The Riley Family

Yikes, ok, I have been a blog slacker lately, sorry! Finally, here are a bunch of pics from the past couple of weeks. And another set here. What's new.... Kate - is enjoying level Red in swimming. Noah and Jake are both in her class, so they goof around a lot, but are still enjoying and getting used to the water. She is consumed with ' scrapbooking ' right now. I scrapbook, and so have started giving Kate the extra pics/paper. She has been working on her own book non-stop, and is really quite good! She cuts her own pictures, and mats or double mats everything, then pastes them in her notebook. She loves showing off her latest pages! Jack - wanted to take swim lessons too, but then wouldn't jump in for the testing, so we will try next summer. J is a dare devil outside. His favorite new game - that Mommy can't stand - is taking the small slide over to the swing and climbing/standing up on the swing then jump off. Like the kid needs to hit his head again! Wil...

We have some pictures to post, and will try to get that done today. We are just trying to enjoy the summer before it is gone! Kate - has two more weeks of ballet. She really seems to enjoy it, but I think we will take a break in the fall while she is adjusting to the new 3 days of preschool (M, W, F pm). We will stay in gymnastics. Jack - continues to be more vocal. We are trying to work on flash cards and colors! Will - had 3 shots and the oral rotovirus vaccine yesterday. Also got his second tooth yesterday! He can now sit up from his 'crawling' and can get to what he wants. His crawl is more of an army crawl, but he does lunge forward with his belly off the ground.

Since we had the sprinkler system installed a couple of weeks ago, we realized that if we wanted to expand the garden, we needed to do it before they laid all the pipes.  So, in the past couple of weeks we doubled the size of the garden and added a walking path to the hose.  Kate also made a couple of itty bitty gardens that are just hers.  We planted beans, soy, and peas, and they are coming up already!

Here are some new pics.  The new camera is a ton of fun, but we still need to get used to it.

We had to get a new camera this weekend - ours died :(. After 2 weeks, I finally have some pictures to publish later tonight.

The past few days Jack has been using the potty a lot more again. Today he was telling me he needed to go (sometimes)! He really wanted to wear undies today, so it was his choice and he seems excited about it. He also has a new chart to get a superman toy :). Kate is thrilled with her job of putting stickers on the chart.

Will's first tooth just popped through his gum today! He got his lower right central incisor. He is manageable, but definitely a little grumpy.

Kate had her mid-session evaluation in gymnastics last week, and she is going to move up a level to Mites 2! She is excited to start the new level this fall.

Kate had her 4 year old well-visit yesterday, and got 3 shots. She was very brave and only let out a little whimper after the 3rd shot. Then she got to pick out 3 stickers, so she was happy. Today she is feeling under the weather and is just sitting on the couch :(. Kate is around 17% in weight (32 lbs) and 40ish for height. We met the new doc in our practice, and really liked her.

Kate - Monday is the first day of the new swim session, and Kate and her friends are all in Red this time.  Her coach last session said red might be a challenge, but she knows Kate can do it and put her head under water.  Since that note on K's report card, Kate has been putting her head under in the bathtub and is super excited for her new class. Jack - took a huge step back in potty training this week.  Ever since we had everyone over early last week, J has pretty much stopped using the potty.  We are trying not to push him and just wait until he is interested again.   Will - Watch out, here he comes!  Yikes, Will is close to crawling!  He can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth.  And when he stays on his belly, he brings his knees under and scoots forward and can turn around!  He is also sitting very well now too.  We moved him out of his infant car seat and he seems very happy with the new seating. No pics this week, our camera seems to be taking a break an...

We had a fun time yesterday celebrating my birthday!  Mamie and Grandpa were here since they were already nearby for a wedding, and Grandpa Bill, Auntie Chris and Jason came over too!  Lots of pics.  

Here are some pictures of swim lessons, finger paints, and Kate ready for ballet.