Swim Lessons

This year we decided to sign Aubrey up for private swim lessons. We thought that some one on one time with a teacher would be more beneficial to helping her become more comfortable in the water. Last year, she was scared to even put her face in the water, so I wasn't exactly sure how she would do. She had one week of lessons and made drastic improvements. Her teacher Marissa was amazing! Marissa taught her how to put her face in the water without holding her nose and practiced kicking and floating. By the end of the week, Aubrey was going underwater by herself, floating on her back by herself, and was 100% more confident in the water than she had been. It was definitely worth it to have private lessons, especially since we got our pool up. It's so nice that she enjoys swimming now.

Visit to the Acquarium

The last weekend in June we took the girls up to Chicago to the Shedd Acquarium. We had never been there before and were excited about taking the girls to see everything. After we got our tickets, we walked around for a little bit and then found our seats for their "Fantasea Adventure" show which consisted of dolphins, whales, penguins, and a hawk. It was pretty cool and the girls were captivated by the animals and the tricks that they did. After the show, we walked through the gift shop and then went to see our 4-D movie about arctic animals. We had to wear 4-D glasses (Chloe refused). During the movie, our chairs moved and we had water sprayed at us. I figured both girls would be scared, but they did really good and enjoyed it. After the movie, we ate lunch out on the patio overlooking the lake. It was beautiful! We then walked throughout the acquarium and looked at the fish, octopus, sharks, and jelly fish. Aubrey was scared to go and look at the sharks, but ended up liking them - the room was pretty cool! Overall, it was a great day! It was fun to spend the day together - just us as a family.

Waiting for the "Fantasea Adventure"

Playing on the Polar Playground

View from the patio

Calvin and the girls

Me and the girls

Checking out the fish

Father's Day

This year for Father's Day we went out to the campground where Luke and Shelly have their camper and had a cook-out. It was so much fun! While it was hot, as long as you were in the shade, it wasn't too bad. We had tons of yummy food, and the girls got to play with their cousins and then go fishing for the first time. We had bought them fishing poles about a month ago, but hadn't taken the time to go anywhere to use them yet, so this was the perfect opportunity to try them out. Chloe had a blast practicing casting, while Aubrey loved the whole thing. We fished for probably two hours. Aubrey caught three little bluegills, while Calvin and I each got a catfish. Chloe got pretty bored with the whole thing, but was pretty good about just playing while we sat, relaxed, and fished. Aubrey though, loved just spending time with her daddy and really enjoyed watching the bobber and reeling in her fish.

Clare, Aubrey, and Chloe waiting for the food to be done.

Daddy and his girls
Grandpa and four of the granddaughters

Practicing casting

Chloe fishing

Aubrey fishing

Aubrey with the first fish she ever caught

Sophia and Aubrey touching the fish

Jenna's Graduation

A couple weeks ago we went to Fort Wayne for my sister Jenna's graduation from high school. It's still so hard to believe that she has graduated from high school and is going off to college. I think that to me, she will always be my baby sister and I will always think that she shouldn't be as old as she is. I'm really excited that she'll be going to Purdue though, so we'll be able to see her more often. The girls and I went over on Thursday night. Dani drove down and went with us, so that Calvin could come later. The girls did so good on the drive over - and that was without the DVD player, since we had to take the truck. On Friday, Dani, Hannah, and I went shopping for Jen's gift and some other stuff, while Jen babysat the girls. It has been so long since I went shopping without kids - it was nice! Saturday we spent all day decorating and making food. Sunday was church, the graduation ceremony, and then her party. I was so proud of the girls! They were excellent even though they ended up sitting for a large chunk of the day. They sat through 1 1/2 hours of church, 1 1/2 hours of graduation, 45 minutes stuck in the parking garage, and then the 3 hour drive home. I think they were so happy to get home and be able to move around.

Great-Grandpa Leininger reading Aubrey a book. She absolutely loves him and spent quite a bit of time near him, which is just priceless.

Calvin and Aubrey sitting at the graduation ceremony.
Chloe patiently sitting too. She loved "texting" on Aunt Hannah's phone.

The girls with Aunt Jenna after the ceremony.

The four sisters - me, Jenna, Hannah, Dani

Jen and her cake

Mom, Jenna, and Dad

The family - we missed having Nic and his family there!

Chloe and her baby

My family before we left to go home

Summer Fun

The girls and I have been enjoying the warm weather that we've been having. We've been busy playing and working outside (hence the not blogging for over a month). They have helped me plant flowers and a few bushes, weed several times, and put mulch around our trees, flower beds, and playground. We finally found one litter of kittens, and the girls are trying to tame them so that we will actually be able to pet some of our cats. Aubrey has already laid claim to the all orange one and has named it "Lias" (her own creation), while Chloe says the orange and white one is hers and has named it "Ella", even though its a boy. We tried to get her to change the name, but she insists on it being called "Ella". They love being outside and would probably play outside all day every day if I let them.

