John and Anna did swim lessons (aka water survival boot camp) with Ms. Glendy earlier this month.

She was highly recommended by friends and apparently is so popular I got one of the last few slots for my preferred location (and I signed up in February!)

Ms. Glendy teaches a week-long class, every day for 30 minutes. It is a little pricey and not for the faint of heart. If you're not willing to see your kids suffer a bit to earn the respect of water, this may be a hard pill to swallow. My mom came to witness the first day and I thought she might have a heart attack watching her precious babies crying so much.

After having the kids go through her class, I do highly recommend Ms. Glendy. I felt she balanced the right amount of "hard work" with love. She gave John but Anna, especially, lots of hugs and kisses throughout the lessons. And the change from Monday to Friday was INVALUABLE. Can you put a price tag on safety?

We still need to practice a lot but I am so thankful for the skills Ms. Glendy instilled in my kids. In Houston, we are around pools and lakes and other bodies of water so much it is important that the kids have some sort of survival training. Since John is older and got the "float-on-your-back" part pretty quickly, he was able to move on and even try some breaststroke breathing/methods.

This is John on the second day ( a little hard to watch....for me, at least!!)



John on Thursday....a total 180 degree turn! So proud of him!



Anna Bear







We've been to the pool since and John has jumped off the side of the pool, dove for rings, and tried all of his tricks he learned with Ms. Glendy. He is really learning to like the water. Little Anna is still timid but she does love the water.....as long as she doesn't have to do the work, as Glendy pointed out. She doesn't like her face going underwater but she does turn herself, can get her nose and mouth out of the water, and she can float on her back decently for a short while.

Now, I don't have false security because I know we have to be very dilligent near the pool even still.
Glendy says a child usually has 5-8 seconds before they start to inhale water and things go really bad so my hope and prayer is that the kids have learned what to do in those 5-8 seconds, may they never happen!
Let the summer begin!

After Easter I realized I needed to regroup quickly to plan the kiddos' joint birthday parties. So behind! I wanted it to be nice but low maintenance.

I ordered some very cute invites from Pink Pickle Studios on etsy.com. One of the few sellers who has personalized gymnastics invites but I think they turned out really cute :)

I always get these type of invites printed at overnightprints.com. You kind of have to do this in advance to take advantage of the cheapest shipping option but because they run awesome promotions you can usually get 50 cardstock invites for around $12-$15 including shipping and envelopes! I know, wacky, huh?



Pink Pickle Studios also made a sheet of printable party cirlces which I turned into cupcake toppers. These are so easy to do. You print the page of graphics on cardstock, punch out using a 2" scallop punch, then stick a wooden skewer between 2 circles and glue.

I'm kinda obsessed with cupcake toppers? I made them last year for John's 3rd birthday and I had to do it again this year.




I thought I would go all Martha, baking and icing my own cupcakes but in the end I bought them all baked and iced from Kroger. Then I did a little Photoshop action on the party circles and used the same circles to make thank you labels for the party favors. I know I probably should have purchased thank you circles but I went into a panic at the 11th hour when I decided I needed a cute label for the favors, like, yesterday.



I am certainly looking forward to girly-themed parties and fun boy parties in the future but with the kids having similar preschool age friends/siblings and 35-40 invitees we just went with ease (and air-conditioning) this year.





John's favorite gymnastics coach was there to help out


Running on the trampoline...WHEEEEEEE!!!


Intensity on our faces!!!!!


Even the big kids had a blast!


Happy Birthday, Anna!

So of course on Monday morning I was scrambling (as usual) to get the kids off to school when I realized it was Pet Day at MDO. Yikes! 20 minutes until we must leave and we have no pet for the Pet Show parade. My child will be scarred for life if he doesn't get to show off his "pet".

In absolute panic and desperation, I race outside with the 2 kids following me like ducklings, a spade in my hand desperately digging in the flower beds for an earthworm. I had planned to do this on Sunday night but obviously forgot. The good news is that my neighbors got a glimpse of crazy as I jumped from one spot in the flower beds to another in an attempt to find a worm that was bigger in radius than a toothpick. I was sweating, it was 8:55 AM (school starts at 9), we finally decided on a little guy. I frantically punched holes in the top of the tupperware that was to be his temporary home and we were off. (I don't even know if earthworms need that much air but I didn't want to risk a tragedy)

We named him "Banjo" after John's current fave tune: "Oh, Susannah"



John was very proud of Banjo and a little concerned when we first "bottled him up" that he might miss his family. I assured him we would bring him back to his rightful home