Update: Hairdo photos!

As requested ... photos of Kelsey's curls and 'do!

Cousins Kylie and Kelsey have matching 'dos!

Cousins & ice cream

Kylie and Brendan enjoy celebratory ice cream at the Dairy King. What
a way to top off a fun championship swim meet!

So girly

Our house has been abuzz all day with talk of ponytails. If you know me, you know that I don't switch up my hair too much. In part, it's because I have this wonderfully naturally curly hair that is a huge challenge. But I also lack any creativity when it comes to hair.

Yesterday, though, I decided to put Kelsey's hair up. Her hair has really grown in as of late, so I thought it would be fun to pull the sides up into a little ponytail. Later in the day, while we were buying diapers, I shopped for girly hair accessories, too.

This has sparked quite a discussion between the boys. Brendan has asked at least four times, "But why does she have to do her hair like that? I don't get it." He's also insisted that she "doesn't look any different."

Ryan is quite fascinated by all of this. He helped pick out the hair accessories and was particularly bent out of shape today when Kelsey ditched the purple holder for a blue one, which didn't match her outfit. He likes telling Kelsey how cute she is with her hair done.

Never would I have guessed that a simple change in hairstyle would spark so much attention by ... the boys!

Summertime fun

I can hardly believe it'll be August in less than two weeks, which means four things:

1. My sweet, little Ryan will turn 4.
2. My sweet Brendan (who is not so little) will turn 7. Wow!
3. We will be in the motherland before we know it.
4. And we'll have 5 weeks of summer left before school starts.

July has been incredibly busy, but in a good way. Brendan has been attending his summer league swim team practice each morning at 9. Like last summer, I wasn't going to require he attend every practice. But I am proud to say that he has! In fact, he doesn't battle in the morning about getting ready, which is most unusual for this boy.

In addition, we are in our fourth week of swim lessons at the same pool. There's a 75-minute break between swim practice and lessons. Some days we head home, where everyone gets changed and lathered up with sunscreen. Other days we hang out at the pool and just wait. Nearly every day, we pack a lunch and stay at the pool after lessons so we can swim for an hour.

Kelsey participated in lessons for the first two-week session. Ha! "Participated" may be a slight exaggeration. She wanted to play and do her own thing. By the last day, she did actually participate, but popped out of the pool after each and every activity to tell me about it. She's quite the momma's girl these days.

Ryan is doing great in his class. He's extremely comfortable in deeper water now. His dive is looking so great! He shoots right into the water like a missile. We think he'll be ready to join the novice group on the swim team next year.

I wasn't sure Brendan would want to take lessons. In fact, he complained the first week. But after the first two-week session, he insisted on signing up for more. (In part, that's because he moved up from Level 3 to 4, then graduated to 5.) This group really focuses on stroke instruction, which is exactly what he needs. The extra practice is good!

The rest of our summer days includes playdates, bike rides and playing outside. Brendan and I just began reading "The Tales of Despereaux." Our reward when we finish -- which should be soon since Brendan is completely hooked -- will be to watch the movie. We're also finishing up "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," which was one of my childhood favorites.

This week, Brendan is attending art camp in the afternoons. I'm excited to see what he learns! We're also eagerly awaiting the arrival of cousin Kylie and Grammy. Oh my ... these girls will be on the run between numerous swim team activities this week. They'll be ready for Sunday to come, when we'll return (hopefully) to our slower pace.

Happy 4th!

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. (This might actually surprise my family, who probably remembers sensitive little Laura sitting inside the car or house to watch fireworks. I'm not a fan of loud noises!)

I love this day because of the variety of festivities. Because it's in the middle of summer. Because we get to be patriotic and wave our flags. Mostly I love it because it's a celebration of our great country. We truly have so much to be thankful for -- elections, freedom of speech, the freedom to make choices about our life on a daily basis, clean water, a beautiful home (that far exceeds what we need to survive), the ability to pursue our dreams. What a great country!

We celebrated early this morning! Plymouth boasts its 4th of July parade as the earliest in Michigan -- a 7:30 a.m. start. Now, six years ago, our family didn't hesitate attending such an early parade. Our little guy Brendan was an early-riser as a baby. He'd be awake at 5:45 a.m., which meant we were often bored and ready to do something by 7 a.m.!

Now, life has slowed a bit. We had to set an alarm and wake all three children before 7 so we could watch the parade. The kids were a bit groggy, and Brendan protested. Yet they all enjoyed the parade -- the anticipation in wondering what's coming next, the sights and sounds, the old-fashioned cars and bikes that delight children even today. Brendan was bummed that the monster truck, a staple in this parade, was absent.

After the parade, we joined the Newman family at Panera for breakfast and shopped at the farmer's market. At the moment, I'm waiting for Kelsey to wake from her nap. Then we are off to a friend's house for a 4th of July BBQ followed shortly by a birthday party for our friend, Jackson.

Happy 4th to all and to our great country!

School's out: Bring on summer!

I'm so far behind on posting to the blog, that I don't know where to begin!

