who needs floaties??

i should be investing in wings!

swagger wagon

foster's 4th

      

   

  

              

nai nai & grandpa, we missed you! thank you so much for letting us use your oh-so-lovely house! we are so glad you are in China, doing so much for so many people! But we sure do miss you :)

swimming lessons

there are certain things in life that you have to do, no matter how difficult or expensive. for me, i need my kids to know how to swim. no only are we currently living in a house with a pool and a pond, but it's a life skill i want my kids to have so they're confident, and better yet, safe. during our awesome beach week, we spent a lot of time in the pool, and witnessed first hand our buddy owen swimming with amazing confidence and skill. lindsay strongly encouraged me to check out the swimming program at West Chester University where he had attended. we signed up to start the day after we got home. owen was also returning to take the advanced beginners class, so we were glad to have experienced friends to help us through the process.

to say the least, it's intense. they push the kids hard. they don't bring them back to you if they cry in class. if your kid won't jump, they will throw them in. but even on the first day, it is very clear, they care about these kids. their actions are not done out of ruthlessness, but with love knowing the skills they learn could (and most likely will) save their little life one day. after reading that the #1 cause of death for kids under 5 is drowning (oh so scary, but true) i was determined to protect my kids as best i can. i'm not going to lie. the first week was rough. at least 3 of the days, foster's sweet teacher miss jules had to pry him from my arms as he sobbed. but she didn't give up. she stuck with him, even when he made great attempts to convince her he didn't want to do it, she spent extra time with him, hugged him, and high-fived him when he made progress. foster told me yesterday that "miss jules holds my hand and we talk about stuff. i feel braver when she talks to me."
as of this morning, my child can jump in the pool, go under water, pop up to float on his back, and swim to the other side of the pool unassisted. amazing!!!

this video is pretty poor quality because we are FAR away in the stands, but it was one of the first times he did it all by himself. pretty cool.

** this was taken today at his last swim class!!

just a normal tuesday morning...

we did our usual blueberry pancake breakfast as we said goodbye to clint.
moments later, coffee in hand, we were make-shifting another morning activity. in the 20 min since breakfast we had already made bead necklaces (correction...first we spilled ALL of the beaded accouterments on the kitchen floor), built a domino tower and successfully cried 4 times over not having enough time to swim before swimming class. the activities for the day were looking bleak.

it was at this moment that clint walked back through the door...with these:

no, he didn't make a morning run to toys-r-us....
word to the wise: keep eyes peeled for swanky spendthrift neighbors...these BRAND NEW trucks were in the trash! cha-ching!

our day suddenly moved to bulldozing, sand shoveling, and all around excitement. it was the birthday gift we would have loved to have bought for our son, but opted to go light on presents this year. sometimes i'm blown away by the ways that God can provide for our family. something as simple as 3 awesome trucks can remind us that God sees our family and can even provide something frivolous in His provision.