The Pirate Party


We had a birthday party for the boys today. It was for Aidan’s 6th birthday and Jared and Riley’s 4th birthday. They picked a pirate theme. We played pin the eyepatch on the pirate, went on a treasure hunt around the neighborhood and had a treasure chest pinata. There were around 18 kids at the party ranging in ages from 6 months to 12 years. All the kids had a great time! The boys got way to many toys and it will take days before we get them all opened. The twins favorite toys were the Imaginext pirate stuff. Aidan’s favorite were the bionicles and transformers.

Sprinkler Fun

The boys had so much fun playing in the sprinkler this morning. I had Dan buy them this oscillating sprinkler specifically for the kids to play in. I remember how much fun I had playing in this type of sprinkler when I was a kid. I wanted my kids to be able to experience this too. It has been so hot here lately. This is the perfect way for them to cool off.

Swim Class

The new swim session started this week. Jared and Riley are in one class and Aidan is in a different one. The are all doing well. The twins can both float on their backs by themselves and Aidan is learning how to do big arms with breathing and can also do backstroke. The twins are suppose to sit on the top step when they are waiting their turn. They keep getting in trouble for not staying there. Grandma Nancy came along today so that I could take pictures. More pictures here.

Quote of the Day

“Quick! Let’s hide!” – pretty sure it was Riley that said it.

(Be sure to read the comment to see why he said this!)

Swim Class Was A Disaster

Jared, Riley and Aidan had their first swim class of the summer today. It’s a 1/2 hour class and will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We got there and the gate was locked. The person that is suppose to do the registration is not there and there is someone else filling in that showed up late because of a wreck on the freeway. This person doesn’t know how the boys teacher is suppose to be. Everyone starts getting in the water and I’m asking who is suppose to be their teacher and no one seems to know anything. I finally am able to get the fill in person to find their name on the roster and tell me that their teacher is Allison. Turns out that Allison is also not there and some other guy is taking over the class for her. I finally hand the boys over to him and go sit back down with the girls to watch. They start off with kick boards and Aidan is having a blast. Riley doesn’t want to do it and Jared starts screaming. I go over and tell Jared he hast to do the class and he says he wants a kick board. I told him that if he gets in he can have one. So, he gets back in and both Riley and Jared do the kick board. After that they go to pushing off the side and kicking to the teacher. Aidan does great and neither Jared or Riley will do anything. The rest of the class goes pretty much the same way. Aidan does great and loves it. Jared and Riley hate it and keep crying and won’t do anything. (They seem to have this reaction to anything new.) The instructor let them sit on the side and cry and do nothing. I told him that he needed to make them do stuff, but he didn’t. They spent the majority of the class on the side of the pool doing nothing! I don’t pay good money for a class to have the instructor let them get away with doing nothing. Their regular instructor had better not do that next week or I will be very unhappy with the program there and let the director know. I had a long talk with Jared and Riley about particpating in the class. I let them know that if they didn’t particpate, the wouldn’t get a treat. Yes, I am resorting to bribery. But heck, you got to go with what works! This worked well in getting them to participate in speech class, so I’m hoping it will work with swim class too.

End of the Year Update

Talia – She’s have a great time in 5th grade. They have gotten to go on a number of fun field trips this year with several more planned throughout the year. She continues to be a honor roll student, excelling in everything she tries. She has taught herself to play the harmonica and has gotten pretty good at it. She does choir and girl scouts and challenge (which is a Catholic girls group). She is a beautiful girl, both inside and out. She has a great group of friends, most of whom she has been friends with since kindergarten. She spends most of her free time outside playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. She also enjoys her gameboy and playing online on Neopets and Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom.

Kayli – She is now 8 years old an in 2nd grade. She enjoys school and also excels in everything she tries. She was recently voted class president for the month of December. She is very outgoing and has tons of friends. She has taught herself to play the recorder and knows a large number of songs on it. She does choir and girl scouts and did soccer for the first time this year. She is very good at soccer and I’ll likely continue to have her play next year. She also spends most of her free time outside playing with the other kids in the neighborhood and enjoys her gameboy and playing online on Neopets and Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom.

Aidan – He is now 5 year old and in a preppy-K class. Over the last month of so, reading has really started to click with him. He knows all the phonetic sounds for a while know and has recently caught on how to blend the words. I expect him to be reading quite well by the time he starts kindergarten next year. He played soccer for the first time this year and really enjoyed it. He says he wants to try baseball next year, so I will likely put him in that instead. He is all boy and his favorite thing to do is run around outside playing. He also enjoys playing on his leapster.

Jared and Riley – They are now 3 years old. I play to start them in preschool next year. They continue to be in speech therapy this year and are getting much easier to understand. I’ve also had them in swim classes and they are both making great progress. They continue to refuse to be potty trained, but we are hopeful that they will decide to start using the potty before preschool next year. They are also all boy and like nothing better than to run around outside playing.