Category Archives: Videos
Sunday Swim Lessons
She’s getting better at floating!
Owen getting a lesson on the backstroke from a new instructor:
This is what happens when left to her own devices:
“I’ve got a tutu!”
Watering plants with Gramma turns into this.
Kaliseum Daredevils
We took the kids to Kalkaska today for open swim…and boy did they have a blast! Owen was excited to go down the slide again (mom fail: I may have forgotten to mention he did it for the very first time when he was there earlier this vacation). I LOVE the faces he makes. 🙂
My favorite:
You see his harem standing by watching him, right? 🙂
Katie really wanted to go down the slide but she was too little…or so we thought. The lifeguard came up and told Tom she could go down as long as he was at the bottom to catch her. So Owen took her up:
There were other kids going up and they were getting too close to them on the stairs so Owen put his hand out to stop/block them and protect Katie. And then he guided her into the slide while he made sure to keep everyone back. Awwww, I know. 🙂
Here she comes!
Caught her!
Her reaction? She LOVED it and wanted to go again! (But she was done after the second time!)
I still can’t believe it—Owen was 6.5 when he finally went down the slide…and Katie was 3! You can tell who the family daredevil is!
Katie’s last 3rd birthday party!
We celebrated Katie’s birthday at the Ramada again this year. She didn’t want to go in the pool, though—choosing the playground instead.
Of course Owen wanted to swim!
Caught mid-jump!
She finally decided she wanted to swim!
We FINALLY got her to jump in the pool again!
Owen also received a few gifts…Papa and Grannie gave him a roll of quarters to use in the hotel game room!
He shared his quarters with his sister!
A great time was had by all…
Fish Hatchery 2015
Katie liked to feed the fish one single pellet at a time.
Katie caught a fish! She didn’t want to look at it, and after one she was DONE.
Owen caught three fish…in about 10 minutes. 🙂
Owen’s first Fun Run!
Owen ran his first Fun Run (with daddy!) this morning during the AuSable River Festival! (Sidenote: it will always be Milltown to me…though AuSable River Festival does fit better.)
Katie wanted to run…on daddy’s shoulders. 🙂
We had time to waste before the race started so we wandered around downtown and ran into Papa and Grannie! 🙂
And a pout for good measure.
Pre-race announcements:
Heading to the starting line!
There they go!
Heading a block back to the finish line—it won’t take them long!
Here they come! There was no official time or finish places, but they were in the top 10!
And here’s the start—and finish—all in one video!
Post-race snacks! 🙂
A day with Grandma Marsha!
Kid Fest!
It’s Milltown week so we took the kids downtown to Kid Fest! They had a blast!
She LOVED the popcorn. The SnoCones…not so much.
Making bracelets and necklaces with Gramma.
Then Owen got to ride in a racing canoe!! Some of the racers were the back seat paddlers and took the kids up and down the river. It was his very first time in a canoe and he loved it!
If you notice, he’s watching what the pro does and copies him to steer the boat!
He said he was a little scared at first but then he was okay! We were SO proud of him!
Owen loved sitting in the big fire truck—and even got to turn on the lights and the siren! Katie wanted NOTHING to do with any of it. 🙂
Getting a ninja turtle mask!
And lastly, our crazy photo booth pictures!
Sunday morning swim lessons!
She wanted to play before class! (I’m guessing because it felt like 100° in there.)
And of course she immediately swam down to where Owen was playing (his class is after hers so he gets to play for a half hour).
She’s slowly getting less panicky when floating. The instructor can almost get through the ABCs before Katie sits up.
Katie’s funny. She doesn’t mind being in the water with the instructor but after each turn in the water she comes over to me and asks if she’s done. I tell her no, she whines a little, them she goes and sits back at the edge of the pool and waits her turn while playing with water toys. Every. Single. Time. 🙂
She also normally doesn’t want to play much afterwards because she gets cold but today she was all about it! She swam down to Owen again and he taught her how to swim over the lane dividers! So, she had great fun showing me her new skill!
While she was playing, I took a moment to go watch what Owen was doing.
Owen is getting really good at the backstroke!
Headed home!
Someone was excited!
We surprised the kids with a bouncy house and this was Katie’s reaction to seeing it for the first time. How can that not make you smile?! 🙂
Bubble Shrieking
Katie started her swim lessons!
She told the instructor that she didn’t need a hat because she had one at home—which of course she didn’t because it was Owen’s. 🙂
I was giving the instructor Katie’s water background (she’s not really afraid of the water, she wears a puddle jumper and roams the entire pool, etc.) and the instructor said it wasn’t that important right now because they mainly just play in the water, blow bubbles, get them used to getting their face in, and assisted floating, etc.
Floating!
Waiting her turn.
I think she’s the youngest in her group. (Technically since she’s under 3, she should be in the Young Minnows, but since she’s SO close and she’s familiar/comfortable with the water, the owner said she was a candidate for the Minnows!)
Blowing bubbles!
Playing after her lesson!
Then it was time for Owen’s lesson. I stayed to watch Katie play so I didn’t get too much of Owen…but he was learning a new kick.
Their first fireworks!
We knew the weather was going to be a crapshoot, but we figured we had to try since they were just three miles from our house!
It started off well enough…Tom and Owen went off to check out the food offerings and Katie and I had a picnic (oranges, string cheese, cheddar Chex, and a juice box) which she loved: “Mama! This picnic is the best ever!”
And even though it was sprinkling, she was running around in the grass and having a blast…until she realized she had a boo boo on her foot and then she turned into a hot mess drama queen as seen here.
Then as soon as daddy came back 15 minutes later, she was all smiles and amazingly forgot all about her boo boo.
