Bathtime

This week, I got some good bath pictures! The two of them have the best time taking their baths. I love listening to them laugh and play.
Allie was much more cooperative than Zachary, so I got some super cute ones of her (and her sweet curls!)!

This last picture is classic Zachary & Allie. Again, she's watching & copying him while he sings a silly song!

Playing "Trash"

I have no idea where this came from, but my kids have started playing a new and highly destructive game. When I say, "What are you doing?" They say, "We are playing trash!"
Apparently, the goal of "Trash" is to pile on as many things as possible and create a tower.
This is not my favorite game.
In most cases, I try to encourage their creativity, even at the expense of time, personal appearance or neatness.

But this definitely crosses the line.

I do, however, like that they flew the American flag on top of their tower.
I love my creative, trash-playing, patriotic kids.

Flowers with Grammy Claire!

While we were in Florida during Christmas, the kids had some fun planting flowers with Grammy Claire. They loved it!

The toughest of workouts

My life is not conducive to real cardio/pilates/Jillian-Michaels-style workouts. During the winter, I find myself coming up with lots of creative ways to get moving - running up & down the stairs way more than needed, dancing with the kids, wrestling, playing chase, etc.
But several times a week, I do make it a priority to have a structured stretching/sit ups/yoga style session in the playroom with the kids or while they are playing. If I'm really lucky, I can even play my own music in the background (yesss!).
Today, however, the CD was already playing a delightful[-ly annoying] set of tunes from a kid's CD titled "Silliest Songs." When I tried to change the music, Allie yelled at me for interrupting a song titled "When you find a manatee in your bathtub", about Mr. Manatee invading bath time and "filling up your tub with giant bubbles" (??).
I figured if I wanted to get a few minutes of stretching done without the kids interrupting me, I might as well leave the music the way they were already enjoying it.
So the song switched to "Billy the squid," (about a slimy octopus who walks into a bar complaining that he's lost his lollipop when all the people in the bar can see it stuck to his head. He's even offering a reward that includes "ten sand dollars, a rock that glows, and a ring that fell off a pirate's nose...") and I started doing my sit ups.
The next two songs weren't too bad and I even got a little rhythm going with my leg lifts. But as the fourth song started playing, I realized this CD is not going to work for me & my little "workout."
The title is "There's a Chocolate Moose on the Loose" and here are the lyrics that sent me to the fridge digging for a chocolate-covered anything...

"....chocolate on the windows, chocolate on the floors,
chocolate on the chairs and chocolate on the floors
....He's getting chocolate on the pie crust, chocolate on the pan,
chocolate all over the baker man.
He doesn't really mean to make a mess you see,
he's a chocolate moose as sweet as he can be..."

Swim Atlanta

Since Zachary can swim on his own now, we've decided to put him in a stroke class to get his technique much better. Today was his first lesson and it was a good one!
We did a lot of research and found a great swim program throughout Atlanta that also has a great swim team for kids and adolescents. I'm excited about it!!

There are three boys (including Zachary) in his class, all of whom are at his same swim skill level. They were all cute together, working on their strokes.

Here he is working on bringing his arms up & around.

He is working on his back stroke below. His teacher really pushes the boys, which is good.