now it feels like summer

: first official trip to the beach:

:making smores in the backyard:

:cuddling with cousins in the hammock:

:piggyback rides:

My little animal

(on a recent outing to Curious Kid's Children's Museum, where Jack had me paint him like a leopard and Ruby painted herself)

trip to the beach

just a few pics from one of our recent trips to the beach. the water is still a little too cold for swimming, but it won't be long!

ahhhhh, summer......

Niles Bluegrass Festival

Missy and I took the kids to the Niles Bluegrass Festival the other night. Other than the stress of wrangling four kids, it was a lot of fun! Bluegrass music is always fun to listen to. I had hoped the kids would do a lot of cute dancing, but Ruby was the only one interested in dancing and her skills are limited to squatting up and down, moving her arms around and showing her belly.Unfortunately I didn't have any cash, so I didn't get to enjoy any of the fair-type food. But they didn't have elephant ears, so I don't think that I missed out on too much. We might head back there on Saturday to enjoy some more music if the weather is nice. The weather was great on the day we went, and the sky was filled with what appeared to be cotton, and it almost looked like it was snowing!

Preschool Graduation

On Jack's last day of school, he had a graduation ceremony, graduating from the "Butterfly" group he was in this year to the "Dinosaur" group next year. They sang a few songs, and then each kid came up to the front individually to "graduate". The teacher would introduce the child, and then tell everyone a little about them using some questions that they had answered ahead of time. Many of the answers were very cute, and there were lots of "awwws" and giggles from the audience.
We found out that Jack's favorite color is "orange" and his favorite thing about preschool was "playing with the bugs". He said that the reason he loves his mom is "because she is so beautiful" (awwwwww!). I had already prepared myself what he would say for what he wants to be when he grows up. There were a lot of cute answers from kids for that one: princess, dinosaur, etc. And Jack's answer, as expected, was "a Pokemon trainer like Ash Ketchum". Lots of giggles followed that one, which ended up hurting Jack's feelings. I had to assure him that he could definitely be a Pokemon trainer when he grows up, he just has a lot of practice ahead of him.

superheroes in the morning

swimming skills

On Jack's last day of school, I got to swim with him so that he could show off all of the things he's learned this year. The swimming classes have really helped him a lot. He swims on his own (with a bubble) and isn't afraid of getting his face wet anymore.

He also attempted the diving board for the first time, which was a pretty big deal for him.

It took a few times getting on and off the diving board,

but eventually he got up the courage to jump-- with a little push from his teacher!

yea!!!