High Dive

During swim lessons on Thursday, Hailey's group was in the dive well.  They worked on their dives off the side and also jumped off the boards.  Hailey hasn't been on the high dive and she stood up on it for 5 minutes while the guard tried to convince her to jump.  When we left she told me she wanted her to stop talking so she could think.  Ah, my little thinker.  She told me she wanted to go back on Friday because she wanted to go off the high dive.  Well, we went on Saturday.  If you jump off the high dive you have to swim to the far end of the dive well where there are stairs.  This is because on one side is the low dive and on the other is the drop slide.  I think part of Hailey's fear was that she wouldn't be able to swim.  On Saturday, we decided she should jump off the low board and swim to the far end and then she would be confident that she could make the swim and then go off the high dive.  She did just that.  She barely hesitated on the high dive - just a moment and then she walked off.  That was how she told me she would do it -just walk off the end.

 Moment of hesitation

 Go time!

 Close up of that first jump

 This was the second jump - she's in her groove now

 Dad had to show off and do a dive off the high dive

Kaitlyn

Just some randoms

 Going after Molly

Brave

The girls and I headed on Saturday to see Brave.  It was Maddie's first movie.  She did great except for the fact that she doesn't weigh enough to hold the seat down.  She sat on my lap the whole movie.  Like most Disney movies, there is a fairly scary part of the movie, so I was snuggling with both my girls during that time.

 She was really pushing her legs down to get it to stay down - this lasted 2 minutes

 Yum -popcorn!

Another night, another carnival

On Friday night, Kris took the girls to the carnival that is at the other Catholic school in Lombard which is right across from daycare.  The girls have been watching it get ready all week.  I stayed home with Kaitlyn since she hits bed sometime right after 7.  Kris went back on Saturday night after the girls went to bed to partake in the casino part of the carnival.  He played some texas holdem and walked away up $45

 Took a ride in the bike trailer.

 Rides, rides, rides

 Daddys girl

 Sno cone

Kaitlyn and I hanging out - I was trying to get a shot of her 4 teeth.  2 upper, 2 bottom and she has some more uppers on the way

Swim Lessons Session 2

Another one bites the dust.  Both girls moved up this time and Maddie was so excited about it.  She couldn't stop telling me she got to move to Level 1 like Hailey.  Hailey gets to move up to Level 4.  We weren't going to do this last session before vacation, but Hailey wanted to, so I signed the girls up.

To pass Level 3 Hailey had to do these things - 15 bobs with bubbles, bob to safety, kneeling/compact dives, tread water for 1 minute, jump into deep water and recover and then do it with lifejacket, reverse direction while swimming on front, reverse direction while swimming back, front glide and back glide for 2 body lengths, freestyle and backstroke 10 yards, rhythmic breathing on wall, elementary backstroke kick for 10 yards.

Maddie was in preschool/tot and in order to move up, she had to put her face in the water!  Pretty funny stuff

 Kaitlyn and I hang out during swim lessons.  Check out that cutie! Look at those 4 teeth

 Me and my girl.  I have been in more pictures lately.  I noticed I am in very few and am also down 25 pounds, so I don't mind seeing myself in them as much!

 Maddie on the kickboard and Hailey's group in the background.

 Maddie's so proud - she is saying look - Level 1

Little swimmers

Stomach sleeper

Kaitlyn has decided she likes to sleep on her tummy.  Its a little nerve racking to come in and find her like this the first time!

Friday the 13th

I think I should have stayed home.  I took the day off and rode the train into the city so Kris and I could head to the EIU Alumni outing at the cubs game.  The train was delayed because of switching problems about 15 minutes.  I then met Kris at Northwestern and we went to the red line.  If you have ever taken the red line to a cubs game - its kind of a nightmare to begin with.  There are so many people crammed in, its unreal.   So we pushed and shoved until we got on the el that we had been waiting for for about 30 minutes.  We get on and its not going anywhere.  Apparently, there is police activity, so we are sardined in the el and its not going anywhere.  I think it was 20 minutes before we went anywhere.  We finally get to the game, right at 1:15 for the 1:20 game.  Great, right?  Nope, the tarp is already out.  The game never started.  We are under the overhang, so we just hang out and have some beers thinking it won't be long.  The forecast only had a 10% chance of rain.  We were ok for a while and then the wind started and the rain was blasting us.  We got drenched in an extremely short period of time.  The entire stadium was inside.  The water came so fast, the place was practically under water.  There were rivers running down the ramps and puddling.  They even locked the closest womens restroom because of the standing water.  We hung out next to a beer vendor, so we were good, although drenched.  The game started at 5pm.  We hung out for a couple of innings and went to dinner.  Whew!  It was quite the eventful Friday the 13th! (It could have been worse)

 Tarps already out

 Just waiting for the short rain delay - or so we think.

 Yep, its raining

 Its now blowing in

 Jam packed

 Soaked

 We got home at 900 or so and I was still wet and my clothes were lightweight

They tell us at 4:15 - we will start the game at 5 - great another 45 minutes!

1st tooth lost

Hailey could not be more excited to lose her first tooth.  I know a lot of her friends have lost theirs, so she was feeling left out. She has been telling us this one was wiggly for a while.  I know she worked on loosening it quite a bit.  

 When we got home from daycare, she showed her toothless smile

 Maddie can't be left out - she said take my picture

 The little kit Nana had gotten for Hailey a while back.  Its a cute little book about the tooth fairy and losing your teeth.  Even has a part in the back to color as you lose each tooth.  She put her tooth in the little pouch under her pillow for the tooth fairy.  We also wrote a note asking the tooth fairy to leave her tooth since it was her first tooth.

This was what Hailey got from the tooth fairy.  She got $2 since it was her first tooth.

 Look what the tooth fairy left!

Mom, take my picture. She is such a ham

Zoo

It finally cooled off and today we made a last minute decision to go to the zoo.

 Saw some giraffes.  Maddie kept telling us, they have long necks so they can eat leaves.  It must be something she recently learned.  I think she told us 5 times.

 Getting a little wet

I think this is the most tired Maddie has been in a while, that she slept like this in the car.  Kris brought her in the house and I think she slept for another 2 hours!

A day at the races

We got 6 box Arlington Park tickets at the St Pius auction in February, so we finally got to go this Saturday.  Grandma and Grandpa came up to go with us.  It was our first time there and it was great.  We had so much fun.  Kaitlyn got to spend the day with Nana, and the girls came with us.

 Our section

Checking things out.

 The paddock

 Silly girls

 The races

 Kris won the first race and was crazy excited!

 Turf race

 Hailey was ALL about betting.  She picked by either name or number.  She did not win until the 4th race.  She was about to have a meltdown.  There was a horse -8 - that she picked that was 20-1 odds and Kris told her - nah, you don't want that one.  Well, Grandma had bet on that horse and won - she won 80 bucks!  This was where she almost lost it.  Luckily, the next race she won!

 She won $10.  This is her winning ticket.  She had quite the racket too - Grandpa would bet (with his money), but Hailey would collect the winnings!

 This was the second one she won - she won 15.60 this time!

 Time to go - we headed to Nana and Papa's for some dinner (and to pick up Kaitlyn)

 Little dip in the pool to cool off.

 Nice faces girls!