4th of July in the neighborhood

Each year our neighborhood puts on a 4th of July bike parade and picnic. We meet at a local park and bike decorations are provided. This year they added a balloon guy which kept the kids busy as they waited in line for the perfect balloon animal. After the bikes/scooters/strollers were decorated, the fire truck led the parade around a loop in the neighborhood. This year was a bit different since Ragen was newly on 2 wheels! Jeremy helped him along the parade route and I ended up pulling Maggie on her scooter. We were both exhausted at the end!

Happy birthday America!

Parade begins
Go, big 2-wheeler, go!!

Annual shot with the fire engine

A relief!

I nervously drove up to Susie Gravrock's for swimming today. Last year, out of the 4 days in a row that Maggie took swimming from Miss Susie, she cried for 3.75 days of it. It was awful! I was so thrilled that Maggie got right into the pool today and happily did everything Miss Susie asked of her. Way to go Mags!

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Maggie and her friend Sarah from school

Backstroke kicks (which she enthusiastically made into Rockette kicks)

Diving off the side

Class always ends with a jump off the diving board!

Hit the Courts!

The calendar says it's summer but someone might want to clue in Mother Nature. I heard today was colder in the morning than it was back on January 19th or something like that. Crazy! Sunshine or not, summer means its time for tennis! Ragen started his tennis clinics at the Seattle Tennis Club today and he was very excited to be moved up with "the big kids." He did great and defintely had the bug again. He asked me how soon he could come back and when I told him "tomorrow" he literally jumped for joy. He begged to play as much tennis as he could this year so he's doing 5 of the 6 week-long camps at the STC. These clinics worked out great during the last 2 years as we'd just bring all our beach stuff and just stay for the afternoon to play in the sun. Obviously this year, no sun. I hope that changes quickly!!

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A new year, a new (and bigger) racquet!

A serving lesson from coach Jonathan

Daddy

When Jeremy and I first started dating, I knew very quickly what kind of father he was going to be. I could tell based on the way he treated me with the utmost respect, that he'd be patient, and understanding with little ones as well as be an excellent teacher. A few of our friends had children before we did and it was a joy to watch Jeremy learn some of the ins & outs of parenting. This also led to many discussions about our parenting styles. Luckily we had similar views and once Ragen was born, we were able to find a rhythm we were both comfortable with.

He always puts our family first and our kids know they are the center of his world. He does a fantastic job of showing them that - even on the days when he's only got 10 minutes to be with them due to late meetings.

I'm honored to have him as a partner and my kids are especially lucky to have him as their dad.

The Graduate

Where has the time gone? Wasn't it just yesterday when we were walking Ragen to school for his first day of kindergarten? Today was Ragen's graduation from Kindergarten. I love that they make such a big deal of it at the school. They marched in to "Pomp & Circumstance" (do I really need to cry EVERY time I hear that song?!), received their diplomas, sang a few songs and watched a wonderful slide show that one of the mom's put together. As the school year comes to a close, we are very excited "to be in the grades" as they say but at the same time, we'll miss the kids and parents we've met this year. There are some favorites that we really hope to move into next year with. Fingers crossed! Look out 1st grade...here he comes!

Day at the ballpark

Ragen's little league sold tickets to the Mariners game as a fundraiser so we decided to take the Bumpa's as a part of their father's day gifts. They went early and had the chance to walk the field, check out the dugout and then they all went to lunch. Ragen really enjoyed applying his new love of baseball as he tried to figure everything out. I know my dad loved it as we were a major baseball family when I was a kid thanks to Uncle Mark. What a fun day for 3 generations at the ballpark!

Responsibility

I am so glad to finally check this one off my to-do list! I've been procrastinating doing chore charts for the kids for way too long. They've been given jobs to do around the house but not with enough consistency or accountability. My hope is that with the chore charts, they'll becoming fine upstanding citizens instantaneously. Maybe?!

I created these charts for each kid and had them laminated. I'll use a dry erase pen to change up the chores every so often and then we'll reward the kids with stars. When they've earned enough stars, they'll get to pick a special activity our outing to do one-on-one with a parent.

Wish us luck!