First Swim of the Season, and More of Norah's Art

While Gramps and Granddad were on their way home from a weekend trip, we sneaked over and had our inaugural swim of the season.  (Sorry, Gramps...but we did scrub the pool while we were there as penance for our sneakiness)

The kids were beyond excited.  They have been asking for WEEKS when we could go swimming.


They even humored us by posing for a few photos before we hit the pool.

We picked up the life jackets at a Walmart near South Padre last summer.  The first time we used the, turned out to be our last swim of the season (it was September and starting to cool off here).

Norah was thrilled to get to wear hers again.

And Eli was  just happy to be doing what Norah was doing, as is usually the case.

Norah also graced our fridge with some new artwork today, so I thought I'd share.  Things that I love about her art these days:

1. Excellent use of color.  Sometimes it is imitation of real-life color, other times it is completely fantasy-inspired...either way, she has a great eye for color.
2. Stick figure gender can be determined by a)whether or not said figure is wearing a dress or b)whether or not said figure has eyelashes
3. She can work a single piece of paper for HOURS (remember those flamingo pictures?).  Lots of details which are SO funny to hear her explain if you ask.  (Like today, she drew about 20 female stick figures and when I asked why there were no boys, she  explained that "they all died", as if it were no big deal...have I mentioned she is pretty anti-boy right now?)  This is a big improvement over the  previous phase of thinking she needed 20 sheets a day, sometimes only putting a small circle in the center before labeling it "done."
4. All "finished" pieces are put (by the artist, herself) on the fridge.  I love that she knows the refrigerator is our "gallery", and proudly displays each work of art.  (Plus, it sure beats finding tons of loose leaf on the floor or spread out all over the table.)

Alright, that's enough for now...I will try to be back soon with the big reveal for the "top secret (non baby) project" I alluded to earlier, so stay tuned!