Hey Ella, Guess What?

You are now 21 months old!!! What do you think of that?

Yeah, we are pretty excited too...

Bouncing With Friends...

Two days of rain and four days with the kids solo was the perfect set up for a play date with good friends. Jump House and pizza are always winners for kids and adults. Let us all hope everyone sleeps hard tonight...

Swim Lessons

Carson's first summer of swim lessons has arrived. He is starting out slow- blowing bubbles, splashing around and just getting used to not wearing a life jacket in the pool.

Not sure if you can tell what the above picture is, so let me illustrate it for you. Carson is told to get the green ring at the bottom of the pool. The instructor only assumes it is clear that she intends him to put his face under water and retrieve it. Instead, Carson reached down with his foot, curls his toes around the ring and manages to bring it to the surface without even getting an ear wet.

Just thought our readers would enjoy seeing what Ella prefers to do while the boys are working hard in the freezing pool.

And for Tyler's half hour of lessons, he worked on diving. More of a belly flop right now, but he is still working on his form. He is a master of going off the diving board though and has his confidence up enough this year to do rotations while going off.

New Library

Today was our much anticipated grand opening to our new library in Jackson County. When they first started the renovations to make the historic courthouse on the hill the new home to our books, it was rumored that the new building would boast of cathedral ceilings, stained glass, a great children's section and new rooms for community meetings. The rumors were all true and it

was simply awesome.

The boys were flying up the courthouse steps to see inside for the first time.

The site itself in terms of location could not be more picturesque. The old court house sits on top of the hill overlooking downtown Sylva with a 360 degree view of the mountains.

One of the new rooms is just for story time and artistic productions, like today. We all enjoyed watching a featured local dancer dance around with a flute being played in the background.

If you go to the second floor of the library, a balcony overlooks the city.

The renovations were perfect and very detailed to match the original buildings architecture and the moldings and stained glass were breath taking.

First and Last Day Comparisons of Kindergarten

One Year Later...

Tyler with his teacher on the first and last day of Kindergarten.

End Of Year Program and Graduation

We all went to Tyler's school today for his "End of the Year Preformance" and graduation. All the kindergarten classes sang songs and at the end had a graduation ceremony. Almost all of the kids had a small line they said in the program. Tyler walked to the mic and loudly spoke ,"And we all started learing right away." We then returned to his classroom to take a few pictures with friends. We celebrated the day by going to lunch and will attend his his last day of school party. It has been an incredible year for Tyler. His milestones were beyond what we ever expected. He started the year not knowing how to read and is now testing on a 2nd grade reading level. He started the year talking nonstop through children's church and now sits quietly and raisesd his hand when he has something to say. Tommy and I are so proud and sad at the same time to see the year go by. After tomorrow, we will offically have a first grader in our house.

Tyler saying his line.

Getting his diploma.

Showing off his Kindergarten Certificate.

Leaving the building with a friend...with Carson in tow.

Mornings With The Babies

Since the winter set us so far behind due to snow days, Tyler still in school and will only get about a six week summer break until he starts again. Carson was only going two days a week and that ended a few weeks ago. So every morning is just me and they young ones (how scary is that when you don't consider your five year old a young one?)Some pictures from a typical morning...