tales from a far-land

Madilyn loves to color.  As soon as she wakes up in the morning, after getting dressed, she immediately wants to color or draw.  For each work of art that she creates, she usually has a specific person in her mind who will be the named recipient.  It amazes me how her coloring skills are becoming more and more fine tuned and detailed. She is becoming quite the artist! This morning's masterpiece was given to her teacher, Mrs. Christina. Madi brought this home yesterday from preschool.  She was asked to draw what she wants to be when she grows up.  Who doesn't want to be a mermaid!

Our kids spent the 4th of July week at Grandma and Papa Farrell's cabin in Munds Park, Arizona. The time was spent cruising around in Papa's golf cart, helping with chores around the cabin, racing tricycles around the cabin's deck, taking walks to the bridge, coloring pictures for Grandma, visiting Grandma and Papa's friends, and participating in soccer camp. Soccer camp went very well this year. More smiles than tears.  Each kid participated in their own class.  Aiden thoroughly enjoyed his class full of two and three year olds.  Each day, he put his heart and soul into every practice.  He would fall down and just get right back up and run full force to get the ball.  Madilyn may have enjoyed playing soccer with her fellow four and five year olds, but I think that she enjoyed building flower castles in the field more than running after the ball.  She may not be the next Mia Hamm. The culmination of the week was when the kids were asked to stand on one of the floats

This past summer our kids fell in love with swimming.  Every day when we would pick them up from preschool they would ask if they could go swimming. And although we do not have a pool at our house, we are very lucky to have several venues where our kids could splash and swim.  Our kids took two sessions of swim lessons through the City of Phoenix's Aquatic Program.  Josh and I were very pleased with the program and the kids seemed to really enjoy them as well.  Plus, each time they entered the pool, their swimming skills continued to improve.  In fact, both kids were able to retire their swim water wings by the end of the swimming season.  We are already looking forward to enrolling our kids in swimming lessons again next year. Madi & the pool's mascot before swim lessons Posing Poolside Madi and her swim coach Kick, kick, kick .... Aiden focused on his swim coach Aiden Chillin' at Swim Lessons Aiden in his "official" swim lesson b

Fall has arrived here in Arizona and the Farrell-Landers family cannot believe how fast the summer flew by.  It was fun-filled, but *fast*.  In fact, we must have been so busy making memories, that I didn't even have time to blog for the past couple of months.  Don't worry.  There will be several subsequent blog posts to get everyone caught up on our antics.  However, in the meantime, here are some of the memories that were created this past summer: A summer filled with lots and lots of swimming.  Our kids are turning into good little swimmers. The kids spent a week with Grandma and Papa Farrell at the cabin attending soccer camp. Aiden decided to master the art of pottying on the toilet. Aiden also turned three years old in August and enjoyed his Spider-Man party. A weekend trip to see our kids' great-grandparents in Laguna Woods, California. An end of the summer week-long vacation to Coronado Island, California. A weekend visit to Grandma