Swim Lessons Day 3

 Ben continued to work on floating today.  To complete station two he has to push off from the side of the pool and float for five seconds both on his back and front.

 Yesterday, Mama asked where Mollie is at during swim lessons.  I tried to take a few pictures of Mollie and I today.  I'm never good at self-portraits.  We almost forgot Blankie today.  About a mile and a half up the road from our house Mollie said, "Where is Bay?" (how she says Blankie)  First, I said, we couldn't turn around but then I changed my mind.  It would have been a long hour without Blankie.

 Mollie was standing behind me fixing my hair.  Yesterday she was kind of fussy at swim lessons.  Probably because we had already been to the grocery store that morning.  Today, she was very good.  She got used to waiting for Ben during his t-ball practices and games.

More smiles from Ben.

Swim Lessons 2

 Day two of swim lessons.  Ben completed the first station and earned a sticker to put on his certificate.

 Completing his 10th head bob (ducking his head completely under water and blowing bubbles out his nose) to complete station 1.

Station 2 begins with learning to float by yourself for 5 seconds.  Ben said floating is kind of scary.

Swim Lessons

 Ben started swim lessons today at the Y.  Parents are allowed to stay during lessons at the Y, so I took a few pics.  Ben is waiting for his first turn in the water with the instructor.  There are six instructors and each instructor works with four or five children.  They seem to be grouped by age.  There are small kids like Ben all the way up to some that look like 5th or 6th graders.   

 Today they worked on blowing bubbles through their noses.

To complete the first "station" and get a sticker on his certificate, he has to put his head completely under water and blow bubbles through his nose 10 times in a row.  He was close, but didn't quite accomplish it today.  Only the little girl in his group did. 

HBFFD

Happy Father's Day! (or HBFFD in Ben spelling)  Ben has been very excited about Father's Day.  He decorated the windows and doors with Father's Day art.

 The paper towel roll is a pole attached to a Christian flag.

 Translation:  Good day for Father's Day.  It turned out that Father's Day was not a particularly good day.  As we were trying to enter our front door after church this morning, John's key broke in the deadbolt.  My keys were inside the house in my purse.  We do not have a hidden key.  All of the windows were locked.    John was able to remove the broken piece of key, but Lowes couldn't make a copy.  John attempted to enter the house through an unused return vent in the attic near the laundry room.  He could see inside our house, but couldn't get the cover removed.  Mrs. Judy was in her yard watering flowers.  Ben told her that we were locked out.  She sent Mr. Gerald over with his drill.  He had recently locked himself out and had broken into their house by drilling through the deadbolt.  He drilled through the lock on the door inside the garage and finally we were inside where it was cool and lunch was waiting.  Thankfully, lunch was in the crockpot and not in the oven since it was two o'clock before we got in our house.  A roast would have been well done.   

We bought John a new bike for Father's Day.  I wanted it to be a surprise but I wasn't sure it would fit in my vehicle.  I decided to try to squeeze it in and if it wouldn't fit to to borrow John's truck.  On Thursday we bought this bike at Academy.  It wouldn't fit with just the third row of seats down.  But the store employee helping me was patient and I was determined.  I squeeze Ben's seat into the middle beside Mollie and buckled it down then dropped one seat in the second row.  The bike fit.  But then Mollie's door wouldn't shut.  I pushed hard on her seat then slammed.  It closed.  I talked to Ben about how Daddy's bike was a surprise and we couldn't talk about it.  I unloaded the bike and stored it out of sight in the garage.  I knew John wouldn't see it during lunch and then I could hide it better in the afternoon.  As soon as John walked in the door at lunch I heard Ben start to tell John about the bike.  John didn't know what he was talking about and Ben remembered and said, "I can't talk about it."  Since I'm not much better at keeping surprises secret, I let Ben take John out to the garage and show him his gift right then. 

Birthday Party

Mollie's birthday was last week during Bible School.  I waited until this weekend to have a birthday party for her.  Nana, Grandaddy, MawMaw, PawPaw, and Aunt Connie all came to celebrate with Mollie.  I made this Minnie Mouse themed cake for her.  Twenty-five drops of red food coloring in white icing did not make quite the shade of pink I wanted.  Next time I will have to buy the Wilton food coloring. 

