Starfish

Levi and I are half way through our three weeks of swimming lessons.
Last week we had lessons in the morning. This week, and next week, we have lessons in the evening (right after dinner. So much for waiting 30 minutes after eating to get into the pool.)

What a difference a year makes.
Levi was great in the water last summer. But this year I think he's really starting to get it. He kicks more, splashes more, and even puts his chin and ears in the water. He's really working on blowing bubbles. I'm hoping he'll really accomplish those before lessons are over next week.
Since current lessons are in the evening, Gabe got to take pictures last night.
Here's Levi waving to Daddy.
Levi floating and doing some forward kicks.Doing his back float. Which he doesn't really like. It's hard to let water in your ears.And here he is doing his favorite thing of all, SPLASHING! Getting water in Mommy's and his face.I'm hoping to get Gabe in the pool with him next week. Right now he's still recovering from the surgery he had Friday night...but I think he'll be up for some swimming next week. So I might be back next week with more pictures from the pool.

This is how MY boys play...

They make ramps for cars.And play this video game. (Which Levi pre-ordered for his dad's gift.)
This is how Gabe and Levi spent their afternoon together on Father's Day. We spent the morning at the Portland Art Museum to visit this exhibit. Gabe's friend and former boss, the late Tom Campell's, car was on display for the day. There was a special video tribute to him in the morning. It was a very nice event and a wonderful way to spend father's day.

Flowers and Friends

It's been a busy and crazy week around here. Between daily swimming lessons, getting estimates for the house painting, and dealing with a flake of an optometrist/insurance, I'm exhausted this week. And I'm suppose to be on vacation. Even with all the crazy stuff, Levi and I have had some fun afternoons.
On Tuesday, Tricia and Travis came over and we went up to the Rose Garden. It was a beautiful day. The roses are just finally starting to bloom. And a certain little boy loves to smell them.We smelled some roses, kicked the ball around for a while and then came home and had some dinner.Yesterday, the Wilkinson family came over. They are here from LA for the week and I'm so happy they were able come by and have some dinner with us. Levi and Zachary "played", I got to snuggle a tiny baby, and we enjoyed talking to friends I wish were closer. Baby Zane is smaller at almost a month old, then Levi was when he was born. So wonderful! Levi wasn't too sure about the baby at first.But soon, he wanted to put his hands all over him!Zachary and Levi did also get lots of hugs in.So I made the mistake of letting Levi lay down with two of his favorite stuffed animals. As I've been downstairs on the computer editing pictures and writing this post, I've been listening to him not take a nap for the last 1/2 hour. Guess I better get in the shower while I can, and hope he's asleep when I get out. I'm tired and sure could use a nap myself today before another painter comes by to quote our project this afternoon. Given the way some things have gone this week, I'm not going to hold out much hope.

Game!

Levi has really been into games lately.  Anytime the TV gets turned on, he's sure it's so he can watch a game.  We're blaming his Grandpa Girard for letting Levi watch too many baseball games.  It helps that baseball combines two of his favorite things, balls and hats.  We're not sure if Grandpa has been working with him on his pitching technique or if he's just picked it up by watching, but clearly he'll be the next Nolan Ryan.

-G

Hidden "Treasure"

Levi and Tinka (Grandpa Tom and Grandma Joanne's little dog) found this while digging in the sand earlier this week. Must have been left behind by the previous little boy who lived here. Actually, they found two army guys (the other one is doing the army crawl) and a fake gold coin. Pretty good treasure for a kid and a dog. I'm not sure who likes digging more, Levi or Tinka. They're both pretty good at making a sandy mess.
I took about 200 pictures this week and lots of videos. Guess that's what happens when I'm home all day. I'd like to get a video up of Levi playing a one man baseball game, but last time we tried to upload video it was in slow motion.

