On April 20, we celebrated five years with Esther. Wow, FIVE YEARS! Five years of watching a curious baby grow into a go-getter five-year-old. Five years of being a family with child(ren). Even though Esther is no longer the oldest, she will always be the one who made us parents for the first time. What a blessing that has been!
For Family Days, we let the star of the day pick a fun family activity. Esther's pick this year was swimming. At first she was not pleased when we made a stop at Walmart on our way to the pool. But then we headed to the swimsuit section to pick her out a new suit, and she was tickled pink! Then on to swimming, in an indoor heated pool. I think we were there for a couple of hours.
Sadly, we didn't get much in the way of good pictures, and the best is one of Daniel and Little Guy that we can't post. (Little Guy was not so sure about this swimming thing. Tim's first attempt at dipping his toes in the water brought him to tears, and he spent a good twenty minutes pouting on a bench before he got so intrigued by Esther and Daniel's enjoyment that he was willing to try again. The second attempt was more successful and he went on to have fun splashing and tossing a floating ball, though he kept his legs wrapped monkey-fashion around whoever was with him. There was a teenage girl also at the pool that day who made fast friends with Little Guy--particularly when Daniel was the one holding him! Ha. Princess missed the whole outing because she was on a family visit.)
Our kids are both making great progress in swimming. We figured out last summer that we were barking up the wrong tree with trying to teach Daniel to swim on top of the water (he sinks like a rock); instead, he has found success learning to swim
under the water! On this outing he swam from one side of the pool all the way to the other without touching bottom or coming up for air. And Esther swam a few feet from Tim to me (or vice versa), also under water. We would love to get them both swimming lessons this summer, because it seems that they're ready to take off!
Last year Esther had wanted to make a cake--specifically, a gluten-free cake! She is not gluten-free but Daddy is, and she has developed a taste for our favorite recipe. However, we never quite got around to making it. So this year I resurrected the plan. We still didn't get the cake made on Family Day, but a few days later Esther got to mix up the batter, and then she and Princess iced and decorated the cake together. We had been talking about how this was Esther's fifth Family Day, so she wanted five candles.
Esther also wanted to pose with Daniel. So sweet! I think it was Daniel's idea to make a heart out of their two hands.
Happy fifth Family Day, Esther Si Di! We are so blessed to be your family!
