Emily on the diving board

Emily is now in swim lessons with Kyle and was so happy to go off the diving board! She even did it twice! The first time I was able to take video of it. And the second time are the still shots. It's really great they have them do this before it sinks in that it might be scary to jump off the diving board into a 13 foot deep pool! Emily did great!

Emily's ballet camp

Emily was in ballet camp this week. She had to wear her pink tutu, pink tights, pink ballet shoes and her hair in a bun. Good thing she likes pink! She's the cutest little ballerina ever!

At the end of the week, on her birthday, they had a little recital where they showed us two short routines that they worked on during the week.

Emily's ballet recital


Emily's dance routine - Walk Like an Egyptian

Kyle's week

While Emily went to ballet camp this week, Kyle and I had some 1 on 1 fun together. We played soccer and tennis, went to the Science Center and bowling, rode bikes and saw Emily's recital. It was a fun chance to spend time with Kyle at the speed of Kyle. He sure likes to go go go! And he sure is a good bowler, knocking down a spare!

Lining up

Winding up

Go ball go!

Finishing it off with an ice cream cookie sandwich

What's that?!

The other day after swim lessons, Emily points to a pay phone - yes a pay phone - and says, "Mommy, what's that?!" I explained to her how we used to have pay phones, before everyone had a cell phone. I even told her about the phone book too! It was quite funny to think of how times change so fast that a pay phone and phone book are such foreign objects in this day of cell phones and internet.

Little golfers

We took the kids golfing today at the little executive course down the street from us... errr rather the driving range as all of the tee times were taken on this holiday day. It was a blast! And amazingly, they were good at making contact. I remember my first time golfing and being quite frustrated at not being able to hit the ball. Kyle and Emily did very well. Kyle had such a blast with it. Emily enjoyed it for a little bit but then preferred watching.

Kyle golf words of wisdom

Kyle - I'm 3 years old and golfing

Emily swinging away

Kyle's big hit

Emily's turn

Kyle doing tick tock golf and ending it with quite a shot!!

Kyle and the rental mini-clubs

Emily and the mini-clubs

Check out the form!

And the follow-through!

Lining it up

Contact!

Balboa Park Carousel

Kyle and Emily finally rode the carousel in Balboa Park after going there for quite a few years! As usual on carousels, they had a great time.

Swimming noodles

Kyle and Emily are now both in swim lessons. Emily is loving her first swimming session and Kyle continues to love it. Both are making great progress. Kyle will now swim on his own with a noodle. Prior to lessons, he would not let go for anything despite our assurances he would still float. But now he will swim and put his face in the water to practice the full swimming process.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!! We started our day off with a breakfast potluck in the neighborhood. All the kids decorated their bikes for the bike parade later in the day around the promenade. Later in the afternoon the festivities started again with a potluck dinner, the bike parade and a cotton candy machine. Kyle and Emily had a blast playing with the kids and riding their patriotic bikes. Kyle was sure it was a race as you can see in the video.

We finished the evening off at a friend's house who lives up up on the hill so we could see all of the bay fireworks from their patio. Pretty spectacular. The kids - 1.5, 3, 3 & 6 - loved the fireworks and gave us a play by play. They had impressive energy for being up so late. I think it was 10:45 before Kyle and Emily went to bed!

The view of the fireworks, but without any fireworks going off. Yes, Kyle wasn't too keen on the big booms, but dealt very well with it.

Padres game

Friday, Kyle and Emily took us to the Padres game! They earned tickets through the library summer reading program by reading a lot of books. So after swim lessons, we headed over to Petco and saw the Padres play the Astros. We are not sure who won as it was 0-0 when we left in the 4th inning due to bedtime. Nonetheless, it was a great time and a new view of the ballpark for the kids. We typically sit in the sandbox seats, but this time we were in real seats. And the kids did reasonably well for this change of scenery. Then again, a hotdog and lemonade sure help.

