Museum Fun!

On Thursday, my mom's group took a trip to the PA State Museum. We first went to the planetarium to see a movie about weather. It was called Zula Patrol, which apparently is on early Sunday mornings on PBS. The kids loved watching a movie on the ceiling!

After the movie we visited the Curiosity Connection in the museum, which is a room of learning designed for kids up to age 5. The boys absolutely loved it and they didn't want to leave, even after playing for over 3hrs. Grayson especially loved the Lego Thomas. Jason really liked building trucks and made a whole row of them. I have many more great pics, too many to post on here. We will definitely be going back to play soon!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I was actually a little relieved on Wednesday that it was raining. I had worked all night Tuesday night and was exhausted, so knowing that I could take it easy and keep the kids inside all day was kinda nice. We mostly watched TV, read books and played. The kids did manage to sit at the table and make picture frames out of craft supplies that we had in the house. We have decided that we are going to put photos in them and give them to some friends and family members.

Hershey Park

Monday we took the boys to Hershey Park. My company had a picnic there and just like last year the food left a lot to be desired but it was basically free so no complaining. It was hot and sticky but we all had lots of fun. They have a huge water park that the kids played in and they rode tons of rides. Some of the lines were kinda long but most of the stuff the boys wanted to go on wasn't too terrible.

Grayson wanted to spend all day on this train!

Little Engineers

Grayson was able to operate the helicopter on his own this year!

Sharing the rocket ship!

Grayson found a little girlfriend.


We found her again at the dinosaur ride. She was quite taken by him
Daddy having fun with the boys in the water park area. Unfortunately because my shorts had a metal zipper I was not allowed to go in the water. I think its because they use salt water and it would cause rust. At least I was able to take pictures.

Again, daddy having fun on the water slide with Grayson.
Jason in his safety vest at the water park.
Jason waited all day for this photo. Hershey park measures kids and assigns them a candy based on their height. Jason was a Reese, so he was looking forward to finding the Reese character all day. We finally found him as the park was closing!

We did have a great day and I got a great workout for the day. Jason made me carry a huge intertube up a very long flight of stairs six times to go down the big gren water slide.

We are hoping that next year Jason is a Hershey bar (in height) and then he will be able to most of the bigger rides too! We opened and closed the park for the day and we still only got through about half of the park. Oh well, I guess we will have to go back again this summer!

Dentist!

On Thursday Jason had his first full dental cleaning! He has gone with us to the dentist before and has allowed them to brush his teeth with a regular toothbrush and they counted his teeth. This time she used all the tools! He has great teeth, with good spacing for his second set of teeth when they are ready to come in.

Oh, and guess who has the cavity! The person in this household to takes the best care of her teeth has a cavity! Ugh!

Swimming Update

Thursday was Jason's last day of swimming lessons and by the end of the class he was swimming on his own (for a very short distance). The parents were allowed to watch all of the last class, but I decided not to watch the whole thing because Jason gets distracted by trying to smile and wave at me.

They really did a lot of swimming. I was quite impressed with how many times the kids had to swim the length of the pool. They swam with their backpack floaties and noodles, then without the noodle and then they were swimming with a kick board. Jason is quite fast using the kick board. He kept passing all the other kids in the water.

I have considered signing Jason up for the last session of the summer because I believe he would be in a higher group and learn some more swimming techniques, but he says he doesn't want to do it again yet. I might sign him up anyway!

I really liked this swimming class because they really worked with each of the kids individual needs. At the conclusion of the two week session the kids get a progress report also. I have really seen progress in Jason's swimming ability. On Friday we went to a friend's house to play in the pool and Jason lost his floaty at one point. He was able to swim to the side of the pool by himself, even being in somewhat of a panicked state, he knew what to do. It was really amazing to watch him.

Cookies!

We made cookies yesterday! I wanted to make another batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies but Giant did not have white chocolate chips. Instead we made chocolate, butterscotch, macadamia nut cookies. They are delicious!

Stirring the batter

Mmm, cookie dough

Yummy, Half of the cookies!

Making cookies is so much work, they needed a nap!

Jason is like a fish!

I took Jason to swimming lessons today and was able to escape without taking Grayson! Yay! Do you think I was able to remember my camera on a day that I could have taken pictures without chasing after a 3 year old? Of course not!

Jason did a wonderful job today too. They had the kids swim the length of the pool with just their backpack floaties (they call them cubes). They didn't use the pool noodles this time, plus they still had to throw their little "swim buddies" when they got to them. I was quite impressed. Jason did a wonderful job and is quite fast at it too.

On Thursday they had the kids practice water safety while wearing those orange boating life jackets. I don't think that Jason like how close to his neck it was but it was a great lesson. We go out on a friends boat every so often, so it is nice to know that he will know what to do if he falls in.

Hopefully tomorrow Chris will be able to join us at the pool after his dentist appt to watch Jason swim. I really want him to see how well Jason is doing.

Jason is learning to swim

Jason had his second day of swimming lessons today. I am very proud of him. He swam the whole way across the pool by himself (with a backpack floaty and a pool noodle), but still, he was able to get himself from one end to the other. He loves the water!

I like this class because all of the parents have to leave the pool area during lessons. When Jason took karate classes, the parents stayed with their kids and watched. Most of the kids didn't listen to the instructor because their parents were in the room. Jason was usually the only one doing the lessons because he was the only one listening. It was very distracting to have other kids just running around. At least here, with the swimming, we don't have to worry about that. I would love to be able to watch him swim for more than just the last 5 mins, but at least I know he is getting good instruction with kids who are listening.

Here is a 20sec video of him swimming. I took the video with my digital camera, so there is no sound.