Happy 4th!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend - we sure did! One of the kid's favorite people - Uncle Matthew - was in town and we started off the weekend with a fabulous meal courtesy of Matt. We went to Nashville Shores again (twice - you know Lance is going to try to get his money's worth out of the season pass) and had so much fun and managed to get the kids to sleep in the car both times - it wears them out! We went trout fishing on Sunday - so fun even though Lance nor I actually caught any fish. Tyler "helped" and claims to have caught a big one! I hate that I forgot my camera! I ate some of the caught trout last night (Lance and some buddies had a shrimp boil that was way too spicy for me) and it was delish! Sunday afternoon was spent at the pool with Uncle Stan and Aunt Carol. The kids both had a blast and can't stop talking about how they swam by themselves (with floaties), jumped in, etc., etc. They really got the hang of it and by the time we went to Nashville Shores on Monday Katie was willingly putting her head under the water and both were almost swimming kicking their legs and not afraid to try without holding on to us! The kids got to experience some tame fireworks yesterday evening (snappers, sparklers were the faves) and Tyler definitely inherited Lance's pyro tendencies. That boy is cautious as can be and takes forever to decide to do something but he jumped right in to wanting to "do lots of fireworks" - crazy! Lance and I also got to go to the U2 concert (amazing) and the kids stayed with Ray Ray and So So and had a big time there too. All in all it was a jam-packed, pretty water-logged weekend that was tons of fun. It is just what I needed to tide me over until we hopefully get a beach vacation in August or September.

Speaking of August/September - it is hard to believe but the kids will be 3 (!) and that is the age that a lot of people start activities like gymnastics, dance, and soccer! I think we are going to not have a big birthday party for the kids (probably when we will be at the beach anyway since I don't really have good vacation days and will have to combine with Labor Day), but may sign them up for some sort of class or activity instead of paying for a bunch of kids to play at Monkey's Treehouse or Monkey Joe's or a place like that (yes, I am selfish I guess) when the kids won't really care one way or the other since all they want is birthday cake. The added expenses (it is crazy how it all adds up - with registration fees, uniforms, and class fees) will be hard to swing while we are still paying preschool/daycare, but I don't think I can wait two more years (when they will be in "real" school) to see how they like tumbling or soccer! Some friends of mine with little girls close to Katie's age are enrolling in a Saturday tap, tumbling, ballet class that I want to sign Katie up for in the Fall but I know Lance isn't going to want to enroll Tyler too (there are boys in the class, though). So he may get to do soccer or I might look for a gymnastics class instead of the dance one so they both can do it, but I just know that Katie will enjoy the dance portion so I haven't decided! I don't really think Tyler will be too into soccer (he would probably like being out there but would be playing in the dirt more than kicking the ball I think), and do think he would like gymnastics and I think T-Ball to (but that doesn't start until 4) - so now I just have to convince Lance that gymnastics is ok at this age for him! Either way I think life is about to get (more) chaotic, but hopefully even more fun too! The kids are truly at a fun age, but they are still driving us crazy with bedtime shenanigans - operation Separate is happening this week!