Aubrey ended up missing her last full week of school due to strep throat. She actually wasn't too upset about it - she just wanted to make sure that she didn't miss her field trip. She got to go on her field trip to the park and then Burger King. She found out that she CAN go to the top of the indoor playground (she never had before) and loved it! Now every time we pass by a place with a playground she wants to stop and play. I thought for sure she would miss school terribly, but she hasn't talked about it too much. We have had a few playdates with friends, so that helps. The girls have actually been getting along pretty well. They fight, of course, but for the most part they play very well together. Their latest thing to play is house. They take turns being the mommy and the baby (Chloe makes a very good baby), and sometimes I even get to be the big sister. She loves being in charge and telling Chloe what to do - hence the fighting, because Chloe doesn't always want to do what Aubrey tells her to do. Aubrey's been a great helper and is getting so big. She loves to talk about going to kindergarten and being five, to which I tell her to quit growing. She just tells me that "she'll still love me even when she gets big".

Chloe continues to be the more ornery one, but she's just so cute it's hard to stay too mad at her. She knows just how to push Aubrey's buttons to make her mad, which also causes some arguments. :) She loves to talk and talks non-stop. Some of the things she says just crack me up, although there are times that I wish she had a mute button. She loves playing with her baby (NOT the new one I bought her, but this old one that was Aubrey's) and takes that thing with her everywhere - to the store, church, friends' houses - and of course has to sleep with it. She continues to be mommy's girl and is my shadow most of the time. I trip over her quite often, because she is constantly standing right next to me. I'll tell her to quit being my shadow and she'll say that she's not my shadow, she's Chloe. She's pretty much potty trained. She has a few accidents now and then, but does pretty good most of the time. We just need to work on her going by herself now. It is so nice not to have to change diapers though. She's also gotten to the stage where she has to do everything by herself, which is sometimes great and other times just annoying. Although, she loves to be carried around alot of the time. I'm not really sure how that fits into her independent personality. :) She's quite the character, but overall is such a cute, sweet little thing.

Last weekend we went to the Fireball Festival where Aubrey got her face painted for the first time. She wasn't so sure about it, but once Abby did it, she was brave enough to try it and loved it.

The girls were playing house - Chloe was the mommy and Aubrey was her baby. Chloe had to feed Aubrey her bottle.
They are going to be expert texters.

We got out the kites the girls got and flew them. They had a blast, although it was hard to keep both girls' kites going at the same time.

Aubrey did a good job holding onto her kite.

Aubrey's last day of school

Getting ready to go and run through the sprinkler for the first time.

Aubrey loved it and even got her face wet!

Chloe was content to stay on the sidewalk and just watch Aubrey.

Chloe's "New" Room

This week I found a toddler bed for Chloe on craigs list. I've been thinking for quite a while now that she needed to be out of her crib, but we hadn't decided what to do about it. We had originally thought about putting the two girls together, but they really need their own space, so we thought we'd go the toddler bed route. Chloe was so excited about her new big girl bed. She couldn't stop smiling about it and wanted to sleep in it the first night we got it. Calvin didn't get home until late though, so she had to wait until the second night. So far, she's slept in it twice at night. She's gotten up twice each night, but I'm sure some of it also has to do with the fact that she has a cold and doesn't feel that great. She did fall out of bed last night though, so I had to go up there and put her back in. Hopefully she begins to adjust so I can sleep a whole night through.

Last summer I had bought some toddler bedding at a garage sale for $1. It came with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, pillowcase, and comforter. I was so excited, because it's princess and the color yellow on it matches her room perfectly! So her room has gone from being a nursery to being a "big girl" princess room.

Last time being in her crib

Both girls in Chloe's crib Aubrey helped Daddy take the crib down

Sleeping in her new bed for the first time

We moved the changing table to the closet and then I rearranged some of her furniture and brought in a bookshelf for her.

She loves her new bed!

Her cute princess bedding - what a steal!

Heaven

So, we're driving to Watseka this afternoon and out of the blue Aubrey says, "Mom. I'll be so happy to go to heaven." I asked her why that was. She said, "Because I'll never have to be sad, hurt, or frightened. And Jesus will always be with me." Wow - definitely something I needed to hear this week. I love her faith and love how it's been growing by leaps and bounds this year. Thank you Mrs. Schuldt and Mrs. Wagner (Aubrey's teachers) - both of whom are amazing!!