Piano Camp Recital

Ada's piano camp has come to an end!  I can't remember if I've posted pictures of her throughout the week to the blog- if I haven't I will do that in a separate post in a second. For now I have videos- even better!  

She had a recital the last 15 minutes of class on Friday- and Daddy was able to make it!  They played 2 songs together as a class, and she had 2 solos.  The "Ruff Ruff" song and the "Elephant" song.  We practiced them at home and - BTW- she has a new keyboard! 

Enjoy-  ;)

The class song, "Meow Meow"-

Another class song- showing off their finger dexterity-

Ada's solo #1- "Ruff Ruff"- 

In this one her teacher Ms. Irena hurried her to her seat, and another mom got a big kick out of that... which kind of riled Ada up (you may not be able to tell but I can spot that hyper-grin a mile away!).  Then this total hooligan kid (coincidentally the inappropriat -laugher's son... probably not coincidence) makes a massive ruckus -you can see him in the bottom of the frame- which distracted her, making it even harder than it is normally is for her to keep the beat!  

She kills the Ruff Ruff song at home, just FYI.  :)

Ada's solo #2: "Elephant Song"

In this solo another little girl kept saying "left, right, left, right" the entire song- it was pissing Ada off (again, you may not be able to tell- but watch her give the girl "a look" at 28 seconds in- HA!).  She's not a pro with this song anyway though, so it's not much of a difference than at home!

So, all in all piano camp was enjoyable and a good experience, but it's not time for lessons just yet.  She wasn't crazy about practicing (already??)- so we might let that dream go, or try again in a few years after Kindergarten when her fingers are longer and stronger!  All of those students in piano camp with her had already been in Kinder for a year, and you could tell a HUGE difference in their motor skills.

But- what a CUTIE! :)  Next camp: theatre camp.  She is beside herself excited!  

And we have a swimmer!

Ada is killing it in the water these days!  We went for one more swimming lessons session to try to make that push to get her swimming- and on DAY 1 she learned how to do FREESTYLE!  This is the video of her swimming like a real swimmer!  So proud of her.  

Today at Grams and Papa's pool she swam from the stairs to her "Ada Pad"- which is just about the long length of the pool!  She is obsessed with getting in any body of water lately and working her skills. :)

Ada-Piano Camp!!

Grams and Papa have been SO generous and helped us put Ada in a ton of camps this summer to explore what she's into!!! She loves dance- but I thought she might be old enough to kind of test other interests out and see if its something she might like to pursue later on. So far she's had art camp, she's in piano camp this week, and next month she has drama camp (she's SUPER excited about that one!!). She loves the weeks she has camp. She just seems so happy and calm for the rest of the day afterwards. Here are some cute pictures :)

Art Camp- she loved incorporating her different senses each day to create art. My favorite day was the day she made pottery; her favorite day was the day hey made sculptures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. She made a caterpillar, which she promptly ate when we got home. :)

Piano Camp- we've just had 1 day, but she's being a great listener and agreed to practice on her new keyboard for about 15 min yesterday afternoon! So far her biggest challenge is understanding the tempo and beat :)

Gosh I love her!

Dax the Elusive Climber

Dax isn't necessarily what I'd call a compulsive or obsessive climber... I've never caught him swinging from the ceiling fans or on top of the fridge or anything (knock on wood).  But he is lightning fast and super elusive. 

Top shelf of the playroom closet for the markers? Check.

Pretty much every shelf and table in the playroom? Check.

The back of his big comfy chair in his room to pull the shades up and spy on people at nap time? Check. 

Scaling the foot board of his bed to get to the top bunk when I have purposely left the ladder off? Check.

So I put the ladder on immediately to convince him to at least climb it safely..

And the latest from 6:45 this morning. Use your motorcycle to crawl on to the kitchen to feed the fish? Check.

Tate Talking- Video

Oh my goodness, this little man is so precious!!!  I *finally* got him on video talking (screeching!) on Saturday morning- I had to come up on him with a sneak attack so he wouldn't get too distracted by my phone and stop to stare at it!  

My favorite part is about 20 seconds in- what a cutie!

Dax's First Big Boy Haircut!!

We took Daxy to get his hair cut today for the first time!!!!! He's been talking about sitting in the police car since we saw it on Tuesday. He was a little apprehensive at first, but was SO brave and never squirmed, cried, or shed a tear. Once he got used to it he was so proud and happy. Love my little man!

