Swimming and make believe!

Hello there!
Just a few quick pics of Benson and Claire at swimming lessons.

Claire was the youngest there and the awesomest. Benson was the awesomest swimmer for sure and Claire was just the awesomest.... especially the day that I was rushed and forgot to grab her actual swim suit.
It's like...'Earth to Sarah'?
(isn't that such a classic line? Try it on someone today!)

So, she swam in her tank top and a swim diaper. Pretty ghetoo. This also happened to be the one day I remembered to bring my camera.

Of course.

The Face going under and floating...

Both classes. Benson's class is on the left and Claire on the right. She opted to wear her sunglasses instead of the goggles I got for her.

Benson actually learned a lot of stuff! He can swim to a certain extent and loves diving for toys.

The Face jumping off the diving board

The Beast jumping off the high dive... his teacher is so far away because Benson now can jump in and swim to the ladder all by himself!!

After lessons walking back to the car. They loved their week at swimming lessons!

My kids are entering the world of make believe!

The Face loves dress up and princess stuff... well, baby stuff more than princess stuff at this point. She is starting to always have to have something on when she leaves the house.
A tiara usually is the winner as I prefer not letting her go out in the princess shoes and princess dress. I know those days are coming when she'll insist on it.

The Beast is at a whole different level.
He is OBSESSED with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and I mean obsessed. Below you can see the swords Ben made for him out of paint stirrers and tape. He LOVES them. For the longest time he was using little Lego pretending they were swords (see picture below) but they kept breaking.
He keeps his swords crossed in the back of his underwear like so. And then when he fights he whips them out.

His outfits have really gone through a wide variety of components.
He is always Leonardo so it's all blue. I'm April... and he calls me April almost all the time. I'm not sure when to make him stop doing that.

Here he is practicing his ninja moves. And here are the old tiny Lego swords that he made himself and couldn't do anything with except constantly put them back together.
OH-- and every moment we're home, he's in his underwear "because turtles don't wear clothes."

This is my first experience with my child truly imagining he is another character basically 24/7. So far we're successful in having him be Benson for church on Sundays.
Like I said, I'm April and Ben is Raphael. He insists that Claire can't be a Ninja Turtle. It's sad but Claire' isn't broken up about it.


We knew we were in something serious the other night when Ben was kissing Benson good night and said, "Good night Benson, I love you."

Benson whispered back, "Actually, it's Leo," (saying "Wee-o")

and then added, "I love you, too, Raph".
Ben and I closed the door and died laughing!