Our Kids Blog

A few weeks ago we got a new membership for the Eau Claire Children’s Museum and we dicided to get the reciprocal membership that allows us to go to other children’s museums across the country. We decided as a last minute trip to head to the Minnesota Children’s Museum for a little fun.

On the room of the museum that had a natural art exibit. You could paint stones with water.

Kenny enjoyed the painting and we liked the fact that he didn’t get all messy with paint.

Kenny was a pretty busy boy, but he did stop to pose for the camera a little bit.

Emma never did quite stop to pose, but I caught here in the background of this picture.

Kenny liked the view from the roof.

Emma and Landry enjoyed a week of Vacation Bible School at the same church where Emma will attend preschool this next fall. They did a lot of crafts and learned some more about the Bible. A pretty good use of some summer vacation time.

The girls made the tie-die shirts that they are wearing in the picture.

We had hoped to go to Noah’s Ark in Wisconsin Dells this summer, so we decided to use Emma’s 4.5 birthday as the backdrop for the day. Kenny stayed home this year with Grandma and Grandpa Swany, but Cousin Landry came a long.

As you look through the pictures, I got some help from Emma for some of the captions. Anything in quotes are her exact words.

Emma didn’t know that we bought a cake at the grocery store.

She was pretty surprised.

We did save the cake until after lunch.

A little lunch. This all took place at a rest area just north of Wisconsin Dells.

Emma and dad went down a lot of the slides together. Next time Emma said she will do them by herself.

Emma did go down this slide by herself.

The two girls did a little racing down the side by side slides.

Here is the finish. A big splash.

Here the two are taking a picture that Emma claims to be “kind of cute and funny.”

Emma says, “Landry went down the turtle slide really fast.”

Emma says, “We took a picture by the turtle and I smiled really kind of good.”

“Riding on the horse, heedy haw.”

“We were in the wavy water and we had so much fun in the wavy water.”

“Wow I jumped really high over the waves. I wanted to say ‘hee haw’.”

The Maloney’s had us at their house for some 4th of July Festivities. We spent a little time by the lake, ate some good food, and everyone stayed up for some fireworks. Fun the whole time.

Emma had lots of fun riding the Sea Doo with Uncle Tracy.

Kenny never left the dock.

Kenny did have fun watching from the dock though.

Somewhere there is older picture of Aunt Tessa with all her nieces and nephews, but I can’t find it . Here is the current one though.

Right after picking blackberries we went to the Edmond Historical Museum. They had a little kids’ area that was pretty fun.

Oklahoma City has a nice science museum and the four of us spent the whole morning learning and playing there. Emma really enjoyed the gymnastics exhibit and then the kids’ area where she could do her own face painting. Emma also got to ride on a Segway. Kenny enjoyed the water area and the bubbles.

In the afternoon, we decided to try going to a movie with both Emma and Kenny. We went and saw Toy Story 3. Emma did a great job, but Kenny being only 20 months needed to get out of the theater for a while to stretch his legs. It was a great Father’s Day.

The actual recital went very well and Emma enjoyed performing and watching the other dancers perform. The grand finale involved all of the dancers and the younger dancers literally looked up to the older dancers to help with the routine.

The last couple of pictures are just to show Emma’s hair which Tammy did for the recital.

The Sreckov’s came over for a visit to watch Serbia play Ghana in the World Cup. The Sreckov’s have Serbian blood, but even with their cheering Ghana still came up victorious. The kids all got their soccer jersey’s on for the event. It was hard to let Emma wear an England jersey just one day after playing them to a draw, but it was all that we had.

Emma was in a dance class all year and as with most dance classes, the year end event is a recital. This first post is actually from the dress rehearsal where we could get nice and close to take some pictures.

UPDATE: Here is video of the dance.

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On the last day of school for me (and usually on the first day back in the fall) Tammy and the kids bring me lunch. It is tradition. Whenever the kids come to school they need to write on the whiteboards. To keep the markers from staining the kids clothes they get to wear some of my old undershirts. Fun memories.

Memorial Day in Eau Claire means a parade. Papa Swany (who was drafted during the Viet Nam War and served in Oklahoma joined us). The last picture is of cousin Carter who actually walked in the parade handing out Express Baseball schedules. Mom and Emma were in the cities getting Uncle Joe from the airport.

Emma’s preschool had its end of the year picnic. It had a lot of fun activities and games. In addition, cousin Landry graduated from preschool and will be going to kindergarten next year.

A little fishing game with some pretty nice prizes. We ended up with two squirt guns and some other stuff.

Big bubbles are always a hit.

The younger grades did some singing before the graduation ceremonies.

Landry is all set for the diploma ceremony.

Our church had a little event to celebrate serving. There were lots of things for the kids and it was a beautiful evening.

There was a great wide open bouncy area that the kids had a lot of fun on.

Kenny fell as much as he walked, but that didn’t matter.

The main game was to run back and forth. Simple but lots of fun.

Three friends having fun. Doesn’t get much better.

Jack and Emma always have so much fun together.

Emma tired a little, but she didn’t rest for long.

Kenny and his friend Ty had lots of fun. They both got a little dirty eating though.

As a fundraiser the local theatre guild held a Fairy Tale Ball. Emma and cousin Landry got all dressed up as princesses for the event.

The local Hair Academy (beautician school) styles hair at a reasonable price, so the day started with hair.

Cousin Landry got an “up-do”.

Now off to home to get on their dresses.

Here is the crew that went to the ball. This was a great photograph and was taken by cousin Avery.

The two girls were very excited even though none of us knew exactly what to expect.

Tammy found a clearanced bridesmaid dress that made her look like a princess too.

When we arrived it was raining and cold, so we didn’t know if we would be able to go on a carriage ride, so the girls hopped up into the carriage for a picture.

Since the event was held by the Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild, they put on some little shows.

Carriage rides did happen, so we got all bundled up and took a ride around the parking lot.

Cindrella’s step-sisters and step-mother mingled with the crowd.

A local dentist, I mean the tooth fairy , was giving rides on the magic chair. If you see Emma you can ask her what the magic words were to make it go up and down. At the end of the night Emma mentioned that this was one of her favorite things that she did.

The girls did a little crown decorating.

The night ended with a dance.

Kenny turned 1.5 today. We’ve been working towards it this week and with tonights feeding Kenny is officially weened. Since Kenny has no idea it is happening, he seems to be fine with it. Tammy on the other hand is going to miss it. With Kenny weened, Tammy can get back on some of the medication that she has been off of for about 5 years that can help with her fibromyalgia.

Ever since we found out about Kenny’s left hand, nursing has been a time for some massage therapy. Tammy would massage and rotate his left arm and hand. We may never know how much this “therapy” has helped with his development.

Afterwards Kenny was in great spirits (he has no idea that anything is different). He had to pull off his mom’s glasses one more time as that is usually part of the nursing ritual.