I was so proud of Kayley today on her first day of swimming lessons. I signed her up last week and almost missed the cutoff to do the first session (pregnancy brain here!) But I wanted her to get her swimming lessons in before the baby gets here. This is her first year of lessons so based off the descriptions of classes, she was between two different classes, so we just took the one that was open, she ended up in the class maybe a bit ahead of what she was ready for. She was actually the youngest in her class at 4 1/2, all the other kids were 5 1/2 and up to about 8. They all knew how to put their faces in the water and even go under, which I knew Kayley was not really ready for. But her teacher was very patient with her and she did great and was very willing to at least try to put her face in the water. The class even took turns jumping into the water to the teacher and the teacher kind of let her go under and had her pop right back up. She cried of course and I was fully expecting her to not want to do anything else with swimming, but her teacher kept making a big deal out of what she had accomplished and Kayley still did everything else for the class. We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but I think she had fun cause she did tell me she wanted to go back tomorrow. The top right pic is of right after she went under and her teacher is consoling her a bit. And Cora had a hard time with not being there with Kayley in her class. We are just having Kayley do swimming lessons this year, we may have Cora do some next year, but she's still in the age where the parent has to get in the water and this prego Momma is not getting in the water with her this late in the pregnancy! I'm lucky to get a few days a week at the pool in our neighborhood! So she was very good with not fussing too much, but still had fun!
Last night we had a huge storm that woke up both the girls. Kayley got really scared so we had her go down and sleep with Cora. I was fully expecting someone to fall out the bed as it's only a twin bed, but all was well and neither one of them woke up again with the storm until the morning when it was time to wake up. I have a feeling we will be doing this quite a bit now.
Yesterday we went on our typical Sunday walk in the evening. Usually we just go around the block, but this time we ventured out on some trails. The girls loved it and Einstein loved all the new places he could mark his territory with! We actually got to see a Beaver taking supplies to the Beaver Dam he was building. The girls really liked seeing that. It was fun, but awfully humid thanks to Missouri weather. Cora kept saying she was going to run faster and more so she could get more "weaty" It was cute!
Earlier this week Michelle came up with the kids and we had a playdate together. We had promised the kids we would go swimming (Michelle has the swimming pictures) but when they got here it was very cloudy and rainy looking. It wasn't raining so we decided to venture out anyway and packed our lunches. We were the ONLY ones at the pool, but it was probably better that way and the kids had more fun having the pool to themselves! Then by the time we were ready to head home, the sun decided to come out...oh well, we'll have to get a tan later! Although Kayley still managed to get a slight burn...I guess there is no skipping sunblock on her!
Also earlier last week we went to the library's special tiger day. There's a Big Cat refuge in Eureka Springs, AR that comes up every year to do a presentation. It was neat for a library activity. They had a presentation about their facility, a table with souveneirs, a place for face painting, and then two full grown tigers in the parking lot for the kids to look at. They were in a cage of course, but it was really neat! Cora was the only one to be brave enough to do the face painting, Kayley didn't even want it on her arm. This is a picture of it a few hours afterward, but it still had most of it on there. It was pretty cool watching them paint her face. She loved it!
The girls were just excited to use some of the swimming stuff that's been packed up since last year. These are actually mine and Nick's goggles, but they liked playing with them anyway.
Then a couple of weeks ago we went to the Bobal's house to see Baby Anderson and play with Kaelyn. It had a been a while since we had seen Kaelyn, but the girls picked up playing with each other like they had only been apart for a day or so. The girls loved being able to hold Anderson, especially Cora of course who LOVES to hold babies! Kayley is into this thing where she hates her picture taken, so I couldn't get her to smile at me for a good one. Maybe with our baby she'll get over it! But the girls had a fun picnic (pretend and for real)...they were playing upstairs before lunch time and on their own got out a blanket and some cheerios and had a picnic, then we had a real picnic after playing in the sprinkler/water table. On the way home, Kayley told me that she loved playing at Kaelyn's house because Kaelyn has toys that she likes to play with and Kaelyn lets her play with her toys. It was cute and I'm so glad they are all such good friends. I'm excited that Anderson will be close in age to our little boy and they will now be able to develop a friendship as well!
The next week we were lucky to have them here again so we ventured out to Crown Center doing Kaleidoscope, the Clifford display, and the fountains. It was yet another fun day and the girls all had a blast. Sarah and I even survived the heat of outside while they were playing in the fountains! 
Lots of water fun in the fountains! It was the perfect day for it, but just not for us who didn't wear our suits, but some of the kids playing there (not our girls) made sure we were wet as they kept trying to splash everyone.
Then last week was Kayley's last day of her swimming lessons. Daddy was able to come to Monday's lesson and told her that if she jumped off the side of the pool with all the other kids to her teacher that she'd get to have a treat and pick out a toy from the store. She got in line everyday and chickened out everyday. So, finally on the last day, she got up enough courage to do it. She didn't jump off the deeper part like all the other kids, she asked the teacher to go to the more shallower part, but she made sure we knew that the water was still up to her waist when she got in. Cora of course still hated the fact that she couldn't be in the water, so I let her soak her feet a couple of times and that seemed to appease her.
Here's some pics of her getting her award and popsicle. She has slept with her award a few times and is pretty proud of it! The bottom right picture is proof of her jumping off the side to her teacher for Daddy's sake since he wasn't able to come to the last day of lessons with work. She did get to pick out a toy and was pretty excited about it. Cora made sure Daddy knew that during the week she jumped off the side of the pool to Mommy so she could get a toy too. She is actually a lot more brave in the water than Kayley so she does do great jumping off to me or Nick.
This last weekend some friends of ours came up from Columbia for some girls' weekend fun. So Michelle treated me to a pedicure since we're getting ready to have our baby. It was my first professional pedicure and let me tell you it was a bit of heaven! Well, when I got home Cora and Kayley noticed my pretty piggies and the next day Cora told me that "I wish someone would paint my toe nails!" Who can resist a cute request like that!?! So on Sunday after their morning bath before church I painted all their toe nails and finger nails...they thought that was the best! I guess I should do it more often for them!! Anyway, Cora was the only one the only one that would pose with me, Kayley was too embarrassed! But aren't they the cutest little feet you've ever seen!?! (Cora's...not mine by the way!)
Then also on that same Saturday, Nick took the girls to the fireworks stand to pick up a few sparklers and snap poppy things and snakes. We did the sparklers last night and of course the girls were freaked out just by the sparklers since they are in the category of fireworks. Sadly though as soon as Kayley got the courage to hold one, we only had one left and she accidentally dropped it before Nick lit it and it fell underneath the deck. So, now we'll have to get her to get the courage up again and maybe buy more boxes next time! We'll see how 4th of July with fireworks goes at our house! We may have to buy them some ear plugs!
