Swim lessons complete

We survived 8 days of swim lessons in 2 weeks. They were 30 minute lessons and that was about all Gavin could handle, or all I could handle while trying to keep Gavin from jumping in the pool. He found other ways to get wet, like sitting in poolside puddles or wading in the kiddie pool outside. Jacob as well got wet and stayed wet for his entire 30 minutes. I would venture to say that about half the time he was underwater. His very patient teacher was very good about just letting him do his thing as he was beyond the skill level of the class, but according to the Red Cross not old enough for the next level (though the community center would have allowed him into it anyway). His teacher did say at the end of class today that age wise he could go to Level 1 and skill wise he could go into Level 2. We'll see when lessons are this fall and maybe get thru those when he's 4 1/2.

Jacob with his classmates at the beginning of class.

Jacob underwater as the rest of his classmates get their lessons.

I have mentioned what a monkey Jacob is on the monkey bars, right?

Here Jacob is at our nearest park swinging across the rings.

And across the actual monkey bars.

Gavin wanting to be just like his big brother "asking" for his turn.

I enjoyed a girly day at the Mall of America with my niece for her 6th birthday. She got to get her first American Girl (she chose Kit who looks much like Maddie herself) and a couple outfits. Then we got to eat at the American Girl Bistro. Too cute! Lots of pink and lots of fun.

Maddie and Kit

Back to all things boys, it still amuses me how young boys start driving cars...

Gavin "driving"

The boys driving out on our new patio.

Fred had cards at the house on Saturday night, which encouraged us to clean out our garage that we haven't parked in for months. Amazing what organization and a dumpster will do for a garage. I am parking in the garage again! Nice. We have 2 new service doors in the garage. The front one I understand is just for poker parties (we can use it other times, but that's what it was put in for) and the back one is for easy storage of backyard stuff - very nice.

Our basement is still creeping along towards completion. Sheetrocking is nearly complete. I got to prime the ceilings yesterday to prep them for texture. 4 hours of painting over my head, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to move today, but I'm not feeling it as I thought I would. After the sheetrocking is complete, painting, trim, flooring, plumbing in the bathroom and finishing of the electical and we should have a finished basement. FINALLY. Its been in some sort of progress for the last 5 years.

Just too cute not to post...