Fun on the diving board

Summer is finally here and the pools are open! Here are some cute videos of the kids having fun on the diving board last weekend. :-)

Bluebonnet pictures 2015

Hi! I do realize that it's been a very long time since I updated our blog . . . things are busy over here! I do plan to do an update sometime, but not today, ha ha.  Instead, here are some photos from our annual bluebonnet photo session. :-)  

More hiking pictures! :-)

We got quite a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago, so naturally we headed to our favorite hiking spot to see how much water was in the creek. :-)  Here are some pictures!

Hiking pictures

Here are some pictures from hiking a couple of weekends ago. :-) 

First Days

We had some exciting days over here over the past month! Oliver and Buttercup started school the second week of August. Oliver wasn't super excited about going back to school, but as all of you can imagine, Buttercup was OVER THE MOON and COULD NOT WAIT TO GO. :-)  

Look how cute they are! So big! Also, Oliver must have had a major growth spurt (and holy big head, Batman), because I don't remember him being this much taller than Buttercup a year ago. 

I took this picture below right when we got to school and were about to walk them in. I thought Theodore was going to be upset to see his big sister go off to school, too, but he was pretty nonchalant about it. :-) I love his sweet little smile!   

Since it was Buttercup's first day of kinder, I gave her the choice of whether we walked her to her classroom first, or walked Oliver to his classroom first. She wanted to see where Oliver's classroom was, so we walked him in first, much to his chagrin. He actually wanted us to drop him off at the front of the school so he wouldn't even have to walk in with us! This is a very forced smile, ha ha.  :-)

Then it was Buttercup's turn! We walked down the hall to her classroom, and found her desk. I was taking this picture (below) and asked Theodore if he wanted to give her one last hug, and she said, "Um, I'm okay, Mom. Can you please go now?" Ha ha!!!! Needless to say, there were no tears and she had a great first day. :-)  

  

Then, earlier this week, it was Theodore's turn!!! He started preschool on Tuesday, and he was so excited! He helped me pack his lunchbag, and couldn't wait to get to his classroom. 

Once we got to his preschool, however, he started to get a little upset that I was leaving him, and he cried and cried when I left. :-(  It's no fun leaving one of your kids when they're crying, even when you know they'll be okay! I didn't get a call, though, so I knew he was doing okay. He did end up having a fun time, although he held onto his lovey all day. :-)  

For preschool on Thursday, he asked me to take a picture of him and me, and he helped me tape it to the back of his stuffed animal so he could look at it at school. :-)  He proudly showed it to all of the teachers on the way to his classroom, and he didn't cry once all day! I'm hoping this is a new trend and that he continues to have a great time without any tears.  :-)  So proud of these kiddos for growing up and doing new things! 

Update!

I have a little bit of time right now, so I thought I'd write a quick update while I have the chance! Our summer is winding down (Oliver and Buttercup start school on Monday, eek!), and we have had a lot of fun adventures that we will remember for years to come. Here's what the kids are up to these days!

Oliver:
At the beginning of the summer, he decided that his goal was to learn how to write in cursive, ha ha! It took him two days to learn how to write all of the letters, and he's been writing everything in cursive ever since. :-) 

Oliver still loves building with Legos and has built several dioramas this summer. My favorite was a mad scientist's laboratory, that was very amazing with all of the details that Oliver added to it. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it before Oliver destroyed it to build something else! He also built a city with a few different scenes (a park, a beach, a gatehouse with a tower behind it), and is currently working on a diorama of Blue Hole in Wemberley (a swimming hole). :-) I love seeing what he comes up with; he is so creative! 

One last thing about Oliver is that he is continuing to do great with swimming! He loves it, and his swim coach has moved him up to the next level of swim team, which he'll start in a couple of weeks. So proud of him! 



Buttercup:   
She decided that she wanted to learn how to read better this summer, but she refused to let me help her. (Not surprising for anyone who knows her!) It took her a bit longer, but she never gave up, and she is reading pretty well now! She has memorized about 75 sight words, and is pretty good at blending sounds together and sounding new words out. I love this new stage of her life, where I can see her strong will working toward a positive goal. :-) 

Buttercup has also become more of a girly girl this summer. She still likes to roughhouse and wrestle with the boys, but she's more inclined to go in her room to read or play quietly with her babies or Calico Critters dollhouse. She also likes to build her own Lego creations like Oliver, but now she is getting better at putting the pre-made sets together! She used to not have the patience for sitting and following the instructions, but over the summer she put two sets together all by herself! 

And Buttercup is also still swimming, and she's doing really well! She has been on the entry level swim team for 3 or 4 months, and she is doing great. She's one of the only 5 year olds, and she keeps up with (and is usually faster than) the 7 and 8 year olds. She had her first swim meet in May, and she won three of her four heats and even beat a 10 year old!  :-)  

Theodore:
He is still a cute little stinker! He tries to do everything the other kids are doing, sometimes with disastrous results. But he is super fun and he says so many funny things every day! He also likes building with Legos like his big brother and sister, although now we have to watch him very closely when he's building with the little Legos because he ate a small green brick one day when he and Oliver were alone in their room. (Out of our three kids, I definitely pegged him as the one who would eat a Lego.) Theodore is also working on riding his bike, and learning how to swim. He has been stuck on the same level for several weeks at his swim lesson because he refuses to float on his back, but we go swimming 3 or 4 times a week, and he has taught himself how to do an underwater somersault, dive down to the bottom to retrieve a toy, and do his version of freestyle. 

Here's a funny story about Theodore!  He loves to say potty words (which we're working on), and after church last Sunday, he climbed out of the car, hopped on his scooter, and rode up and down the sidewalk, saying as many potty words as he could. It was like he had held it in all morning at church, and just had to let it out!  I had to go in the garage so he wouldn't see me laughing! It was so funny.  :-)    

Hi!

Howdy! I realize that it's been a while since I updated our blog. Sorry about that! I do have a bunch of fun, summer pictures to upload, and will do that some time soon (in reality, it will probably be after the kids start school). But in the meantime, here's a super cute video of Theodore swimming (or "swimming") and diving underwater to touch the fish on the bottom of the pool. Enjoy!