Swimming and soccer, oh my!

It's been a super busy week, complete with new happenings, fun times and lots of frustration.

Tyler was the beneficiary of a good big brother who brought him home a cowboy hat from the birthday party a couple of weeks ago, add brother's old boots and we have quite the outfit. He wore it for about 2 seconds and waddled back to his bedroom to yank his boots off. Goofball.
Soccer practice started this week, and Cody is in heaven. He Loves it! I'm so glad we were able to get him going this year. Games don't start until mid Sept, but coach wanted to get them going. Here' a few pics from the first practice, had the camera on the wrong setting, sorry for the blurs, but watch for the smile that rarely left his face.

Dribbling...

Shooting...

Taking passes...

Throw-ins....

Ending with a short scrimmage...

We were also finishing up the second week of swim lessons, so glad for that to be over!

1st video from the end of week one, then the 2nd one showing week 2. What a difference!

On the last day of class they get to go down the slide, like last time. But captain confidence decided he would go down on his own. Go Cody! He was able to go down 6 times, and probably would have stayed there all day if they had let him.

The other thing he's become really good at this session is diving underwater for rings. We were practicing at Jen's house yesterday as well, it's become one of his favorite things.

Tyler has been my trooper, sitting through everything this week and not being able to join in on the fun. Next year he can start swim lessons and we'll have to find him a soccer program through the parks system, as he'll still be too young to join the Orangevale team in the fall, missed it by a month.

Thanks California, it's appreciated..

I'm about to bitch, so you've been warned....


Being that Keith works in the auto industry, we've been feeling the economy crunch for a while now, have had to make adjustments and praying that the paycheck that comes on Fridays will actually pay what is due that week. I've cut out so many things this summer, things that I had planned to do with the boys, it makes me sick.

Living in the fabulous state of California has been another challenge. Parks and pools are being closed and set into states of disrepair, jobs lost, and a general feeling of "oh shit" in the air.
S-I-L has seen it in having to take furlo (sp?) days at work.

Today it has finally hit home, our home and our boys. Without the budget and the schools getting money cut, our preschool program that we have loved for the last three years has finally been hit. On one hand I'm grateful because we still have a preschool to go to in the fall. But I am deeply saddened by the fact that of the 5 teachers in the whole program, only 1 is left for this coming year. One teacher for all the classes, and only one school sight for all the kids.

Last year was hard going in because we were unsure of the new teacher Cody would have, and I wasn't really looking forward to going back to the old teacher for Tyler. Thankfully, we fell right in step with Cody's teacher, loving her assertiveness and direction. Another pleasant surprise was that there was a new teacher for Tyler's class. She's awesome, a breath of fresh air, and really loved being there and with the kids.

Minus the work that is involved with this school, I've been looking forward to it starting all summer. I love Teacher Kathy and was so excited to get to be there two days a week with her and Ty.

We already have the unknowns of what kindergarten really is, so going into it with the looming budget crisis has already been a scary thing.

So now, we're walking back into the unknown, and I'm pissed. Pissed that we lost two+ wonderful teachers to government BS. Pissed that we will have to really watch our P's & Q's all year because there isn't going to be any money to do anything without paying for it out of pocket. Really pissed that the government has let their short comings effect the littlest ones in the state.

The state has to be hemorrhaging money out somewhere. How many secretaries to a secretary to we need, how much beautification do we need, how much do the government high-ups really need to make each year.

Maintain what we already have, leave the kids alone.

Swim Lessons, Take 2!

So we're back for another round of swim lessons, moved up from the Guppies to the Otters and boy what a difference that is! Monday was the first day of our two week session. This is the 5th session of the summer, and it shows as he has only one other boy in his class.

Practicing his bob, putting his head completely under water.

Jump!

Kicks...

Learning arm movements for the breast stroke.

Putting it all together, think it was weird for both of them.

Diving under to get the rings, he's the dark spot in the water.

Back floats; caught the picture the millisecond he actually had his head all the way back.

Practicing the back stroke. The pinkie and the thumb here having a race, the thumb starts in the lead, but when you get the half way point it turns and pinkie wins. Funny but good way to teach.

This is weird for him.

Practice in the water, his head is rarely down.

It's been a good couple of lessons, getting on with his new instructors well and adapting to the deeper water very well. Today they were swimming between the instructors and he was doing very will while on his stomach, but anything on his back is not cool with him. So learning to trust something new is still the name of the game.

Busy week!

We have been hitting the town this week, getting out and about and it's been great! Tuesday we went in search of a new splash park and ended up at Livermore Park in Folsom. Very fun and perfect for the hot weather we've been having. It has this big waterfall the kids can play under, then a creek that runs down. Cody joined in on a big water fight with some of the older kids, and became their target for a good portion of the time, but finally got himself shifted to the A team and it was all good. We will be going back this summer.

Today we ventured off to the Sac Zoo and Funderland with Jen, Selby and Russ.
Buddies, ready for the day.

Finally an awesome pic without a bunch of cheese!

Mischief in those eyes...

We saw all our favorite animals, including the red panda, hanging over the tree for his nap.

I can't get enough of the koi pond, hope to have my own some day.

How could we bypass this?

After lunch we headed over to ride the rides. This trip we bought the unlimited wrist band, thank to a coupon I found, and it was so worth the money.

Cody and Selby's 1st Roller Coaster ride. See the terror!

Didn't last long, they were both ear-to-ear smiles.

Tyler also got a turn on the coaster.

Loved it!

Ty and Russ in the cars, looks like they've been driving for years.

Good times for sure!

Inspiration needs to hit....

like yesterday.

At the end of the school year, I volunteered to embellish some new aprons for Cody's preschool class. The other two classes had new ones and the ones from his class were on their last leg. It seamed like a good idea at the time.
On Sun, his teacher dropped off 6 of the 8 new aprons, clean and ready to be beautified. Now I'm terrified. I had some little ideas running through my head, but now I'm coming up blank, crap. I've explored a few methods and need to give in and nail it down, today. So I'm channeling my inner Martha and hoping to come out smelling like roses on the other end.

In other household news, Tyler and I are playing eye for an eye today, what fun! I woke up to this all over the office.


This stuff is flour fine crafting stuff, and some of it is heat embossing powder. Oh joy of joys, I get to clean it up! Eye for an eye, he lost two cars to the trash can.

Breathing starts now...

Monster Golf

Loving our break from swim lessons, we made a solid effort to get out and about this week. Success was found! Tues we hit up the free movie and saw "Pirates That Don't Do Anything: A Veggies Tales Movie" then headed over to the splash park for lunch. Wed we went to the art program at the church, it was water play day, very fun. After that we headed to Jen's to swim the afternoon away, felt so nice being in the pool! Thurs was library and the park.
Fri we ventured indoors to Monster Mini Golf and were met there by Cody's friend Axl. We played a round, then played some video games and the boys had a blast.

Shhh, Cody in his stance...

Good grip!

Tyler's much less elegant stance.

Then, I discovered if you want to get rid of a whiny almost 3 year-old, pull out the camera and he goes laughing down the hallway. Dork!

Birthday party on Saturday and maybe a break on Sunday???? We'll have to see if I can sneak away.