Today we went down to my mom's to swim at her neighborhood pool. The kids were so excited. Evan kept saying we were going to the beach. Drew, as usual, was a little fish. She's always loved swimming. Evan and Alli were much more cautious. Evan spent most of the day throwing things in the pool and then whining because they were in the pool and he couldn't get them. Alli really wanted to be in the pool, but she was just so nervous. When I was in there with her she squeezed me to death, but I eventually got her to only hold my hands and float. Evan wouldn't stay in long enough to get used to it. There were too many things laying around to throw.

This is Drew discussing field day.  I had to cut her off at the end because the video can only be about a minute long. 

Alli has a little cold today, so she's not her usual nutty self.  I know this sounds awful, but the only time she's really calm enough for me to sit and hold her and love on her is when she doesn't feel good, so sometimes it's nice for me. But only sometimes.

Here's a short clip of Drew reading.  She's such a book worm these days!

More Video!

I'm so excited about this video thing!  This is just a little clip of Evan and Alli riding their bikes.  Beware, though, because Evan has a little crash.  Nothing serious.  I didn't mention this before, but all you have to do to watch the video is click on the picture.  And, for some reason the picture is a little behind the sound.  Enjoy!

Yeah!  Thanks to a brilliant friend of mine, I figured out how to post videos!  This one is kind of dark, so I'll have to do more in brighter settings I guess.  If you can't see it, at least you can hear them!

Today a friend of mine from church and I started feeling brave and decided to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's. We figured we needed to go now if we were ever going to since it's not a weekend and summer isn't here quite yet. It actually wasn't that bad. I might even say I had fun. In the past, we've gone to Chuck E. Cheese in the summer, or at dinner time and it's a total nightmare with millions of wild kids running around fighting for games. I become claustrophobic and noise-a-phobic (I don't know the clinical term, but you get my drift), and it's just no fun for anybody. But, today there weren't many kids and us adults could actually sit and visit a little while still keeping an eye on the kids. It was great. The kids had a really good time, too. These are just some pictures of the day. Drew is with her friend, Emie. They were inseparable for the most part. This one of Evan and his little friend, Eli, is of them climbing off the ski-ball game after walking up to the top and reaching in the holes for the balls that were thrown up there. Alli was all over the place. She had her tokens and found the games she liked and took care of herself. She cracked me up with her independence. She had to put the "money" in herself every time, and she even found a machine that was broken and gave away tokens. What a smartie. By the way, Drew was out of school for the day because I took them to have their pictures made this morning, again, in hopes of avoiding the weekend/summer crowds, and there's only one more week of school left, so I didn't feel bad about her missing. In a couple of weeks I'll be getting a link to go online and look at the pictures and order more if I want, so I'll post it for anyone who wants to check them out. It takes forever, though. I think the general rule is 10-14 business days. I know you'll all be waiting on pins and needles!