Swim lessons!

I signed Arjen up for his first swimm lesson this summer. He seemed to have a blast, aside from the hints of gymnastics from earlier in the year, where he didn't want to go to the start of the lesson by himself and would latch on to me. It's like he magically forgets by the next morning, just how much fun he has!

Day one: getting comfy with the water

Big kicks!

Using a kick board all by himself!

And Gus: the cool lounger keeping himself occupied during big bro's lesson. Tough life not being three yet (and therefore not old enough for solo lessons at this pool).

The lessons definitely seemed to be doing the trick. During the second week of lessons, we stuck around after lessons for open swim at the pool. Arjen was a fish "swimming" all over the place and even jumping off the wall by himself! I was impressed.  After that, he had no problem walking over to his group at the start of lessons, and no problem telling his teacher she didn't need to catch him when he jumped in!

My children are officially monkeys.

Or mountain goats?

Summer at its finest

For the first time in forever (okay, yes, we're watching Frozen again) I had a day to play all day just me and my boys. We started with breakfast and a quick trip to the park in town...

...followed by swim lessons and more playtime at the park by the pool...

...then we got some lunch, and back at the house did a few puzzles before everyone took naps (ok, that part wasn't the prettiest part of our day, these boys have become professionals at fighting nap time). 

After naps, we took a trip to the library for the first time this summer, and managed to check out a few books. Arjen is all fired up about having "letter" books these days, and kept going after the preteen chapter books. Fortunately the librarian was able to convince him to choose a few of the easy reader books. His older cousin Aden loves to read and has really been a big influence!  

Outside the library is the town park, so we had our third park playtime for the day...

Since we were downtown and it was dinner time, I decided to press my mom luck, and took the boys to a restaurant...

Dinner was a pleasant success! It was such a nice night, that I decided we should then take a walk to the lake. Arjen was more than happy to "get to run!"  

Just seeing the lake wasn't enough though, both boys convinced me we should go down to the beach. They were having fun playing in the sand...

...then I got to talking with another mom whose kid also convinced her to do a late evening beach run. Next thing I know, my fish had decided to go for a fully dressed swim...

My new mom friend had already left the beach, but sent her son back with some spare towels after learning that we had a bit of a walk to get back to our truck, and we hadn't come to the beach prepared for water play. Gotta love people who pay it forward!

Unfortunately, the walk wasn't without a minor bump in the road, and since I had wrapped Gus's arms inside the towel, the poor guy ended up giving the sidewalk a high five with his chinny chin chin. Sad mom. He took it like a champ though!

We eventually made it back to the house, dry clothes on, and are now sitting down for an evening showing of Frozen.  Happy boys with their library books and movie, happy mom after a special day of doing nothing particularly special, with her boys. 

My life flashing before my eyes

The boys all buckled up and ready to take off in the jeep. 

Get skis!

Best find of the summer toys from Costco: inflatable kid jet skis (or as it sounds when Arjend says it "getski").  Even cooler assembled out of the box than the idea of them when still wrapped up in the box.  Battery powered motors, and a water gun to boot!  You can't see the water as they squirt it out, but pretty much every time one of them screams or ducks, you can assume they're getting hit.  It was mighty entertaining.  Arjen thought his throttle was broken today though…the wind was blowing harder than the battery power on the motor, so they both kept getting blown in to shore.  

Independence Day

The boys were fired up for the annual kiddo bike parade at their cousin's house this year.  Arjen was excited he got to ride his "pedal bike", and Gus made a valid attempt at joining in on his strider bike.  The results were none-the-less entertaining.  And thanks to some super awesome bow-ties from the west coast Aunt Shannon, the boys were well suited in their red, white, and blue!

I actually got them to pose together for a picture!




Gus playing catch up to the parade start

And Gus needing to pull off to the side so the parade could go by

Arjen and "some guy" on a really small bike

Gus found an easier way to make it down the parade route, thanks to Adalin.  The two of them got quite the attention in her decked-out fire engine!

All five cousins (Alex is hiding in the back), getting ready to double back on the parade route

Probably the cutest moment of the morning…as they were heading up the driveway to park the truck, Gus ever so gently put his arm around Addie's back.  Sweetest thing I've ever seen.  Then she decided to reciprocate.  Some day when the 5 year age difference between these two has caught up with them, I'll be happy to remind them that they were best buds, at least for a summer.  :) 

Possibly the new fave fourth tradition…Water Balloon Wars!  

And you can't have a lake house without going for a ride on the lake!  Thunderdome!!!

If you turn up the volume, you'll hear all three of them shout out "Thunderdome!".  And then, what's sibling rivalry without the infamous oldest sibling downplaying the fun of the younguns.  I wouldn't know anything about that.  ;)

Sunday was the Elkhart Lake July 4th parade.  The boys were pretty excited to see all the fire trucks.  Almost as excited as the were to fill their bags with all the candy that gets tossed to the spectators.  (bags which i'm currently raiding as I write this.  Shhh!  Forgot how much I love smarties!)

Sleeping beauties

These boys are amazing. They will nap just about anywhere (at least if we properly tire them out!).  Big day on the lake with a lazy pontoon boat ride and some "shishin'".