Dying

Elaina has been very curious lately about the topic of dying. I'm sharing a few funny conversations we've had lately about the subject.

*While we were in Canada she was figuring out the relationships between her family members (another topic she's been curious about: how family members in her life are connected to each other). She was talking to my Dad about it, and he was telling her that he is her Mommy's Daddy, and that Opa is her Daddy's Daddy.

She then asked "do you have a Daddy?"

He said "yes, but he died."

"Oh, why did he die?"

My Dad answered, "well, he was old."

Elaina thought about this for a minute and got a concerned look on her face and then asked him "are you old?"

My poor Dad! I guess his grey (white??) hair can't fool even a 3 year old :)

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*Today Elaina was explaining to me that her Kitty is 6 years old and her Puppy is 10 years old. She immediately clarified, "but he's not old" (as if 10 is old, and about ready to die!)

She added "kids don't die" and then thought about this for a minute and asked "do kids die?"

I told her that sometimes kids do die, but it's not very often.

Her next question: "oh, when kids die, do they go down the drain?" (Unfortunately she remembers when her pet fish died and we put him down the drain....I guess we shouldn't have let her know about that part!)

No, thank goodness Elaina - we go back to live with Heavenly Father, instead of the drain :)

Swimming Lessons

I enrolled Elaina in swimming lessons the first two weeks of June. A couple of her friends were in the same class and they had a blast! They practiced kicking, using their "scoopers" (hands), jumping off the edge and swimming back to the wall, and on the last day they jumped off the diving board.

Jumping off the diving board

Ok, so she was kind of thrown off the diving board, at least it didn't scare her to death, like I thought it would. She still went back again and ended up doing it 3 times! (Each time Elaina would go, Erin was standing beside me saying "Erin's turn. Erin's turn").

Here is a video of my brave little girl!

Elaina and her certificate

Erin and I had fun in the kiddie pool while Elaina did her lessons. We've been swimming almost every day this summer - it's a good way to escape the heat and keep the girls happy, but it wears us all out by the end of the day!

Lake Conroe

We had so much fun with Mike's family when they came to visit. Those that came were: Mike's parents, his sister Staci, his brothers, Jonny and Steve, and Steve's fiancee, Ashley, who I got to meet for the first time (and we all love her!)

They stayed at Montgomery, which is an hour away, and located beside Lake Conroe. One day my in-laws rented a boat and a wave runner, so we spent the day skiing and tubing. We all had such a great day!!

Mike on the wave runner

Elaina had such a blast that day, and was so brave on the tube!

Here she is with Ashley

Me and Staci going tubing

How hard is it to get a good picture???

This is another photo shoot I did with the girls. I want so bad to get a cute picture of the two girls together but never have much luck!! I want both girls smiling, both girls looking at the camera, and not doing anything weird with their hands. It doesn't seem like too much to ask, but for some reason I guess it is.

So I keep dragging them out - bribing them with candy, and threatening them with time out. The girls aren't happy until it's over, and I'm only happy until we start taking pictures. This is usually what we end up with:



And then at the end, the little diva inside Elaina came out. I was laughing so hard when I was taking these pictures. What attitude!
It's so hard to be mad at them when they're so stinkin' cute, even in bad pictures. Here is one that is ok:

Random Summer Fun

Erin at Chuck E Cheese:

We love the Children's Museum in Houston:

Erin got soaked!

Elaina playing vet: I don't think I'd ever want her to give me a shot!

Erin's very own Linkin Logs Tower. Surprisingly, she actually liked being in there...for a little while!

Fun Photo Shoot in the front yard:

Preschool Fun

Just some random picture of preschool activities during April and May...

Waco Zoo:

Elaina was our little navigator. Thank goodness for her great map reading skills!

And Erin offered suggestions when needed

There was a tunnel slide that went through the sea otter aquarium that was pretty cool

Checking out the Elephants

Elaina & Monkey

Cute girls

If we can't get them all to look at the camera at the same time, at least we can get them to all not look at the camera at the same time!

Erin & giraffes

Mom & Erin in front of the giraffes

Playing at the playground at the end of the day

Easter Activity:

Amy did a great job for our Easter theme! They made bunny hats, rolled eggs, had an Easter egg hunt and races.

The big race!

And Erin trying to keep up!

Examining the goodies

Rolling eggs...I guess she didn't want her picture taken.

Gymnastics: For one activity we went to a gym and they let the kids try some of the gymnastics equipment. It was a really fun day: