Summer Begins

Mostly we have been spending our time finishing up soccer for Jeffrey and Arabelle, starting baseball for Jeffrey and Arabelle, and completing swimming lessons for all three kids.  Although those activities are what has been keeping us busy, I managed not to get any pictures of them.

Arabelle said she wanted to wear this dress for "Earth Day" because of all the flags.

I got lots of pictures of Charlotte in this "Ice Cream Social" dress, but I thought she looked too cute.

And then she got sad, inexplicably:

Fat Little Smiler:

Arabelle didn't want to take a picture b/c she said the shirt made her look like an angel:

Charlotte needed her picture taken as well:

I had not planned for Charlotte to take swimming lessons because she is very afraid of the water.  In fact she throws a giant fit every time I make her take a bath and wash her hair.  The first day just Jeffrey and Arabelle were signed up for lessons, and Charlotte was sad and said she wanted to do it.  I didn't believe her, but I signed up her up, and lo and behold, the next day she got in the water and was quite cooperative.  I could tell she was scared, but I realized how brave she could be when it was something that she wanted to do:

I must note that Rowan looks like Winston Churchill here, but i will spare you the Winston Churchill pic:

Little Survivor got his blood drawn:

Arabelle:  I'm going to marry Valin but......I kind of have a crush on Pac Man.

I nagged  Arabelle all day to put away her clothes and finally she got started and then one minute later lay on the floor exhausted from all the hard work and she said, "But mommy, I wasn't born to clean!"

I wanted to explain a little bit to the kids about Rowan's hearing since he would be going to so many doctors' visits and I wanted them to be prepared for his hearing aids.  Jeffrey seemed pretty upset by it and said he was sad that Baby Rowan couldn't hear well.  Then he perked up a bit and said, "but at least he can smile!"