Adventures in bike riding

Every summer, we have enjoyed taking the kids for bike rides. We take them to the park, or around Zorinsky lake, or wherever our hearts desire. This year, however, we haven't gone on a single bike ride. And that is because the kids have outgrown the bike trailer that they normally sit in together and Mike tows behind his bike. And since Briana isn't quite ready to ride her own bike on that long of a bike ride, Mike has been thinking about getting a new kind of bike trailer for his bike. He was able to borrow this one from a friend to see how the kids like it before he bought one of his own.

Needless to say, the girls LOVED riding on it. We may have to buy two of these now so they don't fight over it.

I love Sheryl Crow

Mike and I got back from our trip to St. Louis yesterday. We went for four days and left the kids with Mamaw and Papaw (Thank you, thank you, thank you!!) We had so much fun there, but the highlight of the trip at least for me, was the Sheryl Crow concert we went to.

The other highlight of the trip was our helicopter tour. That's right, I went in a helicopter. I was pretty scared at first, but once we got going, it wasn't scary at all. It was quite fun.

The trip was great. Mike and I are now planning to go on a trip by ourselves once a year.

Swimming Lessons

After Sydney's success with swimming lessons on Tuesday, Briana decided that she, too, would like to take them. So I got her signed up for today with the same teacher Sydney had. Sydney's lesson was first, and she did great! I remembered her goggles this time, and she put her face in the water 4 times! And she floated all by herself. Yay!!

Here she is floating like a starfish.

First attempt at putting her face in the water.

Look at that!!! Face all the way in the water!

Here's a movie of her floating:

And here's a movie of her practicing her kicking.

Lesson #2 for Sydney: a success!!

After waiting for the longest half an hour of her life, it was finally Briana's turn. She did really, really great!

Here she is floating.

Doing the backstroke.

Jumping in- her favorite part of the lesson!

And here's some awesome movies I took of my fishie swimming!

She learned a ton of stuff at her lesson, including the freestyle, backstroke and butterfly kick. Her teacher had her swimming laps across the pool, and Briana was doing really good. She also learned how to take a breath while she was swimming without stopping. She absolutely LOVED her lesson, and can't wait to go back!

Roar

Briana had her friend Emma over to play today. The girls begged me to paint their faces like tigers. Thanks to YouTube, I found a very easy video telling me exactly what to do. They turned out very cute.

Adding to the excitement...

Sydney had her very first swimming lesson today! She was kind of nervous, and didn't really want to go this morning, but I promised her that she would be staying in the shallow end of the pool where she could touch, and her teacher would hold on to her whenever she needed her to. She went, and got in the pool and did awesome!!

Here she is playing a game where she gets to pretend she is any kind of tree (she picked apple tree) and her teacher chops her down. Then she falls (timber!) into the pool.

Here she is pretending to be a big ice cream scooper (actually doing the freestyle stroke).

Hands out in front of her practicing kicking laps.

Here Sydney is--oh wait! That's not Sydney, it's a starfish!!

There's the starfish again, this time in the shallow end.

She did so great, and she loved it! She wants to go back every day, and she told me she wants me to sign her up for swimming lessons every time they do them. Yay!! I'm so proud of her!!

Exciting Day In The Reif House!!

Exciting things are happening around here this morning! Tacky has moved to a new shell!!!

He is now in his doggie shell. This is so exciting, because we have been waiting for Tacky to do this since we got him.

Briana is a very proud hermit crab mommy!

Marshmallow Pops

Look what we made today! They are marshmallow pops. We put marshmallows on skewers and dipped them in chocolate and vanilla almond bark. Then added sprinkles. The girls really liked making them. I haven't tried one yet, but Briana and Sydney both said they are delicious.