Before-

Trying so hard to be big and brave!

My brave boy-

"I love my hair cut!!!"

Sister was so supportive and sweet the whole time- she even held his hand for a little bit!

The Shark mascot was parading around- cant miss that random photo op!

Then he sauntered out of the salon with his hands in his pockets like a real big boy. So adorable and sad!

Yet Another Swimming Post!

I know I've posted a THOUSAND pictures and videos of the kids at various pools lately. It IS summer- cut me a break!  BUT- the kids did so great today I had to post about it!  They are both so close to swimming by themselves.  Just check out the videos at the end of the post!  So so proud of them. :)

Dax is obsessed with puttering around with his head underwater- this kid is going to have lungs like Michael Phelps by the end of the summer. 

 OH LOOK AT ADA'S FACE in this picture.  I ADORE HER.  The other little girl is their sweet Australian friend Beau.  Dax had a blast trying to swim like her!

 Ada chillin under the umbrella on "Ada's Pad" in mommy's sunglasses. :)

And now for my favorite part, videos!

Dax swimming under water (he has his floaties on in this one), and "doing the butterly"-

Dax diving for his goggles and swimming to the stairs (NO floaties!)-

Dax and Ada both swimming without their floaties!  Please excuse the altercation between Mommy and Dax- Dax was running on no nap and 2 hours of swimming! LOL!

My Little Fishies

We have been swimming a ton lately! 

Most of the time (at least twice a week) we head to Grams and Papa's to swim while Papa hangs with Tate inside- he typically ends up feeding the kids for me and if Grams is home she even bathes them for me! It's a miracle I don't pester them more often- ha! 

Yesterday MorMor came over and stayed with Tate at home in the air conditioning while I took the Bigs to the AWESOME Bridgeland pool for swimming and a picnic. We had SUCH a great time- and 2 kids seemed like a total cakewalk!! Here are some random pictures of our swimming days-

Trying to catch a lizard at Grams and Papas- I don't have any more pictures of us swimming there recently, but catch a video at the bottom of the post :)

This is us at the Bridgeland pool yesterday- such a fun day!

I actually had the chance to SIT DOWN in a LAWN CHAIR at the pool yesterday!!! 

This is Tate trying to sit like a big boy in his Sweetish Baby anchor shirt! Missed him while we were gone yesterday morning :)

And one more video of Dax's swimming skillz- "elbow elbow, tummy tummy!"-

4th of July!!

Omg this was the BEST 4th of July EVER!!!! Casey took off the Friday after the 4th so we had 4 full FUN days! Lots of swimming, grilling out, and even 2 fireworks shows!

Daddy and Tate firing up the grill earlyThursday morning to smoke some ribs- 

Swimming! Love Tate's wetsuit papoose :)

Here are some videos of the kids swimming- they are such little fish!

Dax jumping in-

Dax and Ada swimming (I love Dax in the background during Ada's segment)-

Mommy and TayTay hanging in the shade while the Bigs and Daddy play in the sun-

Dax jumping in the big pool - this kid has zero fear.

There was a sno cone truck parked outside of the pool when we were leaving. DUH we stopped!

Picking their flavors-

Tiger's Blood was a hit! 

Driving in the Camaro, wasting time until it was dark enough for the fireworks show!

Casey took the kids down to the culdesac to watch the show from a distance- we are SO going next year. It was awesome! Our neighbors shared their sparklers with the kids afterwards- scary for mama, fun for everyone else! 

THEN the next day we made the trek to Moody Gardens!!! They were having a "Band in the Sand" event with another fireworks show. Why not!?

Checking out the Dino exhibit-

"Show me your scared faces!!!"-

4D Wizard of Oz!

Butterflies-

"YEAH! for butterflies!"-

That's a huge bat and a sloth, just hanging out in the trees above us!

That's Dax's blue sleeve- he wanted to grab a butterfly so bad. It was really throwing a wrench in Ada's calm, graceful attempts to let one land on her.

Palm Beach!!!!! Lots of swimming and jamming out to the band, then the fireworks show. My phone died so I didn't get a ton of pictures. The one of Dax clapping is actually of him serving a time out for throwing sand, ha!

Saturday we swam at Chris and Jenica's with all of the neighbors- so fun! This is the only picture I took-

Sunday mommy and daddy made the executive decision to take it totally easy and relax a little! What a happy, happy stay-cation!