Swimming Lessons & Diving Boards

We are enjoying swimming lessons this summer! We are in the middle of the two week session, and I decided it was time for a blog post. The picture below is of my little man, standing in front of the pool, ready to begin. You'll notice the diving boards are in the background, over to the right. Josiah learning to float! His nice teacher was trying to help keep the bright sun out of his face. :)
A proud little man...learning so much. He told people on the first of day lessons that his sister can swim but he can't swim without floaties so he is here to learn how to really swim! He is doing a great job of learning, too.

They use kick boards and noodles to help the children learn.

I zoomed in on the hospital, which is just beyond the pool, on the other side of the Tennessee River! Cool pic, huh?! (Go back up to the first picture to see the true distance from the pool...look just behind Josiah.)

The girl floating in the light yellow swim suit is my Mackenzie! Look at her go!!!

A close up of Josiah.

On the third day of lessons, the teacher offered for any children who wanted to jump off the diving board to come with her. Only four children went to the board. Of those four, only two actually jumped. My determined little girl was one of those two who did jump! The first time, the teacher had her jump holding on to a noodle.

The teacher was waiting in the 15 ft water as Mackenzie jumped! She looked directly at me with such a proud smile on her face after that first jump.

Then she swam, using the noodle, to the wall.

The second time she jumped was without the noodle!

You see the splash in the water in the picture below? Yep, that's my Mackenzie! You can't see her as she is under the water having just jumped off the diving board. WooHoo!

Her teacher watched as she resurfaced and swam to the edge. I'm so proud of her for getting up there and jumping without giving it a second thought!

Her teacher let her jump off the diving board one more time that day. I love picture below, where I zoomed in on her fearless jump from the diving board. She loves to swim, and she loves to excel in all that she does. I do believe she is competitive. ;) She was quite pleased to have gone off the board, even though most of her class opted out!

I am so proud of my two kiddos. They are doing a great job of listening to their teachers and learning more about swimming.

Uncle Zac's Visit!

We are enjoying having Uncle Zac (David's brother) here to visit for a few days. Yesterday we all played at Splash Country, went to a Summer Spectacular (VBS), and stayed up really late playing the guitar! As you can see in the above picture, both kids got their guitars out to play with Uncle Zac!
We all really enjoyed listening to Zac play and sing. He's really good!

Here's Mackenzie and Josiah playing along with Uncle Zac! It is amazing how kids love to imitate the adults in their lives that they love so dearly! Thank you for coming to see us, Zac!

This is a belated post, but I have to give a shout out to David and the kids...what an amazing cake they made and decorated for me! I am a truly blessed wife and momma.

Here's an up close pic of the cake they made. David baked the cake and put the chocolate icing on it. Then, each child picked an icing color. David helped Josiah with the blue icing, and Mackenzie did the pink decoration all by herself! She wrote "Happy Birthday Mom" without any help! Pretty impressive. I even find it hard to write on a cake...and she's only 5 3/4 years old! Thank you, David, for all that you and the kids did to make and decorate a cake for me.

Just Pickin'

Yesterday, we headed out our back door and went pickin' in the garden. The site of Josiah in amongst all those plants just cracked me up!
He was one happy kid just sittin' in the grass pickin' green beans. The site of him with his head practically under the green bean plants was pretty funny, too. He definitely had the right idea...sit down, get comfortable, and look under the leaves for those green beans that like to hide!

My two little garden pickers. They love it!

Here's Mackenzie with her freshly picked green bean!

Our Week

Our week was a very busy week! We realized our "get a friend in free" coupons for Dollywood were expiring, so we called our neighbors, Trifon and Geri, who are originally from Bulgaria to spend the day at Dollywood with us! The really fun part is that Metodi, their Bulgarian friend, was with them and able to come, too. At the end of the day, he told us that we had given him much to write about in his journal! Seeing Dollywood through someone else's eyes was a neat experience. Thank you, Zearl and Betty, for our season passes that came with those coupons! Trifon, Geri, Josiah, me, Mackenzie, and Metodi.
Mackenzie and Josiah, who spotted a bench at Dollywood and wanted their picture made on it! Funny kids. I was happy to oblige. ;)

My two baby birds...just hatching...in the newest area of the park. ;)

Ever since Mackenzie learned to ride without training wheels, Josiah has been asking for us to take his off, too. He insists that he can ride "a two wheeler," too. We told him that we were not planning to take his training wheels off just yet. He could practice on Mackenzie's bike, and when he's really ready, we'll take his training wheels off his bike. (This is because David has already taken Josiah's off only to put them back on multiple times already.) SO...our very mechanically inclined little boy TOOK HIS OWN TRAINING WHEELS OFF BY HIMSELF! Yep, you read that right. David was working on putting the basketball goal together that Josiah got for his Birthday (thanks, Dad and Lisa!) and Josiah helped himself to the right tool and actually took the training wheel off his bike. After handing his daddy the wheel, he began putting the nut back in place. David helped him with the other one.