As soon as daddy laid down, she copied him. 🙂
Then I jumped in for a picture.
Owen had been off playing football with some kids but he came back to check in and said “We’re tackling and I knocked two people down!”
Since we had everyone, we took this shot. A lady behind us actually offered to take it but I said “No thanks, this is how we do it!” And it was perfect—done in one shot!
And then it started to rain harder. And it was chilly. And we had already been here two hours and still had about 45 minutes until the fireworks were going to start…do we stay or do we go?
The show was happening rain or shine and I hated to miss it after being there so long already…so we decided to go sit in the car and potentially watch from the tailgate or through the moonroof if it was a downpour. Thankfully it didn’t do much more than a light rain.
We had the car on to listen to music so the kids were having fun in the tail lights…
Owen: “This is burning my face!” 
…and playing to the music…
Owen being a lamppost:
And then the show started! They both immediately covered their ears so we got out the noise-canceling headphones for both of them.
Yes, I was happy we had the minivan so we could do this!
Both kids said it was the BEST DAY EVER and they wanted to know if we were going to go to the fireworks next year. Ha HA! I’ve created fireworks monsters!! (Tom doesn’t really care for them, but now we outnumber him three to one! And he really did enjoy watching the kids loving everything!)
P.S. Wow, this is post #6000!
Dancing!
Guess who just made Turtle 2?
About mid-way through his first lesson today, the instructor said he was ready to advance! Yay Owen!
A River Runs Through It
It’s stormed here before but we’ve never seen this before…a river running through our back yard! Of course, this was during our dinner party, so Tom was grilling in the rain again!
Owen’s doing really well with his swimming lessons!
Today his teacher said that he’s getting close to moving up a level!
Tantrum!
I can’t even remember what it was about. Something ridiculous, as usual.
The kids love Gangnam Style.
Owen’s big finale:
Owen’s swimming!
Of course he still has a long way to go, but I’m impressed with how far he’s come already!
Game 11: Raptors vs Hot Rods
Achievement awards and game balls being handed out after the game.
Now we start the countdown until fall t-ball! Owen can’t wait!!
Their first carnival!
The Workhouse Arts Center (just up the road from us) was having their first ever carnival! We’ve been wanting to take the kids to one to see if they like the rides, so figured the timing and location was perfect (we went as soon as they opened for the weekend)! Of course, the tickets are outrageous ($1 each or 48 for $40) and each ride takes 3-5 tickets (!) but since this was their first time, we went in for the whole hog.
We started Katie on this basic car carousel. She seemed to think it was fun but was glad to get off.
Then we walked around to see what else there was, and ended up at the actual carousel. Katie wanted NOTHING to do with getting on a horse and Owen was over the weight limit to ride a horse, so they both sat on the bench. Six dollars for them to ride around in a circle. NOT EVEN ON A HORSE! They didn’t LOVE it but they didn’t HATE it.
All they wanted to do was play the stupid games…which of course take CASH and not the tickets we’d already bought. GRRRR. So we made them try the mini roller coaster. Owen seemed to like it, but Katie DID NOT. She wanted to get off within the first three seconds…but she wasn’t screaming so we just let her ride it out. (Tom was going to ride it with them, but his legs wouldn’t fit!)
So then we said they could go to the games and that was all they needed to hear.
Katie wanted a duck. So $3 later she picked a super cheap plastic sword (you’ll see pics later).
Owen did a shooting game that was over so fast I didn’t even get a chance to record it or even take a picture! (It was a shoot until you knock a cup down game, so I thought it would take a bit longer than six seconds. It didn’t.) Owen didn’t get the choice of toy, but was happy with what he got.
Katie didn’t want to ride ANY more rides so it was all Owen. He didn’t want the ferris wheel (which I had no problem with since I don’t like them) or any of the bigger kid/adult rides. Part of me is glad we don’t have an adrenaline junkie, but I LOVED all those rides so I kind of wanted him to like them…but he IS only six. 🙂
Owen wanted to go in the Monkey House (basically a small mirrored maze, some fun mirrors, and a curly slide) and got a little turned around so Tom went in with him. Cost? $10. TEN DOLLARS. Breathe. Breathe. 🙂
Katie’s sword!
We convinced Owen to try the swing. He seemed to enjoy it at the start, but as it went faster and higher we saw him tilting his head to the side and Tom and I both thought he looked like he was going to puke. He never did, and it turned out it was just from centrifugal force. (We did ask him if he had felt sick at all on the ride—if his belly hurt or if his head felt woozy—and he said no. Phew.)
Of course there’s no refund on tickets and both were pretty much done so we wasted another $8 in tickets on a three-minute train ride. Sigh.
And to spend the remaining $10, Owen went down this slide twice. He did love it, though. 🙂
In the end, their favorite thing? The games. Owen wanted to go back, but we were busy the whole weekend. We will probably skip carnivals until they’re a bit older and may like some of the rides more.
Friendship Poem Performance
So I took my nice camera to be sure to get the best photos and video possible…and I pretty much failed at both. You really need the telephoto lens and it’s really too dark to get anything really good.
And then I completely botched the video by not noticing that it was blurry. GRRR. At least you get to hear it.
Katie loves to help unload the dishwasher.
Game 10: Raptors vs Grasshoppers
Katie off playing with her friend (it’s grainy/blurry because she was so far away). 🙂
Poem preview
Owen’s class is presenting a poem at the Friday Morning Program this week, so he gave us a preview.
Owen helping Katie get dressed.
Talking to daddy.
Two Katie tantrums
My home quickly her behavior turns. We are having so much fun at the playground and then when he came home and first she couldn’t get her coat hung up…
…and then she couldn’t get her second shoe off.
