The first day of swim lessons was rough, Finley began to cry half way through the lesson. And the crying never stopped. She did all the things her teacher, Mr. Chris, asked her to, but she cried the entire time. Thank goodness swim lessons are every day for two weeks straight. Yesterday was her second lesson and she did great, her teacher even commented on her improvement. Today was her third day and she is absolutely loving it! She is going to be a fish in no time. She isn't scared of the water at all, which is just fantastic.
When Grammy and Grandad were visiting, Finley enjoyed a picnic up on the roof deck. Fruit, hot dogs and the outdoors make Miss Finley a very happy little girl.
We headed down to Froberg Farms to pick strawberries with Grammy and Grandad. There weren't a ton of strawberries because it has been such a warm spring here in Houston. We managed to get two buckets full, which is plenty of strawberries for us. Get ready for picture (and cuteness) overload!
We had our last dance class for the year this summer. Finley is going to have a busy summer of gymnastics and swim lessons, but I know she is going to miss Mr. Carlos and her dancing friends. I hope that we can get Finley back in dance class in the fall, she definitely loves it and next year she can start intro to tap. Her favorite part of class is always when Mr. Carlos brought out the tap shoes to keep the beat. The class all got lollipops for doing such an amazing job in their recital.
I am so lucky to have found such an amazing playgroup. Tammy is expecting a little sister for Samantha in August, so we all got together to let the kids play and eat, eat and play. And most importantly, we got to celebrate the impending arrival of little Sloane, I am sure she will fit in just perfectly into the playgroup madness! The amazing diaper cake was made by Courtney, it is so unfair that she is such a talented seamstress. Every diaper cake I see her make tops the previous version. All the kids get along so well, it is such a nice way to spend our Thursday mornings.
Look how much our little crawfish lover has grown. This year, she actually got to eat the crawfish. And eat the crawfish she did! She must have had at least two dozen, possibly more. And she ate plenty of Clifton's bacon wrapped filet. And when she was done, she asked for more crawfish. And she proceeded to eat an entire plateful on her own. She loves em!
She had so much fun collecting pine needles with Grandma and she even got to meet a turtle that had hitched a ride with the crawfish. Note her most adorable crawfish dress.
Finley has been really loving the boat. If we are going fast at all, Finley is glued to my lap. And the most curious thing is, she usually falls straight asleep. Within seconds. It is as if the boat somehow lulls her right into nap time. This past weekend, Finley took her first swim in Taylor Lake. She did fantastic, she was a little scared at first, but she really loves the water. She especially loves her froggy bathing suit.
I have a bunch of pictures to get through, but I figured I would go ahead and post the sad little video I took. We were in the very back of the auditorium, unlike the dress rehearsal where we were in the front row. Finley did a fantastic job. We are so very proud of her. We have one more dance class until the summer break, then I hope to get her into Mr. Carlos' Intro to Ballet and Tap class in the fall. Finley had lots of fans in the audience, Grandma, Aunt Rose, Faith, Max and Courtney.
Here is another video from another mom. Finley is the one running around crazy on the right.
Max spent the day with us yesterday and Finley was beyond thrilled. She loves having Max come over and even tried to teach him her recital dance. When I drove him home, he was singing "All around the kitchen, cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!" There was more sashay-ing, more of Finley being bossy from her big chair and Max teaching lowercase letters to Finley. Max is such a joy to have over. Finley woke up this morning asking, "when is Max coming over today?"
Finley absolutely adores the Children's Museum. Thankfully, we live only a few blocks away so we can visit very often. It is so much easier now that I don't have to drag a stroller, Finley can make the whole walk herself. I am super excited about being able to go on Mondays this summer, they are opening only for members. Normally the museum is closed on Monday and in the summer, it gets crazy busy every day of the week. This last visit Finley spent the most time in the Mexico section. They have a kitchen, restaurant and store. She has so much fun shopping for the food and then preparing it for me to eat. She especially liked making the tortillas and serving them with salsa.