April tulips

Waaay back in April we made our annual journey up to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley.  It was a beautiful day and we headed up to enjoy the flowers and sun and take lots of photos :).  We ended up spending our whole time at RoozenGaarde where they have beautiful display gardens as well as large tulip fields.  After the flowers we all shared some hand made fudge before heading to a local playground to run and play before the drive home.  It was a wonderful afternoon!

My sweet baby

And my handsome little man

With their handsome Daddy

Maylee did pretty well but had her moments!  Her "2's" phase started at about 18 months :)...

Flying in the air is often a good distraction!

I'm amused that Ry picked up this cute tilted head smile on his own :)

Too cute!

Getting ready for the mud

Walking through the puddles

Our cuties in the tulip fields

Our little fish

I realized I have several "draft" posts from a while back that I never finished!  So here we go :)

After all the fun he had in the pool in Florida last Christmas, Ry came home asking about swim lessons!  We were also thinking about lessons for him, so we looked around and went with drop-off lessons for 3-5 yr olds at our community pool just down the street.  He has really loved them!  He started in the first level, and was in that level for two sessions (they stay in the level until they meet all the requirements to advance... repeating levels is common), and is currently in a level two class.  Each session is about five weeks and he goes twice a week.  All the teachers have been really nice, enthusiastic, and very encouraging.

It's been awesome to see him get more and more comfortable in the water and do more... he's our little fish and we're very proud of him!  The highlight from his first class was probably getting the hang of relaxing in the water to float... and now it's a regular thing in the water and during bath time.  In the second class he conquered things like opening his eyes in the water (they have the kids identify colored rings under the water) and putting his face in more while on his tummy.  In this class he's gotten the chance to stand and bounce on the bottom briefly and is practicing more kicking in various positions (front, back, side with one or both hands up over his head).

Level 1 classes:

Waving at us!  (parents are asked to stay in the upper level bleachers during class)

So excited to be in the water :) 

(as an aside, they are so great about safety and always have a lifeguard standing near the class)

Identifying colors of the rings

He also got into googles after borrowing Grandpa Larry's goggles in Florida :)... so we got him some of his own.  They mostly get used in the bath since they are too complicated during class (needs help getting on/off, gets water in them, etc)... but he asked and CAN wear them during their last class.  So here he is, so happy to be wearing his googles :)

On the raft on his back...

And on his tummy

Kicking practice

They get to jump in from the side at the end of each class... Ry's ready to jump and loves this!

Level 2:

Teacher Vale showing him how to put his face in and blow bubbles...

and now Ry doing the same

All smiles :)

Maylee in her pink tulle dress

Here are more photos of Maylee from the shoot we did when Rylan turned four!  

We have received so many beautiful dresses for Maylee as gifts and ones passed along (and we really appreciate all of them!) that I rarely end up buying her dresses... but I saw this adorable dress and had to get it for her to wear and do some photos in this summer! (Especially since we did photos of her in a tulle dress last summer too).  These turned out so precious!

We love our sweet little girl!!

And here she is a year earlier, summer 2012 :)...