Habits!

We are working on breaking the habit of sucking fingers and thumbs. Eli is the thumb sucker and Elizabeth the fingers. We started off putting tape on their fingers which worked fine for Eli but Elizabeth always managed to get hers off. So we put a sock on her hand now and tape that. So far she has not figured out how to get that off and will suck on her paci. Eli has changed from sucking on his thumb to his.... toes!
As a side note: Greg got a package today which turned out to be great entertainment during the afternoon rest time.

Swimming!

Caroline had a great week of swim lessons. She has improved so much this past week it is amazing. Below she is swimming from one end of the pool to the other end. She gets her arms out of the water now when she swims free style... she learned all the different swimming strokes and even floats and swims on her back! She has never floated before this summer, she would never relax enough to float. She even practiced going to the bottom of the deep water and pushing off. She has always been a little frightened of the deep water. Even though she could swim she never wanted to in the deep end. So her swim teacher worked one day in the deep end the whole lesson. Now that girl dives down to get toys off the bottom of the pool in the deep end!

She has not quite perfected her dive, but she cant be great at everything:) She likes to jump off the diving board just not dive off of it.

Eli and Elizabeth were able to come to Caroline's very last swim lesson. Elizabeth enjoyed watching her big sister swim as much as Caroline loved having them there. Eli was too busy exploring in the cabana to watch any of the lesson.

Loving Big Sis!

Yesterday was a big day for all the kids. Caroline started swim lessons early in the morning, then that afternoon Eli and Elizabeth had their well-checks at the doctors office. They both got three immunizations plus Eli had blood drawn. All that to say they have not been happy campers, fever, hurt legs, crying has been at the Jennings household the last 24 hours! Caroline has such a tender heart, she was in the room when Elizabeth received her shots and both of them were crying. So for Eli's since he was having blood drawn she went down the hall to a room with a movie playing. Caroline has been loving on them ever since they got home from the appt.

New Toy

Who remembers the inch worm? Now my kids will have sweet inch worm memories. It has been a big hit already. Elizabeth has not quite figured out where she is supposed to sit but she did circles around it trying to figure it out! Eli is loving it and thanks to daddy's help he knows where to sit to have the most fun! He will just laugh and laugh when we push him up and down on it.

Even Caroline gets in on the fun. She has enjoyed playing on it by herself or with her brother and sister.

And then the reason for the lack of pics this week is because it was VBS week and this is what we all did when we got home:

Lake Day

We are so blessed to have friends that invite us out to play at their lake house. We had a great day out there playing hard! Lots of boating, tubing, swimming, jet skiing, eating, etc! Caroline and her two playmates had fun tubing... well the playmates more so than Caroline. She said she liked it but wanted to tube with no bumps.... I tried to explain that tubing is all about the bumps! She decided to hang out in the boat instead of tubing with bumps. Elizabeth enjoyed the boating too.. she even tubed a little! Nothing cuter than a baby in a life vest who cant move their arms or legs well.

The boat is always a great place to take a nap... at least Eli thought so. Isn't he precious when he sleeps... ok he is precious all the time (I just don't always think so when he is fussing)! Who can resist sweet face?

Confession time... I forgot my camera when we went to the lake (but I remembered all my kids, that has to count for something) but my sweet friend took some pics for me from their phone so I can share our day with you!

Catch Up!

Caroline finally has someone to play dress up with... well that she can dress up and who does not mind. Lizzy walks around in her Tinkerbell outfit so excited to have it on that she does not mind Caroline dressing her up at all! Caroline loved getting some Bryn time. We all went to Chuck E Cheese together, which was quite an adventure in itself with Elizabeth. Elizabeth tried to steal a slice of pizza from a little boys hand as he sat at the table with his parents. She ran all over that place!

Caroline is getting her last play dates with Madeline in before her big move. They were able to have a tea party up in the playhouse.

No summer is complete with out some cousin time. Hannah came out for a week! She stayed with Grandma and Grandpa but they did get to have 2 sleep overs while she was here.

We upgraded to the slip n slide this summer... it is less to blow up and smaller to store...and just as much fun!

Eli and Elizabeth still enjoy some water playing time too. Ok so Eli may not look like he is enjoying it but the camera cant always shoot two smiling faces!

The playground was a great investment. All the kids have loved playing on it, even Eli crawls through the tunnel.

Elizabeth likes to climb around the lower part where the sand box area is....

and Caroline likes to find new ways to climb to the top without using any of the ladders!

Disney Adventure!

The first night of our trip we made it to Vicksburg, MS. If you look closely at the picture, Elizabeth and Eli would stand at the window because they could see Caroline and daddy swimming in the pool. Before we left Vicksburg we had to go to the welcome center to see the cannon and the Mississippi River.

Another stop we made along the way was in Mobile AL to see the USS Alabama battleship. Caroline had a great time exploring all over the ship. Her mommy and daddy did not enjoy it quite as much as we carried babies up and down very steep stairs. There were also only a few rooms on the ship that had a/c. Needless to say we were hot and sweaty!

Greg and Caroline went on the sub, but Eli, Elizabeth and I stayed inside the a/c'd building.

We had some fun times in the car, making silly faces, crying, singing, dancing, etc anything to make the 17hr trip fun and exciting!

We made another pit stop at Pensacola Beach. Eli and Elizabeth loved to eat the sand, Caroline loved tossing the sand.

Greg found the coolest hotel on the beach. It had the coolest room with a separate kids room that had bunk beds, beanbag seats, tv and PlayStation. The hotel also had a lazy river which was just as exciting if not more so than the beach (according to Caroline).

Finally we made it to Disney! Caroline was so excited to see the "real" castle!

My very own pack mule!

So Caroline chose to have her hair done, shimmering makeup, and nails done at the castle instead of a meal at the castle. 2 problems occurred: 1)My camera battery died beforehand and 2) I forgot the dress up dress she was going to wear. So I told her that when we got back to the condo she could put on her dress and I would take a picture. Now in the car on the way back to the condo my little one decides she is going to "re-fix" her hair. So this is the end result, but she was happy and sassy about it and that is what counts.

Greg being a good sport and letting Caroline put some of the makeup she had left over from her makeover on him! That's the sign of a great daddy!

We had a very long line to wait in to see the three main princesses. They were in an air conditioned building and once we made it into the room they were in there was still a line to see them.

Caroline with Princess Aurora, Sleeping Beauty. Caroline got to have some special one on one time talking with each of the princesses. Caroline's face light up so bright when it was her turn, she would also play with her hair the whole time she talked to them. When she got back we would say what did you talk about. Caroline said "Eli and Elizabeth and stuff".

Princess Belle taught Caroline how to sit with her arm out.

Princess Cinderella was the biggest hit!

Goofy and Minnie from the night time parade.

Waiting for the parade to come by.

Our last trip on the monorail train! Caroline loved the monorail!

Our condo had lots of cool pools and several fun playgrounds. Two days we took it easy and hung out at the condo pools and playgrounds which was a nice break!

The fort at St. Augustine

on top of the fort.

Caroline getting ready to be eaten by a shark in Fernandina Beach.