Now that the girls have finished their first session of swim lessons, they're pretty sure that they know everything there is to know about swimming. While they might think that they're future Olympians, Mom's not quite convinced that we're even moderately water competent yet, so we'll be doing another session of lessons towards the end of the summer. But they did make good progress during their first session, and had a lot of fun.
Day 1: Abby's a little nervous about entering the water. I didn't realize how prophetic this moment would be. We spent the first week convincing her that she needed to actually try things in class and not just refuse to participate. By the end, though, she was splashing around and playing with the other kids, no problem.
Working on her kicks, but still not in the water
Getting brave - working on her back float
Playing Mr. Fox - and being so brave!
Nora's my fearless girl - she never had any hesitation about getting into the pool. In fact, on the first day, she screamed the whole way home because she didn't want to be done swimming yet.
Marching to the pool with her noodle
Learning how to put her face in the water
Jumping in (ignore the old lady water aerobics class)
To celebrate the end of lessons, we went out for lunch and ice cream yesterday. I told Adam he was lucky that he wasn't with us - they made such a huge mess!
It was too cold inside, so we moved outside to enjoy the ice cream. Unfortunately, that made it melt faster.
The theme for Father's Day 2013 was the grill. The grill itself was sort of my Father's day present to myself so I'd like to think that all the delicious food I made was my present to the family - in reality it was probably more like another present to myself though. At any rate, we grilled for every meal. For breakfast we had egg sandwiches with grilled sausage, grilled doughnuts with chocolate dip, and fruit.
We took the girls to church where they colored some awesome Father's day pictures (and got me a sweet camo #2 pencil present). They probably learned something profound about dads and fatherhood, but if they did they promptly forgot, but I did get a sweet leather hide apron for grilling.
After lunch we took some Father's day pictures, talked to Grandpa VanDuyne, and the girls and I took a Father's day nap. Post nap we shared some Father's day popsicles while Mom talked to Papa, and Dad taught Nora a valuable lesson in why we hold a popsicle by the stick (and subsequently why we don't poke our own eyes when we have melted popsicle syrup all over our hands).
We had a great dad themed meal of slow grilled roast beef and grilled banana splits, technically the banana splits had to be used as leverage for the girls to eat their beef.
Blu cheese sauce, Grandma VanDuyne would be proud.
Just for the record, the A1 is for the barbecued tofu, it was not needed for the beef.
We capped the day off with an evening saunter to a nearby park (and some Father's day bourbon for Dad). All told, it was a great day.
One emerging spring tradition for our family seems to involve Abby and Mom going to birthday parties without the rest of us - or as Dad likes to call it his annual, 'Nora Date'. I'm sure as Nora starts preschool this occasion will pass but for the moment I really enjoy it.
This year Nora got her hair done (in two braids) and Dad shaved, so we were both looking our best. Nora gets to pick what we do so from 11 - 1 we:
1) Ate goldfish and fruit snacks
2) Played outside
3) Read about princesses
4) Had pop-tarts for lunch
5) Went for a walk
6) Read more about princesses
7) Read about time traveling tree houses
8) Took a nap (okay Dad picked this one)
It was a lot of fun, but that kiddo is high energy all the time.
Then school comes around just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend it
Our summer hasn't been quite as eventful as an episode of Phineas & Ferb yet, but we've been having fun so far. Last week was our first official week of summer vacation (ballet got extended a week because of a cancellation earlier in the year.)
On Monday, the girls helped me bake cookies. At the grocery store they decided that peanut butter chips were more fun than chocolate chips, so we made chocolate peanut butter cookies. On Tuesday we took most of them to the church for their cookie baking ministry (and I was repeatedly asked, "But we saved some for us, right? We still get some, right?" Those kids just don't trust me.) Then since we were out that way, we decided to visit a new (to us) park.
On Wednesday, since we didn't have to rush off to ballet, we stayed for storytime at the library. Abby thought that was just about the best time ever! Nora doesn't like to sit with the other kids in the middle of the circle - she usually sits on my lap and frowns at the other kids - but Abby joined right in. She sang the songs, did the dances, and shouted out answers to questions with the rest of them. It was quite a change from when we used to schedule our library visits so that there would be as few kids around as possible. Preschool has been so good for her!
Thursday was pretty exciting. Abby's friend Evie had a birthday party at iPower, a gymnastics school, and as part of the party they gave all the kids passes to come back during open gym time. So on Thursday, we headed over to play during open gym. The girls had so much fun! There were actually a couple of classes going on at the same time that we were there, so they loved watching the "big girls" and trying to follow them. One of the classes was working on balance beams, so that was something both of the girls just had to try.
Nora thoroughly enjoyed the foam block pit. She spent quite a bit of time in there, burying herself in blocks.
Abby worked on her bravery while we were at the gym. She kept climbing up on top of this big foam block and getting too scared to come down by herself. But she kept trying, and before we left she was brave enough to slide down all by herself.
Friday was National Doughnut Day, so we went to Dunkin' Donuts for a doughnut snack. Those girls sure love sprinkles!
Saturday was Abby's friend Julia's birthday party. Julia is a big fan of Fancy Nancy, so she had a Fancy Nancy themed party. It was a fabulous party, and Abby had a great time.
Looking fancy for the party - fancy dress, hair in braids, fancy pose
They were so excited to have braids!
Showing off her fanciness at the party - nails painted at the spa, earrings and flower purchased at the boutique, necklace made by herself.
Nora and Adam had a fun Dad/Nora date while Abby and I were at the party - I think Adam's already written an update about that.
In other Saturday excitement, Adam got to inaugurate his new gas grill. He's been waiting six years for a gas grill, so he's pretty excited about it. We had Saturday dinner, Sunday breakfast, and Sunday dinner all cooked on the grill.
The grill master at work!
Today was our first day of swimming lessons. We go Monday - Thursday for the next two weeks. I'm sure I'll have an update about that when we're done, but for now I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of day 1.
The girls and I were out playing this afternoon (well they were playing, I was sitting). They really been enjoying the swing set this spring, which is awesome, we've been out almost every evening after dinner. I took a few videos to document the growth in their coordination skills, which as you can see still could use some work. That's all right though, we've got a whole spring and summer to work on it.
