Swimming Lessons

The girls didn't have swimming lessons last summer. So this year I knew they needed some. We went back to a lady that we used the summer before last, Ms. Nancy. She's really good. I've had them in group lessons at the rec. center and in private lessons. I've learned that we definitely get more bang for the buck with private lessons! So, they each had 5, 30 minute lessons. They did great. I was very proud of them. She uses the neighborhood pool, so there are other kids swimming and playing all around them while they are having their lessons. They did a great job of staying focused and working hard the entire 30 minutes. Because I'm the mom, I do have to say that Ms. Nancy kept bragging on what good workers and listeners they were. She kept telling me that she usually doesn't have a lot of students that don't whine and actually try to make the changes in their strokes that she's explaining. I asked her if she would come home with me!

Anyway, Grace is swimming really well now. I would like to see her learn the strokes better but she's doing a great job. She can play in the deep end of the pool now by herself. (I'm right there just in case though.) And Lyla is doing really well too. She mainly swims under water with a breast stroke pull to get where she's going but she can play in deep water too. Her treading ability is getting stronger too.

Ms. Nancy has them draw a picture in her scrapbook at the end of the 5 lessons and she takes a picture of them to put on the page with their drawing. She also gives each of them a swimming medal with their name engraved on the back. They really liked that.

Next year they will either need to be on a swim team or take some more lessons to really learn the strokes but for now, they are good to go swimming at any pool!

A visit with Laura and Zoe

Laura and Zoe came to visit last week. Zoe had fun learning from the big girls and the big girls had fun playing with Zoe. Here are some pictures of our visit

Zoe learning to color with G and L. She was really more interested in carrying them around the house. Laura, she needs an art table to stimulate her creativity, don't you think??

The pool was the other big hit with Zoe. She loved the little slide and wanted to go again and again.

She kept putting her whole face in the water to get a drink.

This was right after she came up for air.

That Friday night Stephanie, Greg and the kids came over for pizza. Stephanie showed off her back handspring on the trampoline. We were all very impressed she could still do this so easily.

Claire kept spraying me with the water bottle when I would try to get a picture of her.

This was the best picture I got of little Claire Bear. Wish there wasn't a cup growing out of the top of her head!

Grace showing her long legs

Poor Zoe (I should really say poor Laura) got woken up by the big kids after Laura had already gotten her to sleep for the night. Zoe would not go back to sleep! Here she is listening to a bedtime story with Eric. Poor Laura was up past midnight I think with this little stinker!

But, Mama, I'm not even tired!

The next morning the girls shared milk while watching cartoons.

I taught Zoe to say "cheese" when I took her picture. She's saying "cheese" in this picture.

Come visit anytime Miss Zoe!

Lyla's at 5 years old

This is Lyla at her 5 year check-up. All she had to do was get a finger prick, besides the normal height, weight, and exam. She chose to have her 5 year old shots last year and "get them over with". So, that made things much easier this year. Grace was a very sweet big sister. She was just as concerned about Lyla getting shots, if not more, than Lyla was. She talked Lyla through the whole visit and patted and loved on her to comfort her. There was really no reason for me to even be in there! Here are her stats:

Weight: 36.5 lbs (27th percentile)
Height: 42.75 inches (57th percentile)

Lyla at 5 years old...She's funny, spunky, very active and adorable. She is still attached to me and cries most nights for me to sleep in her bed with her. She loves Grace and wants everything to be exactly fair between them. If one gets something, the other has to. If I compliment Grace, I have to compliment Lyla. If she gets in trouble, she wants Grace to get in trouble too, even if Grace didn't do anything. She's very athletic and can run very fast. She can also hit a baseball really well! She bats righthanded even though she's lefthanded. She says really funny things a lot of times and has a cute "secret handshake" with Eric. She's fearless and is doing really well swimming this year. She's very stubborn and has trouble following directions. Her first reaction when she gets mad is to hit or kick. We're working on that! She still will not wear dresses, anything pink, or anything with something "girly" on it (like a ruffle, sparkle, flower, etc.) We're working on that too! She did great in pre-k this year and her teachers say she always follows directions and gets along great with friends! (too bad we don't see all of that at home) She'll be in kindergarten in the fall.
Here is a little Q & A session with Lyla...(these are her direct quotes)
Favorite color: blue and red and yellow
Favorite food: sweet and sour chicken
Favorite thing to play: play superheros with Fordie
Favorite show: Tom and Jerry
What do you want to be when you grow up: zoo keeper
Why? It will be fun
What are you good at? ride my bike really fast
What do you think about starting kindergarten? kind of sad
Why? B/c Ford's not going to be there
What belt are you in karate? camouflage orange
How is 5 years old different then 4 years old? B/c you have to do more work
What kind of work? Like, harder work
What do think about your big sister? great...I love her
What makes you mad? When Grace hits me. When I can't go over to a friends' house.
Do you think you follow directions well? not all the time
Why not? I don't know
What do you think about me? You're hilarious...you work on the computer sometimes...
What do you think about dad? He plays with us a lot...he plays with Elye
What do you think about the world we live in? pretty amazing
What's amazing about it? I'm glad that Ford lives in here.

That's our Lyla!

First swim of the season

Grace and Lyla LOOOOOOVE to swim! If we had a pool in our backyard I believe they would swim from morning until night. They have been counting down until the Rec. Ctr. pool was going to open. I'm not kidding when I say they asked me almost every day during May! So, once it finally opened we headed over there one Sunday after church. Here are just a few pictures. Lyla is able to go down the slide now and swim to the side by herself! Grace is getting so good too. She can tread water and wants to swim in the deep in all the time. I'm still not comfortable with letting her swim without me or Eric down there yet though. So, I'm sure there will be many more swimming pictures to come this summer. This is just the start...

I've been busy...

Here are a few of the canvases I've done in the past several months. I'ven had several larger canvases and a few that were quite different than my normal name and verse boards. They take a WHOLE lot longer to do but they sure do make an impact in a room when they're finished. They are 24x18. My "normal" ones are 10x14.

This one was for Julie. It's 24x18. I loved the brown and blue and the subtle polka dots.

I think this one was 24x18 too, or maybe a little bigger. I can't remember and I didn't write it down. This one was a challenge. She wanted me to write all of the messages that people at a baby shower had written down for the mother-to-be. It turned out cute but it was tricky to place all of those messages evenly and keep them all the same size.

A person brought me this canvas that someone else painted. She had it in her little boys room. She had just delivered her second son and wanted one to match for her new little boy. I have to say, I think my is cuter than this one.

Here is the one I painted.This was for my friend Joanna. I love the look of the chocolate brown and white letters but I won't do this again. The white letters were extremely hard because my paint pens, which I use for the lettering, wouldn't cover the brown and I had to do several (like 6) coats with a tiny little paint brush.

This is the 10x14 size that I usually do.

This was 24x18 too. These next two were for a friends' mother-in-law. These are verses that I've never done before but I should probably hang in my house.

This was for a baby that was named "True". I thought that was a cool name.

I also did the picture mattes for preschool again this year. I haven't taken a picture of them. They turned out nice. I haven't hung one in my house yet, of course. I really need to paint some for myself.