Swim Lessons

This summer we have done a lot of swimming! In June the kids took swim lessons from the park district for two weeks. Avi and Anderson just loved their lessons, but Ellie just enjoyed two days of it.
My mom, my sister, and my nephew and niece came to see the kid's swim lessons. At the park district they have a baby pool that Kaeden, Penny, and Ellie were able to play at.

Kaeden and Penny walking in the water.
Anderson wanted to get a picture with Kaeden.

Sweet boy!

Avi and Mackenzie at their swim lesson.

Avi is such a brave little girl. She really wanted to jump off the diving board at her swim lessons. I told her that she would need to ask her teacher if she would be able to. She got up the courage to ask her teacher and went right to the board and jumped off without hesitation.

She jumped right to her teacher! She is a determined little girl!

Here is Anderson at his swim lesson.

Anderson learned a lot this year. Here he is swimming in the deep end!

Jumping off the diving board.

Since their swim lessons they have been swimming without floaties and jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder all by themselves. Anderson swam the whole length of my parent's pool the other day and Papa got him some new goggles for doing it. Avielle can swim half of the pool and by next week she will be swimming the whole thing and Papa has pink goggles waiting for her! I'm amazed at how quickly they have caught on!

Why, Why, Why????????

Look at this beautiful blonde and red hair. Where did it come from???? It came from my daughter's gorgeous hair! You ask how did this happen???? I went to go get ready for the day and the kids were out back on the swing set. I looked outside and the girls were sitting on a bench and Anderson was behind them. I couldn't tell what they were doing, but they looked like they were having fun and no one was fighting.

Avi comes upstairs and tells me her brother cut her hair and then shows me a long strand of hair. I freak out and run downstairs. I asked "Did he cut Ellie's hair too?" Yes, of coarse he did. I look at Ellie and the right side of her head by her ear there is a chunk of hair missing. I send Anderson to his room and run outside and find these strands of hair, seen in the above pic. Lets just say I wasn't so happy and started to cry.

Then I evaluated the damage to the girl's hair. I first looked at Ellie's hair and found that I could still put it in pigtails. Though I will need to use a barrette to keep part of the hair up.

Then on to Avi. Thankfully she has really thick hair. Anderson put some layers in the back and then he took off a chunk in the front. Unfortunately he cut 2 inches above her scalp. It is going to be a difficult to get her hair up without a chunk of it sticking up.

This is our 2nd hair cutting incident and I pray it is our last, but you never now. The kids have had a long lecture about making good choices and bad choices. There are consequences with the bad choices. Raising kids comes with a lot of prayer. I'm sure one day I will be able to laugh, just not when I do their hair for the next two years as I wait for it to grow out! HA!

Our Evening!

Hello from the Chevrier kids! We wanted to give a peak into our evening tonight. Today my car said 105 degrees! That means we didn't spend much time outside during the day, but when evening came you would find us enjoying the weather. Tonight the kids got their suits on and went in the kiddie pool when their daddy spent time on painting the trim.
Here is daddy working hard! Right after this picture was taken he was taking down a gutter and a bee stung him! OUCH!
We are getting new siding done next week to the house. We, I mean Chevy, is painting all the trim before the guys come to install the siding.


Here is sweet Avi posing so pretty. We went to the Kohl's Museum today and Avi has red paint left over from painting her face.

After daddy's time of painting he always tries to make time for the kids. He brought out a water rocket to do with the kids. They were really excited!

Sweet Day! Can you believe there were 3 posts in one week? I have a few good stories to tell. To be continued.....

My Helper

I find most days I repeatedly say to my kids, "You need to help keep the house clean!" Now, sometimes I ask in a sweet voice and then other times I ask in desperation and irritation!

I had this sweet little secret helper the other day. I came down stairs to find the shoes all organized, though in a rather different arrangement then usual! Thanks Avielle for giving me a little chuckle!

The Racine Zoo

We went on a special outing to the Racine Zoo in June for my mom's birthday. We brought the kiddos lunch and had a little picnic. My sister and brother-in-law came and so did Penny and Kaeden. It was the babies 1st time at the zoo.
Here is a pic of the tiger waking up from his sleep. The zoo is a much smaller zoo and is perfect for young kids. We saw all the animals and the zoo is clean and has a fun park for the kids to play on.

Here is Kaeden with the rhinoceros.

They also have kangaroos that you are allowed to walk into their habitat.

Here is a kangaroo passing along! I was shocked that my kids weren't scared. They are afraid of neighborhood dogs!

Another cool place was the bird house. You could buy a stick with bird food and hold it out and a bird would land on it!

Here is Avi with the bird.

My mom became the bird lady! HA! It was such a fun day!

Ellie's 3rd Birthday Party

I'm so sorry I have been behind on my posts. It has been a busy summer filled with long nights. The poor kids have been up for the last 5 nights until almost 10:00! Today I'm hoping they each take a nap to make up for less and much needed sleep.

So here is a post about Miss Ellie's Birthday. I know her birthday was at the beginning of June, but I wanted to share the two special birthday celebrations we had for her! :)

For the actual day of her birthday we spent the weekend at Chevy's parents in Michigan. Nana and Grandpa had a very special cake for Ellie made by Auntie Renee's boyfriend, Nate's, mother. Ellie just loves Strawberry Shortcake and that is what she asked for her b-day. Isn't it such a sweet cake?

Ellie got to keep the doll in the middle.

Here is precious Avielle eating her cupcake!

We had a fun weekend with the family and a fun celebration for Ellie. Thanks Nana, Grandpa, Auntie Renee, Mr. Nate, Auntie Rachelle, and Mr. Matt!

I can't believe my little one is 3! I took her for her 3 year old appointment and she is between 10%-15% in height! I think she is going to be short like her mommy! Ha! The doctor was amazed at her vocabulary and all the songs she sang! She really had a fun time at her appointment and I think she was enjoying just mommy and her time! The 4 shots didn't even affect her!?!

The 2nd party we had towards the end of June at my parent's house for a swim party. Ellie had a second amazing cake made by my friend, Esther. If you want to see her site on Facebook it is called Essie's Sweets. It was truly an amazing cake and the talk of the party!

We did the Strawberry Shortcake theme.

I took my strawberry hanging baskets out of my garden and used them as center pieces.

We did water bottles filled with little treats as their goody bags.

Ellie was so excited about her cake! Here she is in her strawberry outfit.

My mom bought all the cousins matching strawberry outfits. We are missing Katie Mae for the picture!

We served pizza and salad.

Aunt Jamie, Aunt Jenny, and Penny

After dinner we went for a swim! Here is Chevy and Ellie

Me and my sweeties!

For her birthday a group of friends went in on a piano!!!!!

Of coarse lots of hugs at the end! What a great Birthday party!