Pool Playdate

We had a very fun playdate at the pool today! Here are some pictures I took. Colin did play in the big pool too, but I couldn't get my camera out there since I was trying to also hang on to him! :)

He had a lot of fun (despite being a bit shrieky, which the other two mommies of kids his age say they're dealing with too...yay.). He loved "swimming" beside me in his floaty while I swam laps and dragged him along.
Okay mom, time to go!

Weekend Catchup

Okay, so we didn't do a whole lot this weekend. In fact, just a little bit ago when mom asked me what we did yesterday, neither Michael nor I could come up with much of an answer. But that's okay. I think we needed some down-time! :) Here are just a handful of pictures for you:

Friday was the weekly lunch with the girls. We fed all the kids first so they could go play and be out of our hair...I mean, we fed all the kids first because we're good moms and knew they were hungry. Here are all of them except Kiki:
Colin totally porked out, eating more than I imagined possible (especially considering he had a huge breakfast and morning snack). He had a bowl of roasted red pepper pasta, half a hot dog, a bunch of fruit, a bottle of water, a juice box, and a whole frozen fruity-ice-thingy for lunch. Growing?
Didn't take any pictures of anything interesting yesterday, but Colin has learned a new word/concept this week: "wall". Yep, exciting, huh? He has just discovered what walls are and walks around asking us, "wall?" while patting one. When we confirm that yes, it is a wall, he moves on to the next one!

Last night, in an effort to stay awake, he was running up and down the hallway as fast as his little legs could carry him and fell plumb over sideways into one of those walls. We had to ice his head for a bit, but it didn't faze him for long and there was not even a bruise this morning where the bump had been last night.

Here are a picture of my husband and his mini-me this morning before church. Michael dressed both of them. I claim no responsibility for this.
We met some friends for lunch after church and Colin fell asleep in the (literally) two minutes it took us to get there, then actually slept for about 10 minutes in the restaurant (which included us ordering and listening to 2 songs from a local band). His Sunday School teachers assure us that he is super-energetic and helpful to them and just wears himself out by being helpful! The triplet babies were at church again this morning and Colin reportedly still brings them toys they drop and pats their little legs when they cry. So sweet! After his brief siesta at the restaurant, he woke up and flirted with all the women! Such a silly ham!

Cleanings - Dentist and House!

Wow, this is my 250th post! Holy cow!

Anyway, I thought I'd share some pictures of our day yesterday with you. I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning, so Colin went to play with Lily. Lauren said they had a lot of fun together! Here are some pictures she took:
She even sent me one on my phone, so all the people at the dentist office had to have a look!

After dinner tonight, Colin helped me clean the kitchen, including scrubbing off the fronts of the fridge, dishwasher, and oven. What a big helper! He'd show me where to spray the cleaner and then he'd scrub it! He also wanted to do a bit of dusting, so between the two of us, we got the downstairs pretty sparkly! :)

We Love Sea World

We headed off to meet Anna, Kiana, and Sidney at Sea World this morning. Colin read a whole book in the 5 minutes it took us to get there. What an overachiever! :) One of the first things we did was visit the penguins and puffins. Colin was fascinated and kept trying to get a closer look. We also saw a (high) school group getting to go in and interact with the penguins ~ wouldn't that be SO cool (no pun intended...)! The girls inside were waving at Colin and Kiki, who couldn't decide if the people or the penguins were more fun to watch!
Of course, once it was time to swim, Colin dutifully got wet and then immediately requested a snack. How many calories can this boy burn through??? Here he is chillin' out in his poolside seat and having some crackers.
Once satiated, he got back in!
Kiki and Colin are the same age and around the same size and they play very well together. They both loved the water today. Colin is getting better at running through it, but seemed a little skeptical at first about the waves (probably remembering getting bowled over by them at the ocean!).
The little-bity-kid area has things for them to climb on and slide through as well as shooting streams of water and an "umbrella" of water. Colin liked all but the umbrella (which is also in water up to about his chest...maybe part of his problem).
Here's Sid going down the slide. Colin watched very carefully, so maybe soon he will be willing to try this part.
After Anna and the kids went home, Colin and I went to see the birds. He loves watching the birds and seems to be starting to distinguish between them. I couldn't tell what he was saying, but there was definitely a different adjective before each "bird". When he pointed at the flamingos, it even sounded like "pink bird," but I'm pretty sure he doesn't know his colors yet...
Colin kept touching the rocks between us and the water and asking "hot?". They weren't actually all that hot yet, but it was still so cute!
After seeing the birds, we went to visit the dolphins and the aquarium (always a favorite last stop of the day). The dolphins were really active today and Colin kept giggling at them swimming by and splashing him!

Puppies

***Puppy Update***
We took the puppies to the shelter Tuesday night and as of Thursday they have been adopted! :)

Chriz, my neighbor found two stray puppies out in the middle street yesterday. They cannot be more than a few months old and they are so darned cute and incredibly sweet. They stayed in our backyard while she canvased the neighborhood looking for an owner (they had collars on with no ID, so obviously they belonged to someone), but couldn't find anyone who claimed them. People here are worse than anywhere I've ever seen about just abandoning animals they decide they don't want. Another neighbor found a Pomeranian with tags a couple weeks ago and took it back to its house and the people said, "Oh, we're getting a divorce and couldn't decide who should take the dog, so we just let her go." Can you believe that? My faith in the human race decreases with each day I live in the city.

Michael gave them a bath and Colin had fun playing with them yesterday afternoon. We are trying to find them a home. The shelter has too many right now and are just euthanizing them, but these guys are so young and well-behaved...

Holiday Playdate

First thing this morning, we went to Lily's park for a play date. It was gorgeous weather, just a little humid, but overcast, so not 100 degrees at 10 am!
The kids seemed to have a good time playing out under the shade of the trees. Michael was off for the day and got to come with us.
A rare picture of Colin and I at a park!
Our lovely hostess, eating some of the yummy fruit she brought us all for a snack.
We love it when daddy gets to come to the park with us!
What a fun morning with great friends!

Lily's Luau!

Lily Grace turned ONE on Sunday! Can you believe it?! I cannot believe how much she's grown or all the things she's just started doing in the past couple weeks! She had a great birthday party that we were lucky enough to get to attend. Colin wore his new Hawaiian shirt, which I just love!
Lauren had the whole house decorated so cute and the kids enjoyed playing with all the balloons, streamers, and leis she had out for them!
Colin spent a large part of the afternoon fascinated with the streamer palm tree in the middle of the living room and doing this:
Maybe I should get one of these for our house to keep him occupied?

Here's the birthday girl sneaking a bite of lei while Lauren was not watching. :) Teehee...
And finally a bite of cake. Doesn't she look like, "um, mom, stop singing and give me the cake?" Look at that focus!
Yum! Finally!
And another of Colin, who kept slyly sidling up to Nick for a bite of cake after he finished off daddy's plate! He was cracking us up, he walk over and lean back against Nick and then tilt his head to look back and grin at him! Too funny!
After some rest (but not nap) time at home, we headed over to our neighbor's for Izaiah's birthday barbeque. Didn't stay long because Colin was getting too tired to stand up straight, but I've got a picture for ya of him snagging a ride in the Ford with one of the girls...ladies' man!