And a very determined little boy is learning to ride a two wheeled bike. Not totally there yet, but learning, never-the-less!

On Friday, Mzee arrived for a visit! We missed my mom, who is knee deep (or more) into her doctoral studies, but we enjoyed our time with Mark. I love the above picture that I snapped after church on Sunday.

Here's Mzee and the kids playing a game of catch in the back of his truck.

Today, while I was checking the garden, a bird flew out of the little "Christmas" tree behind the garden. Scared me to death as I was very close to the tree! I decided to nose around, and see what I found! I didn't touch the tree as I don't want the mother bird to abandon the nest, but I did run in and get the kids so they could peek at the three tiny eggs!

Here's a random picture that I took of Josiah this morning. He insisted that he had found the perfect picture spot. So, once again, I obliged. I love it when they want me to take their pictures!

First Pick of the Season!

Mackenzie and I spent some time in the garden today. We were able to pick some squash and green beans for the first time this year! I have to say...we. had. so. much. fun!!! Here's Mackenzie with our bucket of loot. She was such a good helper! She even helped me wash them, snap them, and fill the pot with water to cook them. Amazing!
Here's a couple of new pictures of our garden. We're having green beans, squash, and pork chops for supper. (I'm sure you really wanted to know that--Ha.)

And to explain the bale of wheat straw...our squash is beginning to rot again this year. After consulting one of Healing Hands International's expert gardeners (thanks, Mark, for emailing the pictures to your friend for us!), we've learned that it is either a bacteria or fungus of some sort causing it to rot. This typically occurs when squash is planted in a raised bed with rich compost and gets a lot of rain. Since ours is planted in a raised bed with rich compost and has received a lot of rain this month, we fit the bill for rotting squash! Not all of them are rotting, but the same thing happened last year and ended up killing the entire plant, so I was concerned to see it again this year. The man at Healing Hands International says the verdict is not yet in regarding exactly what is causing the squash issues, but the same thing happened in their raised beds with compost last year, too. So....he recommended placing straw at the ground to separate the plant from the soil. We are giving it a try. Whew, long explanation for that one bale of straw!
Happy Memorial Day! :)

Presents and Ponderosa

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead! :) Earlier this week, to celebrate the day Josiah was born, I let Josiah choose an activity. We had his party early, so this would be a day of fun...just the three of us as David was at work. He chose the Little Ponderosa Zoo!
Both kids loved getting to pet and feed all the animals. We also got to see two kinkajou's eating some fruit. That was especially neat, as Josiah knows about those from Diego. Another favorite was the pig with all the tiny piglets!

I think this is an alpaca. The kids enjoyed petting it.

They loved the pony rides! (Umm, I took lots of pictures during the pony ride. Since I could not decide which ones I liked the best...I've posted a bunch of them!)

Each picture captures a different expression!

The pony ride comes to an end.

And, later that afternoon, with David home, too, we sang to Josiah. He proudly blew the candles out on the cupcake, and then totally enjoyed opening presents. He didn't even eat the cupcake! He was far more interested in the packages. :)

He was delighted to find two DS games, as the main item he asked for was the DS. In fact, he'd been asking for it since Christmas! Nona and Mzee went together with us to buy the DS. I tell you what, that made for one happy little boy.

He also loved his transformer from Grannie and Papa New. He opened an entire box full from them a couple weeks ago. This is one present we set aside for his actual Birthday from them.

Mackenzie got her main birthday present early this year. She'll have other items, small ones, on her birthday, but we gave her main gift to her now in case we need the kids to play those DS's while we travel later in the summer!

Her DS is pink. I love this picture (though I had forced the flash on for pics of Josiah in front of the windows, so there's too much light in this one) of Mackenzie and David!

I half wonder if Josiah knew what was in this package, as he picked it up, scurried to the living room with it, and opened it all alone in there!

Delighted with what he found, he came running back to where we were to show it off! It's a dual action light saber. Red. Just what he wanted! Thank you, Granna and Z-pa! They bought him a blue one while they were here last week, and now he has both colors. He is certainly spoiled! The picture of him holding it up is pretty cute. He was truly excited!

I love this one of Mackenzie with her pink DS! She was so excited! They both were, as this is something they have wanted for several months now.

Here's the birthday boy, playing his new white DS. What a birthday!

(Side note: We had his well child check up today. All went well. He received 4 or 5 shots. MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella), Polio, Pneumococcal, Varicella, and Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis. He did not cry at all during the finger stick to check his Hct and Hgb. All is normal. He peed in the cup, happily, and his urine is normal. He is 41.2 inches tall (75%) and 38 lb (75%). He did cry during the shots. He recovered nicely, though! AND...they are finished (other than flu shots) until sixth grade! Nice. His paperwork is all in order for Kindergarten, which happens one year from this August. I'm proud of my little guy!)

If you made it to the end of this post, Congratulations! It was long. He, he.