so big compared to these three year olds!
Having fun on the carousel.

Brooke and her buddy Lilly...they are going to be in the same classroom next year, too.

As we walked past this small planter box with a few flowers Mckenna said, "Mom, get your camera, this would be a nice spot for a picture!" My budding photographer.

Today was the girl's first official swim meet. My thoughts summarized: early, hot, early, early, fun!

Being that I'm not a morning person I totally feel there will be an ironic twist in this fun summer activity and that I'll get one my girls hooked on this sport and find myself getting up at 5:00am for swim practices the remainder of my life...or until they can drive.

Despite the early mornings, I am thrilled with the results I see in the girls in just two weeks. Just days ago Mckenna would freak out if she had to swim on her back and held on to either a coach or kickboard with a deathgrip. Today she swam in the backstroke heat and went end to end without stopping and at a pretty good pace! Last time Brad saw her swim at time trials she was in tears and holding on to her coach...he could hardly believe it was the same kid one week later! Here she is finishing up her backstroke heat.
If you look closely you can see Mckenna in lane 1 (far left) wearing pink goggles and jumping in and Baileigh is in lane three in the green goggles...they are the two swimmers in the picture with a slow start so they aren't in the water yet...made for a good picture though.
Baileigh won her freestyle heat...by a lot! Here she is after touching the wall, you can see how far ahead she was of the rest of the kids. This was her first event so it was great for her confidence.
After the freestyle...
Baileigh also swam the breastroke...its her weakest stroke right now but she did well.

Any Suggestions?

If you notice my blog layout you'll see that on the right sidebar all my links are way down on the bottom right...when I try go to layout and the area where you can "add a gadget" there is a big empty block of space on the top right. I can move my various gadget boxes but when I bring them up to the empty space and unclick they immediately drop back down to where they were...this just happened one day w/ FB and I keep waiting for it to rectify itself but it doesn't seem to be changing.

Anyone else ever have this issue and have any solutions or suggestions?

Time Trials

The girl's swim team had time trials this past Saturday. It was a good opportunity for them to experience what a swim meet will be like...cold and early!

Baileigh swam in all four heats...freestyle, breast stroke, backstroke and butterfly (despite the fact she can't do the stroke she wanted to try).

Mckenna is truly still learning to swim and gets nervous in the pool if pushed outside her comfort zone (which means near the stairs in the shallow end and on her tummy, not her back). Although there were a few tears on Saturday morning she was a trooper and swam in three of the heats. There were a lot of kids in her age group that panicked and wouldn't even get in the pool. It didn't help that it was 7am and cool outside and the water was freezing after a week of rain!

Brooke giving her sister a congratulations hug after she finished her final heat.

In general the girls seem to be enjoying this experience. They like the practices as they are with their friends and a lot like swimming lessons. Right now they practice after school from 5:00-6:00 and once school is done they'll practice from 9:15-10:15 which is reasonable. The thing I'm still in denial about is the fact that we have to be at the pool for meets at 6:00am for warm up. Then the other team has 30 minutes for warm up and meets start at 7am. Thankfully this weekend is a home meet so the pool is two minutes from our house...but when it is an away meet that means we may have to leave our house at 530am on a Saturday!!!!!!!! Insane. I still can't believe I agreed to this, or that the girls are doing it voluntarily!

Sisters

I wonder what they're saying!

Good-Bye Rosebud

Today we said good-bye to Mckenna's fish, Rosebud. She lived a long life (for our tank) and we had a moment of silence in her honor.
Rosebud leaves behind a spouse and 16 baby fish.

Swim Team

Last week started our initiation into swim team. One of the mother's told me yesterday that it is a cult! Comments like that make me wonder what I've voluntarily signed up for. The girls are excited though and in one week I've already started to see improvements just with the consistency of being in the water every day and receiving instruction.
Currently they practice from 5:00-6:00 until school gets out, once summer starts their practice is from 9:15-10:00. That time slot isn't ideal (I would prefer 11:00-12:00), but the older kids start their practices at 7:00am so I guess we're lucky we're in the youngest age group. Its the Saturday morning meets that I'm still in denial about...show times around 6:00am! Meets start at 7:00am usually so their done in the pool by around 11:00am when the pool opens to the public! That means up at 5:30am on a Saturday! That is the middle of the night to my girls! Hopefully that means they'll crash on Saturday afternoons. This may be the only summer we try this...but I figure its like extended swim lessons with kids from their neighborhood and school. That is Baileigh with the green goggles, swim cap and the kickboard looking at the camera. In the bottom right hand corner is Mckenna with pink goggles.

While they practice Brooke chills in the 2ft kiddie pool and Morgan sleeps and I work on my tan. Its a rough life but I'm handling it somehow.

Plus it gives me a little time to play with my camera on this pretty subject matter. These two pictures of Brooke are two of my favorite yet. I've received some advice from a few professional friends and I'm trying everything they suggested and practicing all the time.

Exploring

On Saturday we decided to explore some of the beautiful trails around our house.
We mapped out a plan after looking at some satellite maps on line and headed into the woods towards a local marina.
The trails followed a small riverbed that eventually joined the Occoquan river. Daddy and the girls rented a paddle boat while Morgan and I hung out and enjoyed the day on the dock.
I think Daddy did most of the work but Baileigh was a big help and prevented them from going in circles the entire time.
It was a fun afternoon where we felt like we "did something" as a family without making it into a huge outing or spending a ton of money. I think this excursion may become a regular outing for our family.