First Three

Levi and I have really enjoyed my first three days of summer vacation. (Minus the new wake up time of 6:30am and few toddler fits that have been thrown because Levi doesn't get his way. And it's him throwing the fit, not me...promise.)
We've already gone to story time at the library.
Played at the zoo with friends.Had an impromptu Daft Punk dance party.
And made chocolate chip cookies together. Levi likes the chocolate chips the best.Levi's into this thing now where he just licks his favorite foods. In fact, he'll just hold on licking them FOREVER! He'll actually put raspberries on his fingers and just lick them like some kids have been known to do with black olives. I finally had to tell him to just put the chocolate in his mouth because it was all over his shirt, the counter and his face.

Now all Levi and I are waiting for is the sun to arrive. We want to play at the park, go for walks, get out the sprinkler, pool and Popsicles. When that happens...summer is officially here!

Dinning Room Floor Project

Is 99% complete. We're still missing the piece that goes in the door way between the dinning room and the front door entry. The only problem is, the store we bought the flooring from last year no longer carries our flooring. So now Gabe needs to find a local distributor we can buy one little piece from. Hopefully he'll have time to figure that out this week.
But since it's so close to completion, and we've already worn it in during the last two weeks, I wanted to get some pictures of the project on here.
Here's what we started with, dog pee stained carpet in the dinning room!So glad that gross stuff is out of here! (Although, it's actually piled in the back of the blue truck in the garage for now.)
Here's Gabe and his helper laying down floor boards all day. Don't you love that Levi has his "safety glasses" on?And Gabe proud to be putting the last piece in.We are very happy with how it looks. Makes the room seem bigger.
I love it, and my handyman husband.

Cilantro Pesto

We harvested our first bunch of cilantro this week.
Gabe's dad and Joanne have raved about how wonderful cilantro pesto is, so we decided to give it a try this week. We decided to try this recipe. It looked simple, perfect for dinner on Wednesday night in the midst of a crazy week. I have to admit that I had high expectations and was therefore very disappointed. Levi was very disappointed as well. You would have thought the sauce was actually poison.
Here's what might have gone wrong:
*may not have had quite enough cilantro. And since talking to Gabe's dad, next time I'll add in some basil as well.
*too much garlic. Three raw cloves is overkill. Especially for a 22 month old, even though he does usually like garlic.
*in my opinion, way too much sesame oil. That's all I could taste. Although Gabe said he really liked it, next time I'm only putting in half the amount.

Any other suggestions from those who have made cilantro pesto?

Time for Breakfast

Levi's favorite elephant got to have breakfast this morning. In addition to grass (which Levi says "gass"), apparently this elephant also likes eggs and mango-peach yogurt. Silly elephant. And silly little boy.

Being that this was the crazy last week of school, I didn't really get out the camera. This is all I have the energy for right now. I sure am looking forward to getting some quality play time with Levi this week, the first week of my summer vacation.

Perfect Sunny Saturday

We spent our beautiful Saturday morning at the zoo yesterday. I don't think we were the only ones happy to have the sun out, and the temperature above 70. The animals were out enjoying the sunshine along with all us visitors. It felt good to get a dose of vitamin D.
We invited Josh, Danelle and Weston to join us but Danelle was working, so just the boys came along. The little boys were really impressed by the animated dinosaurs the zoo has during the summer. They probably would have watched this big guy all day. Personally, I think they're pretty lame.We had a nice stroll around the zoo and a great picnic lunch. Perfect way to enjoy the sunny day. The BBQ ribs for dinner were pretty nice too.
Oh, and here are the Lorikeets enjoying their bath and the beautiful morning.

Handyman

Levi is in love with daddy's tools. Who knew daddy's stud finder and tape measure could provide this kid with so much entertainment.
Guess we know what to get Levi for his 2nd birthday...a tool set of his own!

As Levi played with tools this week, Gabe was hard at work on the dinning room floor. He needs to install the baseboard this afternoon. Since he was in Indiana most of the week, the project has been on hold. We have a serious deadline too. We have special visitors arriving on Friday!

I only have 5 more days till summer! Wow, the school year sure went by fast.