a Friday afternoon at swimming

Last Friday, the girls had their weekly swim lessons.  Jessica loved swimming in the pool as the weather was perfect for a dip.  There is nothing better than swimming with friends to start off the weekend.

Jamison was all business as she opted for her warm belly, goggles, and swim cap. 

fun in the yard for Jamison

During the few days that Jamison had off from school, she spent a lot of time playing in the yard as the weather was really nice.  She is really into bubbles these days and spent a lot of time blowing them in the garden.

She also had quite the picnic lunch in the playhouse.

a trip to the zoo and park for Jamison

At the end of last week, Jamison's school was closed for teacher development, so she got to go to the little zoo and park in the morning.  From this picture, it seems that she was pretty happy to go.

She had fun experimenting with the exhibits.  Here she is checking out the solar power machine.

Climbing the statues and fences outside was also fun.

After the zoo, it was off to the park from some more playtime!

Jamison has a blast at gym

Jamison had a blast at gym this weekend.  Here she is hanging on the bar.

The best part of the class were the rollercoaster rides though.

Jessica as chapel announcer

Every Monday, Jessica's school has chapel.  Last week, she volunteered to be chapel announcer for her class.  A chapel announcer talks about something that happened during their class the previous week.  Jessica did a great job.

Ben's 4th Birthday Party

Jessica and Jamison went to Ben's 4th birthday party at a local sports place.  Here is a picture of Jessica playing dodgeball with one of her friends.

And, then, it was on to soccer.

Jamison, on the other hand, was all about jumping and climbing in the bounce house.

Happy birthday Ben!

Yup.  The cake was pretty good.

Jamison playing at school

The past week, Jamison was in absolute heaven at school as they had put water beads out again.  She has loved playing with them since the early days at school.

She also started doing a lot more painting at school-- outside on the easel, with her fingers, and then in the studio.

the end of basketball

The winter season of basketball came to an end earlier this month.  I think Jamison will miss it the most.     She really enjoyed her weekly trips to the duck pond.

She also liked playing basketball like a big girl.  I'm sensing a future basketball star here...

And, this picture sums up about how much Jessica loved basketball.  Early in the season, in an effort to get her to play, we had told her she could have a toy if she scored a basket.  At the last game, she was crying, even when she got a trophy, because she was not going to get a toy.  I am fairly confident that we will not be signing up for basketball again.

Gwendolyn's 4th birthday

Both Jessica and Jamison were invited to Gwendolyn's 4th birthday celebration at a local gym.  They loved all of the gymnastics activities.

Afterwards, Jessica and her friends enjoyed a snack!

Spring Break Vacation: San Diego Zoo Day 4

On our last day in San Diego, we went to the San Diego Zoo.  The girls were all dressed for the occasion in their Lion King dresses, but only Jessica would take a picture for us.

The pandas are always exciting, so that was one of our first stops.

There is another panda baby, but he was very hard to see way, way up in the tree.

The girls were excited to see one of the polar bears swim.

Well, at least for a second.  They were really more interested in playing in the polar maze that was outside.

To give the girls a break from all the animals, which were a bit boring to Jessica, and to allow Jim some time to do some animal sight seeing, I took the girls over to the children's zoo.  First stop was face painting, where we got one princess and one doggy.

Then, it was off to see the goats. The girls were a bit disappointed that there were no brushes to brush the goats with.   

We caught up with Jim for lunch.  After lunch, it was time to explore some parts of the park that had been remodeled since our last visit.  Jessica thought it was fun to ride the big cat statue.

And, well, monkey see monkey do.

There were lots of statues for the kids to climb and sit on. I think they found them more exciting then the real animals.

And, you do not even want to know how Jim hoisted Jessica up onto this camel (note the camel is life size)....

It was a lot of walking for Jessica's little feet by the afternoon.  After an ice cream treat, it was off to the hotel to take one last dip in the pool.

fun at our hotel in San Diego

The girls really loved our hotel.  Here was the view from our patio.

They lounged on the chairs and watched the boats sail by and sunset some nights.

But, what the girls really loved was the pool because it had water slides for both girls -- a small slide for Jamison and a big slide for Jessica.  Each day after our tourist stop, it was off to the pool to swim.  It didn't matter that it was just 60 degrees outside.  It was always let's go to the pool!

Here is a video of Jamison showing off her superb swimming skills on the slide.

The other thing the girls loved about the hotel was the outdoor smores pit.

Spring Break Vacation: Sea World Day 3

The next day, we took the girls to Sea World.  Jessica's most favorite thing at Sea World was the first thing that she did -- the Atlantis roller coaster.

While Jessica rode on the big kid ride, Jamison and I went to the Sesame Street part of the park and rode the little kid rides over and over again.

We took the girls to see the dolphin and whale shows.

Then, it was on to feeding some hungry sea lions.

Jamison opted for using the feeder tubes, which were her height.

Jessica wanted to toss the fish over the fence.

Jamison and Jim played with starfish while Jessica and I went on the river rafting ride.

Before we went home, we took the flyer out over the bay. Jamison really loved it!

Spring Break Vacation: San Diego Zoo Animal Park Day 3 (the rest of the day)

We decided to spend the rest of Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Animal Park since there was so much more for us to see.  Our first stop was the petting zoo where the girls brushed the goats.

We then found a play area.  The girls had a blast playing the drums.

There was an activity to practice carrying water on your head, which they tried.

And, they played around on a big log.

As we walked through the park, Jessica saw the big yellow balloon and wanted to go for a ride.   Luckily, there was no age or height restriction, so all of us could go.

Here we go up, up in the air.

We were pretty high up.

This is what the balloon looks like from the outside.

The girls were getting a bit tired and bored (gasp) by the afternoon, so we let them play in one of the wet zones.  Nothing says fun like getting covered in water.

Despite our efforts, it wasn't long before Jamison had passed out in the stroller.

Jessica got a quick ride on the carousel. Then, it was off to the hotel for an early dinner and bed.