No fear or determination?!

On the last day of swim lessons they turn on all the fun stuff and let the kids play. Here, Aidan is going down the blue slide all by himself. These are things the kids would not get to do on a regular day at the pool because they can't really swim well. You can imagine the excitement despite the times of pouring down rain!

Ever since last year when he was too scared to jump off the diving board, Aidan has been telling us that he is going to jump this year. His plan is to be able to jump off the two-story dock at Grandma and Grandpa's house like his cousins do. He said he is going to jump off the diving board on the last day of swim lessons and then jump off the dock next. This is terrifying for me! Well, they walk over to the diving boards and he goes straight up the high dive ladder. The head lifeguard covers her face and says, "what level is he?!" Aidan's teacher is in the water and said, "he is one of my Level 1/2 kids! I will watch him!" He proceeds to jump in, head like a bullet deep into the water, and pop right out! Aidan, said "did you see that?! Are we going to Grove this afternoon to jump off the dock?!" Ummm, no we are not!

This is the regular sized diving board.

Aidan and his teacher, Taylor. His class ended up being very small, usually just 2-3 kids. He had such a great time and really did well. He can swim anywhere with his kickboard, swim small distances in a doggie paddle type move, float, kick, etc.

American celebration

We had a fabulous time at the Bunch's house for the 4th of July. Zachary watched most of the fireworks from a lap until a BIG one, when we had to take the crying boy inside.

Proud to be an American! Aidan found this flag on our street earlier in the day so we pretended to be in a parade. He was the flag holder and I was the candy passer-outer. At 10:30 pm Aidan was barely awake but still holding his flag upright!

Overall, Aidan was still a little scared, but stayed outside and watched the whole time!

Tour de Fun!

For Father's Day this year, Jake wanted to do the Tour de Fun bike ride EARLY Saturday morning. We had a great time and would love to do it again.

I love this picture!

So sweet!

What a nice Rogers policeman!

Showing off their Spiderman tattoos. I am not sure why Aidan is standing that way!

Happy Father's Day!

Mr. Independent

Zachary is our independent, strong willed, lovable child!

When he decides that he is going to wear a sock hat to the pool, it is hard to convince him otherwise!

What?!

I gave him creativity points for his golf technique here!

We are thirty!

This past weekend was my 30th birthday. Of course, that means it was also my sister's 30th birthday! Months ago we told our husbands we are turning thirty this year, we want to celebrate it together, and that they should start planning something!

Well, they did a GREAT job! All I knew was that we were going to Springfield for the weekend. I was just instructed to take the weekend off of work, which was not a problem because I have a personal policy to not work on my birthday! We started the day off with taking the kids to a neat park in Springfield to play.

Robin got us these shirts so we looked alike all day. It was dorky of us, but we did not care!

For lunch we went to Darren's mom's house to eat and have birthday cake! Then, the boys sent us with a GPS to an unknown location...it took us to a spa for massages!

We left the kids there for the rest of the day. The four us went to Branson!

The party planners took us on a Branson cruise and shopping at the Branson Landing. It was so nice to have adult time! It was great! We ate dinner at Joe's crab shack...yummm!

What great husbands we have been blessed with! Happy 30th Birthday to us!

Quiet neighborhood

Aidan said he was a planet!

Zachary's is a necklace because it wouldn't stay on his head!

The boys' Great Aunt LaVerne got them these crocs. They love them and I love that they are on backwards and no one cares! The eyes jiggle when their little legs run!

"goccer ball!"

No air conditioning yet?!

Look at my sweaty headed child with no place to cool off! Jake and I have not turned on the air conditioner at our house yet (though the projected temperature today is 91 degrees). We did like our electric bill last month, but it is getting out of control. I constantly complain about it. Jake is hoping to make it until June!!! I think we will make it until this afternoon. This is crazy. In fact, Jake took a poll at work today to find out who has turned on their air conditioners. Almost all had, though they encouraged us to press on (as they sit in comfort). Jake had his students today during lunch come up with all of the cold things I should be thinking about to take my mind off of the sweltering heat at my house. Then, he called me and passed the phone around the room for all to give me their ideas (as they sit in an air conditioned dining room). Whatever...

This is the best seat in the whole house! They argued over who would sit there during lunch (Aidan won this time).

Boys

Look at these boys! I love them.

Almost summertime!

I set the pool up for the boys for the first time this year. They had a ball! The water was frigid but it was worth it to them! The pretended that they were at the lake. It made us excited for summer! Zachary had a full out temper tantrum when it was time to go back inside!

Aidan wore these goggles the entire time "just in case he needed to go for a dive!" It was cracking me up the whole time!

So handsome!

Aidan spent a long time figuring out how to get the watering can completely full!

Cheers! I tried to get a picture of the red goggle rings around his eyes. It looked like he had two sets of goggles on!

Family reunion

All of the Van Lear's (from all over the country) met last weekend for a wonderful, much needed weekend together. Aidan LOVED riding his bike with his cousins. What a big boy!

That is a full house!

Aren't they darling?!

The boys showing Sophia how to play in the sandbox with boys!