Swim class…

Jack at one of his final swim classes.  His freestyle stroke has really improved in 3 weeks of class:

Basketball…

I can’t tell you how hard it is to watch Jack at basketball practice.  Most of the time I just want to be one of ‘those’ parents who is yelling at the kid to do better.   The other times I am just cringing watching him play because he just isn’t very good:

 

Don’t get me wrong, Jack is okay.  He isn’t the worst kid, but he sure runs SLOW.   Plus, you can see how athleticism makes a world of difference in the kids.   Jack has to practice, practice, practice to be ‘okay’.   Some other kids are wild and spastic but they make up for it with quickness and athleticism.

Jack is probably one of the best shooters on the team….but mostly in a catch and shoot situation:

Well hopefully as he gets olds he can find his niche on the court.

Rebound Fail…

Ugh.   It is no secret that I don’t rebound but my crummy rebounding skills coupled with Aya’s non-existent skills equals a Rebounding Fail:

Number 1 fan…

Poor little Stacy.  She gets dragged around to all of Jack’s basketball practices.   Every chance she gets Stacy tries to join in on basketball practice:

 

Stacy even wants to wear Jack’s Laker hat:

Pool…

Jack just cracks me up with the noodle.   I no longer have to be in the water with Jack all the time…but Jack isn’t a good enough swimmer where I can take a nap.  I still have to keep an eye on him.    Noodle jumping:

 

Dead man floating:

 

Giddy-up!!

 

Unicorn style:

 

Ahhh…pool time!!

Summer camp…

This summer we enrolled Jack in the Iverbe Summer Camp at Willows.  

 

Aya took Jack to summer camp on costume day:

 

Summer camp is from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.   Jack gets to run around and play games all day long.   This camp is a ‘sports’ camp which means he is playing most of the day.  A big change for him since normally he has studies all day so this is a nice break for him.   Camp really tires him out because Jack is ready to go to sleep on time and even on weekends Jack just wants to ‘lounge’ and watch tv because he is tired!   At least he is getting into shape over the summer!!

South Bay Aquatics…

Bummers.  Jack was really picking up his swim strokes when we realized we have to take a break from swim class:

 

Jack is one a summer basketball team but the local  team that I want Jack to play has a summer clinic that runs the same time as swim class so we are stopping swim class for a month so Jack can go to two different basketball camps.   Man, we only have one kid in sports but Saturday’s we are driving all over the place.   The morning to Redondo for swim class, back to the westside for basketball, then back home for errands and finally back out to Gardena for basketball.  We are out of the house at 8:30 am and back home around 6:00 pm.

Aunty’s house…

Congratulations to Aunty and Uncle!!  They bought their first house in Gardena.   Hmm.  I just realized I don’t have any pictures of the ‘house’…but when we visited we took a picture outside of their house:

Now we just have to wait for Dawn and Bryan to fix up their house so Jack and Stacy can have a weekend sleep over!!

Me and my shadow…

No matter where Jack goes Stacy wants to follow:

 

Jack doesn’t even have to play or acknowledge Stacy, just as long as she can see him….peace:

Lounging….

Eyes…

Stacy is just so mischievous compared to Jack.   Stacy will open drawers, dig into Aya’s purse, takes my wallet….just basically causes havoc.   One day Aya left her sunglasses out and Stacy got ahold of them…calling them, ‘eyes’.

Now Stacy wants, ‘eyes’:

 

We got her a pair of Elton John style ‘eyes:

 

But she prefers Aya’s ‘eyes’:

Water time…

It starts out nice enough…Jack and Stacy playing together:

 

Then one of them gets a little wet:

 

Then a little wetter:

 

And then just a water fight!

Sadly, we have a loud neighbor that reported us for being too loud in the alley.  Well ‘us’ is really ‘Jack’ because he is running around screaming and making all sorts of noises like a spaz.   Not sure if we will be having any more water fights this summer.

4th of July Part 2…

Hmm, this might be a back up Christmas card!!   It is one of the rare family photos…and rarer that we are all looking at the camera at the same time!!

 

Stacy stayed up for the fireworks show but she thought the ‘boom’ was too loud.

4th of July Part 1…

WHAT?!   Man, I am like a month behind!!   Actually, I post and schedule all my blog updates in advance.   I don’t have as much time to do it regularly so I have to make bulk updates when I have time.   We celebrated 4th of July at my parents house.  Well, actually Dawn and her friends and we tagged along for free food:

 

Aunty and Bryan got Jack some sparklers again:

 

At first Jack was a little scared because right when we got outside, the neighbor had a bottle rocket that went defective and landed in the back of Jack’s hoodie.   Luckily it didn’t explode but it was just ‘hot’ when it landed.  Luckily it missed his face.   In any case, after the first sparkler Jack was back to having fun with some fireworks!

More pool…

Stacy loves to be in the water!  She wants to do everything Jack can do…except she can’t swim!!   We tried putting her in Jack’s old car float but Stacy didn’t like it:

 

Stacy liked being wrapped up in the noodle kicking and holding on to Jack’s water cannon!

Eaters…

Honestly, I think one of the main reasons why Jack likes going to the pool is  that he knows he can swim half the time and eat the other half of the time:

 

Not only does Jack eat but Stacy is a chow hound!   This girl is constantly eating!!   She is an eating machine!!

 

I love this picture because Aya was making this same upside down face in a picture when she was a little girl!

Pool time!!

Jack has really been enjoying the summer at the pool on the weekends.   Jack is trying new ways to lounge on the noodle:

 

Or trying new ways for me to have ‘phallic’ noodle pictures:

 

Of course you have to ‘splash’ Stacy and mom!!

3rd Street Part 2…

Jack and Uncle throwing money into the water fountain:

 

Jack loves to hang out with Uncle:

 

I think Jack had too much fun with Uncle.   Right after this picture Jack went off to the side and said he had to throw up.  That was our queue to head on home for the day.

3rd Street Part 1…

Uncle Su-Chan met us in Santa Monica at 3rd street for lunch:

 

It was our first time visiting the newly remodeled Santa Monica Mall and we were distracted by the giant Smurf!

See it is bigger than it looks!

Stacy…

Stacy seems to be growing up sooo fast!!   So much faster than Jack it seems.  Stacy is 1.5 years old going on 5 just like her big brother Jack.

 

 

Stacy is stringing together two words now, like, “Hi Daddy” or “Bye Daddy”.  Of course her favorite word is still, “No.”   Her favorite words are ‘wow-wow’ for a dog going ‘bow-wow’ and ‘Barlow’ for “Barney”.   She has to take her ‘wow-wow’ and ‘Barlow’ wherever we go!

Tot Lot Slide Part 2…

Whoops…a bit of a facial and then smash-crash time:

Tot Lot Slide Part 1…

Stacy on the ‘baby’ slide doing it herself:

 

Tot Lot…

It really is nice to have the Tot Lot in our complex.  The clean the place every week and most of the time we are the only ones there.  Stacy wants to do everything Jack does:

 

Jack thinks it is fun to slide down together:

 

Stacy loves to go fast: