THE REST OF OUR JUNE

I can't believe that July is almost here!

We've had a great June and wanted to show you what we've been up to...

Dave and Ben had a guys morning on the boat with our good friends Brett, Braden and Christian.  They went fishing and had a blast together!

Ben even got a fish!

Christian (almost 4), Ben (almost 7) and Braden 5 1/2 had a great time together!

Dave and I went to a wedding for someone he works with and it was fun to get dressed up and have a night out!

Dave's work sponsors the Wilmington Hammerheads soccer team games so we went to one a few weeks ago with the kids...

Ben was really excited!  :)  If this boy gets in the car around 4-5 in the afternoon, he usually always takes a snooze!

If you look, you can see Ben out there giving the players high fives. I was further behind him with the girls but it's hard to spot us.

The had some colored hairspray that our kids were all over!

We spent a little time actually watching the game.  The kids definitely preferred going up and down the bouncy slide they had over and over to watching the game!

Maaike was the most inquisitive about the game.

Happy Father's Day to Dave!  He enjoyed opening his presents from the kids...

...and had to put it all on!  Besides some serious gifts for his triathlon training, the kids picked out presents for him at the $1 store... always a fun time in there :)  So Ben got Dave duct tape, Maaike got him snickers, and Lexi got him a grabber to help pick things up and reach things since he's so short :)

We've had swim lessons for the past 2 weeks so one morning they were enthralled in legos before it was time to go.  A sweet sibling moment....

I'm only including 1 picture of each kid at swim lessons because they're not that great.  I forgot my camera on the last day that we could go down near the pool and get pictures.  Oh well, here's  the idea though- they were in a pool learning how to swim!  

Ben worked hard for 2 weeks.  He was seriously a different kid from last year in that he took it so seriously.  He worked on his freestyle and backstroke as well as learning the breast stroke.  He loved diving and got to demonstrate his mad diving skills to his classmates.   

Lexi was a different story!  This was her first year and she cried (as did her brother the first year he took them) for the first 4 days... straight!  Yup, cried and cried.  Thankfully she wasn't also a runner!  At least she sat there and just cried.  It was hard to watch but she just had to toughen up!  After the 4th day, she got over herself and decided to enjoy it... and that she did!  We've been swimming at pools this past week and she's been putting her now swimming skills into use big time!

Maaike was by far the most improved of our 3 in terms of independence in the water.  She worked her hiney off as hard as Ben and it was quickly evident that she no longer needed a bubble while she swam!  So it's just Maaike, her bathing suit and goggles in the water now!   

A patient of Dave's brought him a bucket load of fresh shrimp he'd caught so I bit the bullet and  made a few meals with it.  I actually don't really mind it too much and all 3 kids enjoy shrimp!  Tonight we're having a shrimp boil with corn on the cob, sausage and potatoes... no plates or forks... the kids don't really believe us yet but we're going all out for dinner tonight! 

Maaike doesn't look all that excited about her shrimp but she cleaned her whole plate!

Sweet sisters... I just want to freeze frame this love! 

 Last Saturday, we went to Raleigh to get some things for our playset and take the kids to Marbles, a children's museum that our kids LOVED!  We had such a great afternoon!

Maaike milked a cow...

Lexi was excited to wash the baby animal bottles.

She drove a boat...

Art time with Daddy

There was a place to build a car and race it down a track.  (Don't mind Dave's aggressive itching!)

Ben and Maaike said their favorite part was the woodworking.   They were super excited to use saws and hand drills!  Lexi lasted a little bit, too.

Hockey time!

Last Sunday, Daddy had a different than normal co-pilot!  Usually Ben takes that seat he gave it up for Lexi to have a turn.

Our first cucumber from our garden... short and fat but tasted great!  Our garden started out beautiful but has lately become nothing but a hot mess!  We should get a good amount of cucumbers and maybe some tomatoes but that's about it :(  We've had plenty of basil and oregano, which has been great for cooking!

There last day of swim lessons celebration surprise... cupcakes!

At the end of July, Ben's doing a kids triathlon and he's so excited about it!  He has to swim 50 m, bike 2 miles and run .5 mile.  So he's been asking us to run with him and this happened this morning... be still my heart.  Such a sweet moment!