My Four Year Old

We celebrated Olivia's Birthday with a backyard bash on Saturday, but wouldn't dare neglect her actual Birth Day, so yesterday Brad and I picked her up from school early so we could celebrate with her class (we brought cupcakes), but they celebrated earlier in the day, so we ended up just hanging out with Olivia in her classroom for a little while before going downstairs to get Avery.

Olivia painting with Mrs. Rita

We rushed home from school, got Olivia changed for Swimming Lessons and set out for my Parents house...all in Brad's new company car:

Brad is thrilled to be rid of the Minivan, but I can already tell that we will be missing certain features the Minivan had to offer, specifically the auto open and close doors, those things were heaven sent. And the Highlander is MUCH smaller than the Minivan, we are going to be in the market for a space rocket if we ever plan to take this car on a weekend trip.

Last night was the first lesson in this round of Swimming Lessons, and was also our first experience at the new Manchester YMCA Pool since it opened last week. If you will recall from September of 2009, Olivia fell at this pool and ended up having to have surgery on her two front teeth, it wasn't a pretty sight, and remained a painful memory for all involved, so I am happy to see a new Pool.



Olivia's instructor Miss Katie was her teacher last time we took lessons at this YMCA, so I was excited to hear that Katie remembered Olivia. Olivia is more comfortable in the water this year, but is still far from fearless, which I am okay with, but I want to see her learn and grow and develop her skills.  We are seriously considering the Morgan Swim School in the Fall if we don't see some progress from this session.

After Swimming Lessons we met my Parents and Avery at Red Robin and enjoyed a less than peaceful Birthday Dinner as an Extended Family.  Dining out with Avery is hit or miss and last night it was far from a hit, but not quite a miss, it was somewhere in between.  I had hoped to take the day off and spend it doing fun mother-daughter stuff with Olivia, but she wanted to take cupcakes to school with her to share with her friends, so I promised we would do the fun mother-daughter stuff another day!