Swim Lessons!

Brookston just finished 2 weeks of swim lessons at Crawfish Aquatics. He went from basically freaking out when water touched his face (yes, even in the bathtub....still!) to doing quite well, for a beginner! At this point, he worked a lot on kicking while floating and adding in a little of the arms in the last couple days.

Parents were not allowed into the pool area, until the last day. A lot of kids freaked out, including mine, for the first day or three! But, on the last day, it was show off day and most kids seemed pretty happy and ready to show off their newest skills!

So, the deck was filled with tons of observers snapping pictures and video...including me! And again, Daddy was able to join us for the 40 minute lesson! YAY!!!!

Brookston and Ms. Danielle, his teacher

Between his turn, he was all smiles!

I love this survival skill...

Jump in...

Turn around...

Reach for the wall!

Okay, a couple of videos...out of my 12! ;)

Spray Park and Little Gym

I'm a little behind in posting. Last week we went to the spray park for the first time this season. Now we've been 3 times in one week! :) This place is great! It was Kaisley's first time being able to actually play and I'm pretty sure she's a fan!

Okay, lots of pictures....

Last year Brookston was all about cups and buckets, so I came armed, 2 cups and a bucket. This time he really had fun with some cars...figures, time to go to Target!

She got pretty brave going through the water!

Waiting for the water to pop back up!

BIG JUMP!

Okay, next was Little Gym, show off day! It was today! Look at me blogging the DAY something happened! ;)

Anyway, show off day is the day you invite people to come watch, so it was crowded! Daddy was able to come, so Brookston DID show off, which was great!

As usual, Kaisley trying to be like the big kids!

Okay, here goes the forward roll on the beam....Go Brookston!!

Tada!!!!!

And then a flip over the bar...

I just thought this was adorable! Love my little girl!

Brookston and his friend, Ashlynn, playing on the bars together.

Brookston with his medal and award!

Strawberry Pickin!

About 45 minutes away is a great strawberry patch. We've never been to visit, but tons of our friends have gone yearly and we knew we were missing out! So, this is possibly the last, maybe the second to last weekend since strawberry season is already coming to a close here, so we enjoyed a morning of strawberry picking, followed by lunch and a visit to the fish at Bass Pro Shop! :) Brookston's request!

Brookston was ready to find some yummy strawberries

He went straight to work!

And when we told him he could eat them, he sure did!

Kaisley went straight for eating!

And she never really stopped!

Daddy picking strawberries with the kids!

Break/eating time!

Kaisley finally pitching in

Mommy with the kiddos in the strawberry patch

Proof that Kaisley enjoyed herself!

And now we have TONS of strawberries, in the freezer, fridge and thanks to friends, tons of ideas of how to use them in cooking! Hmmm, what all will we be making? Maybe we should have gotten 2 flats afterall! :)

Happy 3rd Birthday

Hard to believe it's been THREE years since we had Brookston. He's growing up so fast and it's been so fun watching him grow into this sweet, fun, loving, and awesome 3 year old!

When I asked him what kind of cake he wanted, I showed him a Nemo and a Lightning McQueen...well, I was not in the least bit shocked when he chose Lightning McQueen, but I was VERY nervous as red and black are the two HARDEST colors!

I did a practice cake, red turned out great (after adding in half of a bottle of icing dye)...however the black tasted terrible! So, for party day, I made the black out of chocolate icing, so not only did the chocolate flavor take over any possible bad taste, but it also started out brown, not white, so I only had to add a very little, instead of TONS of black. I was so proud that I got black to taste good! Hahaha!

Anyway, here are some pictures from Brookston's 3rd Birthday Party...at The Little Gym!

The kids having fun

The kids warming up

Kaisley is really loving Little Gym! Or maybe she just loved it extra special because Daddy was there for the party!

Crab walk

Poor boy...playing so hard he was a bit hot! :)

Special ride for the birthday boy!

This seemed to be a favorite for Brookston...especially when he got to go first climbing under and finding feet to tickle!

Richard with Kaisley and Piper (our niece)!

For anyone without kids or only girls...Lightning McQueen, from the movie "Cars" is red, his number is 95. The other cars in the movie are The King (blue), number 43, and Chick Hicks (green), number 86!

Thus, the cupcakes!

The CAKE!

Kaisley enjoying pizza...such a big girl!


Brookston blowing out his candles!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brookston!!!!

Turkey Baby

This post would be a whole lot more exciting if I had access to my computer. Instead, my computer crashed tonight...everything...gone!!!! I'm okay with it, my pictures are fine (all backed up) and that's the only "priceless" item. It's just going to be a huge huge pain to redo the entire computer. We're talking microsoft office, virus protection, quicken, my photbook software...everything. This sucker is back to BEFORE day one since the store at least loaded the basics for us. Arg!!!

Okay, to the exciting point...this Thanksgiving we're set to have Hall Baby #3 join our family!!! Yes indeed! To be specific, our due date is November 29th. So I guess we could just as likely have a newborn on Thanksgiving, as I could be big and waiting! But our family is growing and we cannot wait to see our family grow!!!

So...pictures of the cute shirts I made for the kids will have to wait until next time...when I can get on my computer, not just my phone and post properly. Then the sweet first ultrasound pictures and so on too! Don't worry, I'll have lots to post about when I can get the computer back to running properly!

So...that's our newest, latest, and greatest!!! Yay!!! :)