Kayaking

I don't have any pictures for this post, but want to document it anyhow. This weekend, Kyle and Emily went on their first kayak ride. We did our Father's Day a week late and Jeff decided he wanted to kayak. So we headed down to PB take the kids kayaking in the bay where the water would be much calmer than we are accustomed to kayaking (out in the ocean in La Jolla). We rented a double kayak, but they configured it such that Jeff was in the normal back seat with a seat for Kyle put in just in front of him. Then I was in the normal front passenger seat with a seat put in for Emily in front of me. The kids had a blast looking for fishies and animals. We saw a sea lion. In fact, we saw a whole family of sea lions swimming and basking in the sun. We saw a lot of pelicans and other sea birdies. We saw many boats and some pirate boats too! And we saw doggies on kayaks too. :-) Kyle had a good time taking turns paddling with Jeff. Emily just liked the ride and keeping a look out for sea life and wasn't so much interested in paddling. :-) This was pretty momentus because they were both reticent at first when we told them we were going kayaking. But once out on the water, they were both fine and had a great time.

Kyle jumps off the diving board

For the past 2 weeks, Kyle has been taking swim lessons. Emily has diligently sat on the sidelines, cheering Kyle on as her collarbone heals. She will be joining him in lessons next week! Kyle has progressed very well with his swimming skills and passed level 2 with this session. One of the highlights was going off the diving board into the deep end - 13 feet deep! It was really quite impressive because Kyle didn't even hesitate to jump in to his teacher. He LOVES jumping and enjoys swim lessons so he jumped right in!

Slow dancing

Little runner

Yes, I realize this video is Kyle running in circles, but after dinner he seriously ran for 30 minutes around the kitchen island. I think we have a runner on our hands... errr feet. Just like Daddy!

Please excuse the funny view. I recorded it sideways as I was trying to be sneaky recording Kyle - clearly he noticed - and then had to flip it in editing.

Ouch

We had quite the stroller accident Wednesday night. We were running a 5k race when the front tire broke off, ripping the brakes off with it causing the stroller to flip over. The kids were pinned underneath. I was pushing, but couldn't stop my forward momentum so I flipped over too, landing on top of the stroller. Kyle and I had some bumps and bruises, but poor little Emily fractured her collarbone.

We've had beach picnics, zoo picnics, and snow picnics. Now we have had a hospital ER picnic. This is about 9:30pm as Emily hadn't had dinner yet, though I might add we got to the ER after 8pm and she was registered, seen, x-rayed, evaluated, slinged and released by 9:30pm. So here she is enjoying her lovely hospital picnic of graham crackers, dried fruit, OJ, milk, banana, and peanut butter & jelly sandwich. Here, not only did she hurt, she was so mad about the Snoopy sling not being pink or very girly.

The next day, before her last day of preschool, with her sling dolled up - princess stickers attached, her arm wrapped in her Deedee (the one I made for her) and Sling Doggie Dog, as she named it - it was a little gift from the ER.

Dance recital

Saturday, Kyle and Emily had their first dance recital. It was beyond cute! Their class is normally 4 kids, 2 of which being Kyle & Emily. For the recital, they combined with another of Ms. Sarah's dance classes with kids the same age. They did three dances. Kyle is the only boy - black shorts and white shirt and Emily is right next to him. Unfortunately, they get a bit hidden behind some of the kids and they go off screen as I try to watch the recital live and not through a tiny screen.

A special thank you to Clark for rearranging his Saturday to see Kyle & Emily dance!

Boogie Bugle Boy (tap) - Kyle always wore his regular running shoes for dance class. He just likes his shoes. Not to mention, he got new running shoes on Friday that make him "run super fast and jump super high".



The slow and fast song (ballet)



Introductions


Good bye song (with the older kids too). From The Sound of Music - this one's for you Tommy!

Science Goggles

We have science class this month as well. The first week was about science equipment. One of such pieces being goggles. So the kids got to test them out and shoot off rockets - water and alka seltzer in a film canister. They have done this before in science class, but it's always a hit. We even got the equipment to do the rockets at home, except the goggle part and Kyle & Emily are more than aware we were forgetting them. But they sure do enjoy doing the rockets nonetheless. So if you hear hysterical giggling behind our house, it's Kyle & Emily setting off water and alka seltzer rockets.

Goggled friends at science class - AJ, Carter, Kyle, Emily and their favorite teacher, Ms. Jamie