Dance Party...

Well....we have had a fun week filled with swim lessons, a balloon show at the library, playdays, and just hangin out having fun. We all went out to the local public pool with some friends this past weekend, and really enjoyed that..it has a huge shallow end with a fountain for the little ones to splash in. Ava was trying to get away from me and out to the deep end the whole time...no fear! You can tell from the video that we have had a lot of time on our hands lately. More time...can lead to simple fun...like having a dance party in the living room. Normally when get to dancing Eriik joins in with us, but when the video camera comes out, he quickly sits down and grabs a book...he's got you all fooled! Anyway, here are some pics, and a video from this week:

We love Mrs. Carla...she gets right to it...even though the lessons are for only 4 days, Alec was swimming correctly by the end of it.
He became so independent and comfortable in the water.

Sophia joined with Alec for lessons, which was a lot of fun. They would get to goofing off and not paying attention, but Carla would always bring em back.

We went to the Library to see Mr. Jazz and the amazing balloon show...the kids loved it. He actually got inside a giant balloon at the end of the show!

The kids wanted Kelsey to play in the kiddie pool with them...she is such a sweetie!

Father's Day...

Well, this was Eriik's 5th father's day as a daddy. It was a good day...when I went to wake up Alec in the morning I saw that his cars were all lined up in the shape of a heart on the floor. He told me that it was for daddy for father's day. That was 100% his idea and it was soo sweet! Eriik loved it. We made him breakfast, and gave him a travel mug that had pictures of him playing with the kids on it. After church we picked up wings from Wing Stop and brought the home for lunch...this is becoming our fathers day tradition....he loves their hot wings!
I just wanted to take a minute to share that I am very blessed to have such an awesome husband who is so great with our kids. He is so patient, loving, and fun with them...and with me! They absolutely adore their daddy, and practically knock him down with hugs when he walks through the door after work. But the most important quality that Eriik shows his kids is his integrety and godly character....he has a passion for studying God's word, and I know that Alec and Ava are watching, and learning from him. Anyway...here are some pics from father's day:

Quiet as a mouse?

We had Alec's best bud Carson over to play yesterday, and they had a great time being goofy together. At one point they decided they were going to play mouse. I thought....wow that is a WONDERFUL idea! So, they started quietly squeeking and crawling on the ground but, as you'll see in the video at the bottom, four year old mice can't stay quiet for very long! These boys are soo funny together...Carson really brings out a whole other side in Alec. I added some pics from the past week as well. It's been a fun summer so far with VBS and playdates, and water baloon fights. All kinds of fun stuff. I also added a video of Ava sliding down our slide when she was all wet from the kiddie pool...she was shooting down like a bullet....before getting the video camera she went down once and flew really crazy far...it was hilarious...I wish I would have had the camera.

Pretty much every picture I've ever taken of these boys together they are making silly faces!

I just love these flowers on the side of our house, so I had to snap a pic...does anyone have any idea what kind of flowers they are? Ava's hair is wet in this pic because she got caught up in the water balloon fight.

Alec with his finished tool box...he wanted to paint it, so Eriik let him pick out the color, paint it and then put stickers on it.

Just hangin out.

We have been on a water balloon kick over the past week or so. I had them pause for a quick pic amidst the war.

Projects...

We all went to Alley Fest this past Saturday and had a great time checking out all old cars, music, art, fun kids booths, and eating festival food. One of the booths in the kids section was Home Depot. The kids could pic either a bird house or a tool box. Alec wanted the tool box and we got a bird house for Ava. It was too crowded and hot to work on it at the booth there, so we took it home for Alec and Eriik to work on later. While they were working on it, I couldn't help but think of my Dad who was a woodworker and was always working on some kind of project....you name it, my dad could make it (He made the bed in the picture below..which was mine as a child). It brings me joy to see Alec and Eriik working on little projects together. Anyway...you know me...I've got pics....they ended up being out of order, oh well. Oh and I had to throw in this picture of another one of Alec's little projects. We went to check on him the other night and evedently he he had stayed awake for a little while after we had "put him to bed". This is what we found:

If you can't tell, he had lined all his cars up to make a giant letter R...funny kid.

Watch those fingers Eriik!

This was at the Home Depot booth. This is Ava's signiture smile.

Sitting on the Police vehicle.

Guess who's TWO??

Well...our spunky little Ava is now a two year old as of today! I can't get over how fast the past two years have flown. We are praying that this year is not a year of the "Terrible Two's". We are counting on the fact that she has already been such a LOUD little handful that she has gotten most of it out of her system already...sounds good right????? Anyway...she really is a ton of fun to have around the house, and she makes us laugh about every five minutes with her silly faces and goofy way she plays "dress up". She is constantly moving, climbing, getting into EVERYTHING and sometimes destroying it! We have started to call her "The Avinator" because of the path of destruction that she sometimes leaves behind. Don't get me wrong though she can be very sweet and gentle at times... especially when it comes to playing with her dollies...she loves her babies! Out of the blue she'll look up and say"Oh no....baby crying!!" and she will run off to rescue her baby. She is quite the little chatter box too...constantly talking in 3-4 word sentences (more around the house than in public). Her favorite thing to say these days is "I don't want to!" and "I not like it!"...lovely. I am very grateful that she is good about saying please and thank you ("thankum") though. There is some give and take....with the fun spunky spirit comes a little bit of the crazy drama....and boy does this girl have drama! Any time she does anything that takes the slightest effort, she yells to the top of her lungs, "Yay...I did it!!!" She loves to sing now, and during prayer time likes to sing "Jesus loves me" with her eyes closed...so sweet! Anyway...we love her so much and are having fun with the two very different personalities that our kids have! Here are some pics from her birthday parties...one was at our church small group last night (at the Colemans) and one at home tonight (just the four of us) eating leftover cupcakes and opening her presents.

When she woke up this morning we carried balloons into her room and sang happy birthday to her...in complete Ava fasion she told me to stop singing...not in the mood I guess, at least she liked the balloons!

We were trying to get a picture, and she decided to give me a kiss...little love bug :)

So sweet!

Ava and Rachel last night with our small group.

AJ looking super cute as always!

Our neighbor Kelsey came along to help with the kids and join in the birthday fun!

She loves flowers!