Swim Meet vs. Longview Sea Dragons

Carter had a swim meet again the Longview Rec Center on Tuesday.  This was the first time he competed in a home meet at the ISC (Indoor Sports Complex).  The pool where Carter's team practices is not great for swim meets so they use the indoor pool at another Williamson County Rec Center.

Carter had an amazing meet!!!

They switched up the order of the events a little bit for this meet and the freestyle relay was first.  Carter's team got second and even beat one of the other teams finally!  (They technically also beat a team in their first meet but only because that team DQ'd).

Carter's second race was the 25 yard freestyle.

He finished in second place with a time of 33.33.  He took more than 10 seconds off his time and missed first place by 2 seconds.

Carter's third race was the 25 yard backstroke.

He finished in third place with a time of 36.69.  He took more than 3 seconds off this time and missed first place by less than 1 second.  I thought he might win that race but he glided for a bit at the end of the race instead of finishing strong.  I think Carter thought he was going to win too and was super disappointed after the race.  He told Brian that his coach told him before that once he sees the flags overhead that he should take 12 more strokes which is exactly what he did.  Unfortunately he needed more strokes and that meant he lost a bit of time.  Carter remembers everything a teacher/coach tells him and tries to follow those instructions exactly.  He is our rule follower!  Brian was able to come for Carter's two individual races and gave Carter a great pep talk that lifted his spirits.

Tonight I put together Carter's scrapbook page with his ribbons ...

Carter has one more regular season meet and then the county-wide championship meet.

Front Teeth

One front tooth has finally finished breaking through ...

Let's hope the other one hurries up and does the same soon!!!

Swim Team Photos

Carter's swim team had a team party tonight at the pool.  They took their team photo and individual shots at the start of the party.  The very nice photographer didn't mind us moms taking our own photos (especially since his speciality is underwater individual pictures of the kids).  I'm over spending money on sports photos - we have purchased too many already - so here are the ones I took myself!

Carter is on the front near, third from the right ...

Carter is still loving swim team and improving a lot each week!

Luke's Birthday Party

Rylan went to Luke's birthday party a couple of weeks ago.  His parents had a photographer taking pictures at the party and Lynn was sweet enough to sent me some of the photos tonight.

Rylan's 5th Birthday Party - The Details

We had Rylan's fifth birthday party at the house on Saturday (June 20th).  This year Rylan chose Star Wars as his theme.  Luckily that is a pretty easy and fun theme to plan a party around!

INVITATIONS / THANK YOU NOTES

I made both the invitations and thank you notes this year.  I designed the thank you notes so Rylan would have to write some parts of them this year.

DECORATIONS

I put this sign on the front door ...

I always make a banner for birthday parties to match the theme.  This one took a long time with the three layers of pennants but turned out pretty good.

I also did some balloon garland in the screened porch ...

Balloons and streams in the kitchen ...

ACTIVITIES

The main activities were our inflatable waterslide, slip 'n slide, and water guns.

I set up a cornhole board for "Bomb the Death Star" ...

I think the kids' favorite thing was these light sabers I made out of pool noodles ...

They fought the bubbles as well as one another!

Our boys love piñatas so we got a Darth Vadar one ...

FOOD

I had bought some Star Wars cupcakes liners and picks awhile back on clearance and was happy they'd work out for our party this year.

"Obi-wan Kabob-ies":

"Thermal Detonators":

"Ewok Treats":

"Light Sabers":

"Jedi Juice" & "Wookie Water":

Party Favors

The kids all got to take home candy from the piñata, they pool noodle light saber, and a Star Wars Pez dispenser.

We had Darth Vadar, stormtroopers, Yoda, R2D2, C3PO, and Chewbacca to choose from.

I'll post about the actual party soon!

More Progress

Grayson is getting closer to figuring out crawling!  First though, here are his "baby pushups"!!!

Here's a video of him getting up on one knee at least.  He almost did a face plant though!

Crawling Progress

Grayson is starting to make a little progress with crawling.  Usually he rolls from side to side to get forward making very slow progress.  Sometimes he'll lay on his back and push himself with his feet.  This morning he finally started pushing forward a little while on his belly.

Another random thing he'll do is when he's on his stomach and really mad and crying, Grayson will get really rigid and get up on his hands and toes doing a little baby pushup.  I need to get a video of that one!

Happy Father's Day

While Brian sleeps in this morning, the boys made him a couple of presents ...

I'll translate Carter's spelling ...

My dad is 37 years old.  My dad's favorite thing to do is have fun with us.  My dad's job is to fix computers and get money.  My dad's favorite food is french fries.  My favorite thing to do with my dad is play with him.  My dad is really good at working.  My dad makes me laugh when he's silly.  I am so happy when me and my dad sings with me.

A little disclaimer on the french fries comment ... Carter had a couple of french fries last night.  They were the first fries he ever had and he really liked them.  We explained to him that they were a treat for him and they aren't really good for you.  We commented that Brian and I eat them too much.  Hence Carter decided they are Brian's favorite food :)

The Green Fling & Squash Smash

Rylan, Grayson, and I went to gardening class this morning.  Carter is doing Encore camp this week and didn't join us (I'll post more about that tomorrow).

Today the kids learned about seeds and composting.  Ms. Lisa chopped up some vegetables that had gotten too big and weren't good anymore for the kids to smash.  They were then able to pull the seeds out to study.  The remaining parts went into a composting bin.

The kids stomping on squash and cucumbers ...

The kids added more elements to the compost, including rabbit poop, which the kids thought was hilarious, of course.

At the end of class, the kids each got to take home a squash Ms. Lisa had picked before class.  Rylan picked this one ...

We decided we'd make it for Grayson to eat.  He was already excited about it tonight :)