Happy birthday to Lucas

 Happy birthday to Lucas - grandma sent him a pkg that arrived while were at the Aquatic Center.

A new football and outfit sponsored by Green Bay Packers and Nike. Nice. Mo's a photo-bomber.

On to the other presents - his birthday was on Sunday (hence the church clothes).

First up: the bean bag!!

 

Just what every kid needs.....vice scrips?

 Optimus Prime - turns out it's not as easy to transform - but I'm a pro now.......

 Eagerly opening a gift from dad.......drumroll........

 A BARBIE! YES! Just what he's always wanted......

 to throw at his dad. (insert hysterical laughter from the dad)

 okay on to the real gift - two trucks that make lots of noise   (awesome) 

 and his personal favorite - reese's peanut butter mini-cups. Which he had to wait until after church to eat and not share with his mom (favorite part there....for him)

  these two conquered the bean-bag chair and tool

Dinner and dessert brought to you by Casa-de-mama

he wanted homemade pizza, watermelon, chips and oreo ice cream cake. Done.

 goofs

 bring on the cake!

Jeff's idea of clothes for Mo

 contemplating the 'awesomeness' of his birthday - love ya Lucas!!

2 for 1

The good thing about having birthdays close together - group parties! Even better when the kids have friends in the same families. To celebrate Abbey and Lucas' birthdays, we headed to the Chandler Aquatic Center for cupcakes, presents and ultimate swim/fun in the sun!!

Somebody swiped the cupcakes.....

I found the culprit who had then helped himself to a full cupcake....

We waited for everyone to arrive at the playground - you see my monkey boy!?

Abbey's cupcakes

Mo was terrified

some of us, not so graceful.

Enjoying all the attention as we sing happy birthday! (I think)

After sweating outside the pool, we went in to enjoy the cool water and presents - it was HOT!

 Lucas and Noah

 Natalia, Abbey, Jaron

 Lucas, Estavon, Maiya

 Friends for everyone: Lea and her friends going off the high dive! She ran to tell me they already went off - I wasn't there to take pictures!? Go do it again. :)

My favorite series of photos: (this is Ally - one of Abbey's friends, she's 4 1/2 and Teeny!)

 I love the kid's face to the left on the diving board watching her go!

 And the underbite that shows pure determination to go again, and again, and again.

 How about a flip? Ok.

Leaving the park - can you tell we're a little worn out from all the fun - Best.day.ever!

Thanks everyone for coming - we had a blast!!

Swim lessons

 How do we endure the heat?  I use that term loosely since that wasn't even the hot part of the summer. Anywho, we go to SWIM LESSONS! We've done this the past 2 years and have had a great time! Each of them (except Mo) has had swim lessons from Miss Erin and since she did such a great job teaching them to swim, we decided to forgo her lessons this year and take swim only at the public pool. (that was not a sarcastic comment, our kids learned leaps and bounds from her, now it was time to focus on technique and a mom/tot class.

Lucas and his teacher/pool manager Andy - he loved Andy and Andy was quickly aware of Lucas and Fin Malone. These two were quite chatty and spent most of their time under water being silly. :)

 Lea and her teacher Kevin

 While we wait: we sweat, we eat, drink lots of water and 'patiently' wait for our lessons to begin

 Mo was not in love with back floats - getting water in his ears really bothered him, but he loved to jump in and was really good about getting the rings from the bottom of 3 feet area.

 Abbey and Soren - she wasn't totally excited about swim lessons, but being with a friend helped her a ton!

 2nd day of lessons: Lea got pink eye. She was miserable in the blazing/blinding sun.

 They kept themselves amused.