This is the only picture of Mollie with her cake.  It took me forever to get the candle to light and then she blew it out quickly.  She didn't need any help this time.

Mollie was nearly falling asleep in her pizza, but when I mentioned opening presents she perked back up.  She's sitting in her chair from Nana and Grandaddy opening her gift from MawMaw and PawPaw.

 Wearing her princess gown and tiara from Uncle Will, Aunt Danielle, Emalee, and Rylee.

 Pouring tea from her tea set from Nana and Grandaddy.

For a grand birthday finale, we shelled peas.  Aunt Connie picked them from her garden last night.

ABCs

Saturday evening, Mollie was sitting on the stool in the kitchen singing her ABCs over and over and over.  She didn't get all the letters and she got hung up on zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, but she's learning.

After I finished videoing Mollie, Ben got his guitar out and played while Mollie sang.

Monkey Clock

Mollie with her Monkey Clock.  It was her birthday gift from Uncle Jim, Aunt Fran, MV, and Janey.

Last Ones

I realized that I had missed a few camping trip pictures.



 John and Jim took Ben and MV fishing Friday evening.

 MV was very excited about fishing.  It was her first time and she caught two fish. 

 We weren't totally free of electronics.  The kids enjoyed a movie before bed on the portable DVD player.

 The girls all bathed together at Jim and Fran's house Saturday evening.

 Group picture before we headed home.

Birthday Princess

Wednesday was Mollie's second birthday.  Mollie's VBS teacher, Rachel, made a huge deal of her birthday, dressing her in a princess dress and making her a crown.  Rachel said they sang Happy Birthday five times and  I sent cupcakes.  I'll get pictures. 

At home we had a small birthday party.  Mollie knew exactly how to blow out her candle, but she needed a little help from Ben.

 Ben also wanted to help open her gifts.  We had to tell him to let Mollie open her present.

 She got princess shoes.

And a princess dress, tiara, and fancy clip-on earrings.  She threw a huge fit when she had to take off her finery for bed. 

Sunday School

Neither Ben nor Mollie are looking in this picture because John only gave me two seconds to take it.  I think I embarrased him taking pics in front of the Sunday School building.  However, June 3 was promotion Sunday and it was a big event.  Mollie went to real Sunday School for the first time and Ben is no longer in the nursery department.  He moved upstairs and goes to big church after Sunday School. 

We have an optional children's church during the sermon.  At breakfast Ben was adamant.  He did not want to go to children's church.  However, after sitting in the sanctuary through the first half of the service, he changed his mind when it was time for the children to go out.  Afterwards, he told us that he wanted to go to Children's Church every week!

Pine Straw

 On Saturday afternoon John and Ben put pinestraw in the flower beds.  One day this week, Mollie was throwing the pine straw out onto the side walk and Ben told her, "Mollie, stop.  Daddy and I worked really hard to put the pine straw there."

Good bye green truck

Last Saturday, John sold the green truck.  We all felt a little sad about it and took a picture as it drove away.

The Beach

VBS is over so I'm finally taking some time to post our beach pics.





As you were walking down the boardwalk, you would get beautiful glimpses of the ocean past the natural dunes. 



 The required yearly water pic.

 Jumping waves.

The very first morning, Mollie got knocked down by a wave and cried for the rest of the morning.  I didn't have blankie with us and she was unconsolable. This picture was taken on the afternoon of the second day.  She finally vetured back out into the water after we sat for a long time digging in the dirt near the edge.



Ben loved the water and the sand.

One downside to the natural beach is the seaweed.  You don't realize how much work is done on the public beaches keeping them clean.

We took Blankie to the beach every trip after the first morning.  Blankie was VERY dirty after our trip and Fran washed it on Saturday.  Mollie is also very dirty in this picture.  She had rubbed black dirt on her face at the tent site.



On the very last day, we took Mollie back out in the water. 



The beach was about a mile from the camp sites.  To get there you could walk, ride a bike, or ride the trolley (which runs hourly).  We rode the trolley.  Crazily, the first morning on the trolley someone calls out "John Elder."  We were shocked.  A family from our church in Tupelo was camping there too. 

Hot

The hardest part about camping was naptime.  Even with the fan on, it was HOT.  Both kids slept each day, though.

More Campsite

 

These are a couple of more campsite pics that I got from Fran.