Brooklyn's Pageant!

A few weeks back a few friends of mine had suggested I put my little Brooklyn into the pageant that they were having for little girls during the annual Idaho Days over here in Franklin. I sat and stewed around about it then finally decided Brook would totally love it so why not.
The pageant was held Saturday over in the park on a stage that they had put up. She was so excited when she showed up because the stage decor was in PINK! (Brooklyn is the biggest fan of pink!) As I gave her a kiss and left her up behind stage with one of the ladies in charge she started to tear up and her bottom lip stuck out all sad. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "There are a lot of people mom." WOW. I couldn't believe she was getting nervous. She is so brave and does whatever; she literally has no fear at home! I talked to her for a bit, showed her where we'd be sitting and told her she'd do great. After just a minute or so she realized it was okay and stood by a friend she had made there, Lacey.
Here is her group lining up getting ready to start.



At first they had the 3-4 yr olds and the 5-6 yr olds come out on stage together to do their opening dance number. She did some of the right moves, but of course didn't remember 1/2 of them so she sort of did her own dance. She was cute!
Here are a few shots of the dance number I got.




Then they went off and one by one the girls were brought out on stage to do their walk. They had one of the gals from the Idaho Days pagent help them. While they walked the mc introduced them with a short intro I wrote up for her.




When she got to the microphone I just had it wrote that she would say, "I'm Brooklyn Olsen. I'm three years old and I love to dance!" Then she would do a little twirl. However, she just rambled a few things at the beginning; I was afraid I'd have to go up there and stop her from talking. LOL Then she was asked a few questions.
They asked her:
1.What's your favorite animal.
2.Who's your favorite person and why?
3.Why do you want to be a princess?
As Brooklyn answered them, she said:
1."a kitty"
2."My mom because she loves me and plays with me."
3."because they are special and pretty."
She answered them without being shy at all and was so cute up there.




Then she went over and recieved the award she earned earlier that week at day camp. She earned the "most easy going" award and got a small crown and award.
Here she is getting the little crown and a little flower from them for the award.



Finally it came to the end of the group and they were announcing the winners. She ended up getting the 1st attendant and we were so happy!! She did such a great job without getting too shy up there or anything!!
Here are pictures of her getting the sash and crown put on. Then there are some of her up there after. As you can tell by the time my camera was there she was done smiling for people. LOL :)






After it all she kept reaching up touching the crown saying "I'm a princess mom!" LOL She was so stickin excited!! (okay, and so was I of course!)

Here is my little princess all crowned....and tired of smiling! :)



I am very proud of my girl and the hard work it took for her to get up there in front of all those people like a big kid and do her thing!! Now they told us to be prepared to be on a float in the local parades which I think she'll find neat.
Way to go Brooklyn!!! I love you.

Swimming Time

I decided I wanted Ryder to get into swimming lessons this summer. My friend called me and said they had an open spot in the class with her son if I wanted to get in. I decided I better so I did it. I then went to tell Ryder and he was not so thrilled. He asked me if he could take his arm floats with him and I told him he couldn't and boy did he get mad!
**Just a side note so you know......Ryder is NOT a water boy!! He hates getting his head/face wet and will NOT put it under water. If you shower him, he hurries and brushes water out of his face and turns if he can so it's not in his face. We have taken him swimming a few times and it takes us FOREVER to get him to just get in the water where he can touch. (like on the step) Once we get him in he does a death grip around your neck to make sure you won't let go. This is even if he has floats on!**
Anyhow, I finally decided to drop it and not talk about it for a bit. I then had my older sister talk to him because she's building a pool at her house and Ryder said he wanted to go stay with her. SO, she told him he had to learn how to swim before he could come down and then they talked about how fun it was for her when she took swimming lessons. That night Ryder asked Nils and I a few questions about swim lessons and then then told me, "Mom, I guess I will do it. I want you to stay there and watch me though and not leave okay?." Of course I would if it got him to do it. :)
So low and behold Ryder ventured out for swim lessons. He started them on June 6th. He would go Monday-Thursday for two weeks. Not bad I thought. He did the 8AM class though and that ended up being a struggle to get three kids together and ready that early. I talked to my mom and had her keep Brook and Gavin most mornings so I could get him there and stay to watch him. He did pretty good. The first few days he did get in and kneeled in the water, but still did NOT let water get over his head at all. FINALLY, the teacher was able to get him to relax and get more comfy in the water and he would dive down for little animals that she'd throw in there. As time went on, he'd get a little more braver and little more "in" the water messing around.
Well.....by the time he finished I was VERY PLEASED! Ryder was putting his whole body down in the water doing his "turtle" paddles and moving in the water. He floats on his back and on his tummy! He does an "alligator" paddle, he does super man glides, and some thing they were working with that was 'monkey, airplane, rocket' to help him get swimming a little. It was so fun to see him just lay on the water and float!! His head to his ears were in the water and he'd just lounge and he loved it. I was VERY suprised to see him get his face into the water to sit and float on his stomach.
I decided by the time we were done with them that I wanted Brooklyn in there too. So I went out and signed her up too. :) She will start her lessons the middle of July and she is very excited. Nothing scares that girl!
Hope the little slideshow thing works. It's amazing and fun to see Ryder came so far and got so comfy with just 8 lessons!! Can't wait until next year for him to do them again and hopefully advance a little more on things.

This free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

T-Ball

Ryder has started playing T-ball this year. This is his first year and boy has he been excited for it! He totally LOVES playing ball. Getting use to hitting the ball off the T was a bit of a struggle for him for the first little bit though because he was so use to having someone pitch him the ball and he'd hit when we played around here. However, he's gotten the hang of it and does quite well I think.

He is a switch hitter! One time he'll get up to bat and he will bat left handed and then the next time he gets up he will bat right handed. He just does whatever he feels like and when you ask him, "What are you going to bat today? Right or left?" He will look at ya with a shrug of the shoulders and say, "Whatever I want!" Well okay then! LOL So we just let him do his thing and he does whichever. Nils has told me not to discourage him and if he wants to hit both then good for him, so that's what we are doing. He does throw right handed though and has a stronger swing left handed when he bats. Wierd kid. :) We will see if he ends up sticking to one or the other or keeps on switching it up.

He has I think three games left and then we are done and I think it's going to be drama when we are done because he just loves going and playing. He asks me almost everyday how many more days until he has T-ball again.

We are still working on his fielding abilities. A ball gets hit to him and he'll just look at it as if to say "yep, it's by me. What do you want me to do?" If he doesn't do that he'll just sit and look off into la-la land and/or cover his face with his mit! It's qutie hillarious to watch and yet now he is getting better and going after the ball! Sometimes it's hard to watch t-ball for me because they just let everyone bat, no one gets out and it's mostly just to learn the hang of ball. It's fun to go watch him have so much fun though and enjoy himself. I just can't wait until we are on playing baseball with him! :)

Here are some pics I got at one of his games. Enjoy!