Last week was another week full of fun with the boys! Sunday Ryan went golfing with his friend Josh to celebrate Father's Day, and then Josh, Jamie and Jonah all came over to our house for an impromptu bbq/toddler pool party!
Monday we headed to a place called the Treehouse. Its an indoor playplace that basically looks like a giant treehouse. There are lots of things to climb, giant slides, a little basketball court, and an area for younger siblings that can't quite climb yet.
Tuesday and Thursday of last week we went to swim lessons in the morning. Both Gavin and Declan are signed up for swim lessons this summer. Gavin does a "waterbugs" class that is meant to be like a water play group. Swim lessons are at a zero depth pool, and his class takes place in about 2 feet of water. Ryan takes this class with Gavin (its supposed to be a class the kids can take by themselves, but all the kids in Gav's class need a parent with them to avoid freaking out!) and the class helps him learn to blow bubbles, start using his hands to swim, and float on his back. Declan and I take the baby class and Dec is the youngest by 6 months! But we wanted to start early with Declan since Gavin is so skittish about the water. So far, Declan seems to like "swimming." He's annoyed when we first get in and he is adjusting to being wet (and possibly a little cold, swim lessons are outdoors at 10am!), but once he adjusts, he is constantly splashing! He doesn't mind getting his face wet, and he is very good about floating on both his tummy and back.
We also went to the library last week (that's basically a weekly trip, Gav loves to do puzzles, read, listen to books on CD, as well as play the other games they have at the library), and signed up both Gavin and Declan for the summer reading program. If we reach our reading goals, each boy will earn a finger puppet and a book at the end of the summer!
Friday was another playdate day, and it was my turn to plan, so we headed to Pinstripes. Pinstripes is an upscale bowling alley that has "Mom and Tot" bowling from 10-12 each morning. For $5, Gav and I get to bowl as much as we want! They have bumpers that can be raised or lowered for each player, and ramps that the toddlers can roll their balls down. I was a little worried about this playdate, because it easily could have been a hot mess, but Gavin LOVED bowling (so much so that we had some issue with tantrums, but I would still say it was a success). He never wanted to take a break (hence tantrums over having to wait and not understanding when it was his turn) and loved watching the balls come out of the ball return. He carried the ball to the lane all by himself each time, and never once dropped it (and he used a 7 pound ball!). We will definitely take Gav bowling again soon.
Saturday was gymnastics as usual, although Gav seems to be losing his love for gymnastics class. A typical class is now about 60% of Gavin loving it and 40% tantrums and pouting and time outs! I don't know if its just because he's turning 3 and tantrums are a bigger part of our lives now, or if he is just "over it" when it comes to gymnastics, but this might be our last session.
In the afternoon on Saturday, Ryan had the great idea of taking a family trip to the Volo Bog! Those of you that read this blog on the regular know that our family loves the bog, and this was Declan's first trip. We had a great visit to the bog (although we were glad we used copious amounts of bug spray!), and got to see lots of wildlife while we were there. Here's all of our pics from week 3's fun:
Declan hanging out during our Father's Day bbq, and NOT hating the grass! (despite the sneer on his face, he did not freak out like Gav did when he first encountered grass).
It was interesting to see how other toddlers play in the pool. Here is Gavin tentatively playing with his bucket and pool toys (after we forced him to sit down, he would have stood the whole time otherwise) and Jonah is in the middle of one of his many belly flops in which he would get himself completely soaked and just die laughing.
Gav trying on Daddy's golf shoes. Gavin really loves golf lately (both on the Wii and in real life). We may try to take him putt putt golfing this summer.
Declan's St. Louis Cardinals hat arrived! Its the same one I ordered for Gavin almost 3 years ago, but its amazing how different they look next to each other. Gavin's hat has been well loved this last 3 years!
Sup dude.
Crossing the rope bridge at the Treehouse.
Shooting some hoops.
It took a while for me to convince Gav to try the big slides...
...but after his first try he was hooked! He did nothing but slide down and climb back up for 15 minutes straight before he went back to enjoying the rest of the treehouse.
Dec and I playing in the baby area.
Diaper Declan!
No shirt, no shoes...ok in our house!
It was hard for me to get good pics while we were bowling, since most of the time I was holding Declan in one arm and helping Gav bowl a 7 pound ball with the other arm, but this slightly blurry pic shows the look of pure joy that Gav had on his face most of the time we were bowling.
Gav did pose for me, but he looked at the wrong camera!
Celebrating his victorious triumph over the pins!
Carrying the ball all by himself (and check out the rockin toddler bowling shoes, complete with velcro!)
Gav's friends Jonah and Olivia. Gavin was off throwing a temper tantrum at this point because he just wanted to keep bowling.
Magellan navigating our way to the bog.
Of all the wildlife we saw at the bog, Gavin was most interested in this almost extinct creature; the payphone!
Gav and Mommy on the boardwalk.
Ry and the boys.
Gav doing some bird watching.
Gav, Daddy and Dec check out all the frogs and fish.
As a math teacher, I have noticed the inverse relationship between the number of people in your family and the quality of your family pictures! (Yes, I know that's super nerdy :) This was the best we could get, especially since it was a self portrait.
This picure makes my heart melt. My three favorite guys.
Gav reading up on the history of the bog.
It might be hard to see, but that's a turtle laying eggs in the top left corner. We also saw a "beaver" (we're not sure what it was, it looked like a beaver until it dove under water and didn't have that flat beaver tail), lots of frogs, fish, birds, butterflies and this turtle.
Lately Gav likes to just run, so this is Gavin and I going for a jog up and down the trail.