Last weekend marked two weeks since school ended for Ryan and Brendan. Woo hoo! I think we were all ready for summer, particularly me. First grade homework was a bit much!


We haven't had too many lazy, summer days since. A recap of the past two weeks:

• On the last day of school, June 12, Brendan only had a half day of class. I picked him and his friend, Noah, up from school and we celebrated at Joe's Deli with yummy lasagna.
  
  After some playtime, we headed to Ann Arbor for Ryan's eye doctor appointment. The good news is his stye continues to shrink and no longer looks infected. Yeah!
  
  We then went straight to the pool because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, a small child had pooped in the pool just after I had wrestled with Kelsey in the changing room to get her dressed to swim. Sigh ... if we had known the pool would be closed 30 minutes, we would have headed home and saved our energy for music in the park. Oh well, we did have fun swimming once we were in, and hubby joined us with pizza in hand later in the afternoon.
  
• Hubby and I had prepared ourselves for a very busy Saturday. It will go down in Healy family history as one of the busiest for our young family. Hubby did his open-water swim at 8 a.m., then returned home where I was waiting with Brendan to take him to his t-ball game. Brendan and I left t-ball early to go back home, where Ken would take Brendan to his final soccer game and I would put Kelsey down for her nap. After the soccer game, Ken returned home, where Ryan and I were waiting so that the two boys and I could attend our friend Mikaela's fourth birthday party. Exhausting, isn't it? We made it to the party by 2, just a few minutes late, and the boys painted pottery pieces with friends before eating cupcakes. It was a nice, low-key party. Finally, we had some downtime. We rested at home for an hour before going to our neighbors' house for an end-of-the-school-year BBQ, where the boys learned to play Bocce. (Ryan is surprisingly good!) Around 7:15 p.m., we walked the kids home and changed Kelsey and Ryan into their PJs in time for our sitter to come over. Then Brendan, hubby and I headed out to our friend's 40th surprise birthday party.


• All of Saturdays craziness meant more on Sunday. I spent all morning packing for a short trip to Ohio, where we would see our friends from Texas, who were driving up for a funeral. We agreed to meet at their sister's lakehouse, which is about 2 hours and 40 minutes from our house. Unfortunately, we also had two birthday parties to attend on Sunday. So I dropped off Brendan with a friend, whose mom agreed to take B to his party. Then Ryan, Kelsey, hubby and I attended a pool party for Ryan's sweet friend, Andrew. We returned home by 2, and I put Kelsey down for a short nap while I continued packing and loading up the car. Ken picked up Brendan, and finally, at 4 p.m., we hit the road.
  
• We spent less than 24 hours in Ohio, but it was worth it! We love visiting with the Forners! We didn't do any swimming in the lake. In fact, most of the time we played games at the house or rode on the paddle boat through the channel. Tons of fun, though!
  
• Brendan began the Colony Swim Team the following Tuesday. He's already competed in two meets and has improved his times from last season. That's all we can ask for!
  
• On the 18th, Grandma and Grandpa Healy arrived from Texas for a week-long visit. The kids had a blast seeing their grandparents, and Ken and I enjoyed a night out on Saturday. It was also nice having them here for Father's Day, which we celebrated by sending the boys to the Tigers game. We're all very excited that we'll be seeing all of the grandparents again in just six or seven weeks!
  
• Last Tuesday, I made a day-long trip to DC for my freelance work. It was a long day, but productive. As a bonus, I was able to meet my friend and former co-worker Stacey for a quick drink before heading home.

Send your prayers

My dear friends Tyra and Steve and their sweet children need our prayers and good thoughts right now. Please send them their way.

http://checkonsteve.blogspot.com

Purple goggles & other tales

Fridays are traditionally our Music in the Park nights, but we were
torn today. The weather was gorgeous, but a 3:00 eye appointment meant
we couldn't go for an early afternoon swim.

Yet I was inclined to swim since today marked the beginning of summer.
(School was out at 11:38.) So we opted to skip the concert and swim
instead. With a busy day ahead tomorrow, we didn't want to squeeze too
much into our evening.

At the pool Kelsey made her debut off the diving board -- twice. She
loved it, though cried a second after going under the water once. She
also showed off her new purple goggles.

Joys of cooking

Ryan assisted me in baking delicious, chocolatey brownies today. His
reward was sweet!

Tough guy

As part of Ryan's preschool program, he has been attending Tae Kwon Do classes for a half hour each Tuesday since mid-April. He requested it and has enjoyed each class, coming home eager to show us what he's learned.

Yesterday, when I picked him from school, I saw his name in big letters on the dry erase board. The note explained that he was the only class member to successfully break wood during the class!

Ryan was so excited to show me the piece of wood, signed by his teacher with the note, "Broke by Ryan," and to demonstrate how he did it. He repeated the story numerous times for Daddy, Brendan and the family.

Congrats, Ryan!

Ryan demonstrates his power move that broke the wood.

Ryan with the wood that his teachers signed for him.