Finishing Out the Summer

Caroline had her last week of swim lessons this week.  It was five days a week this week.  Each day she'd tell me, "I love swim."  Just matter-of-fact like.  She did really well.  She's worked on her stamina with freestyle and backstroke to get further across the pool.  I think sometimes curiosity beats out stamina because she likes to stop and see how much longer she has to get to the wall. This week she had to learn the breaststroke kick, which she was not a fan of.  She said it was too hard.  The coach also taught her how to use the swim team clock to leave the wall at specific intervals.  She enjoyed that and really enjoyed her lessons overall.  I wish this organization did swim lessons year round, but most of the coaches are high school and college kids.  Friday was her last day.  As soon as we got to the pool, we heard thunder.  Her class was essentially cancelled.  They told us we could hang around and they'd fit her in the next class or the one after it.  Caroline wanted to swim, so we hung out, but it just kept thundering.  After an hour and a half of waiting, we finally called it a day.  She was really disappointed, but she'll be back next summer.  

Caroline was freaking out a little because there was a giant duck waddling behind her.

The kids have been doing their own Olympics this week. They've dubbed it the 'Ben 'Lympics' because they say Benson is the judge.  Their competitions have included tennis, hurdles, track, cycling, vault, shooting, drawing, pogo stick jumps, and who could climb the door jamb the fastest.  One day they got their CC memory master medals out and used those for gold, silver, and bronze.  In this event, Caroline got bronze.  She was not a proud Olympian.

The kids also wanted to learn about conjoined twins.  After telling them how it happened and looking at pictures of some on the internet, they decided they'd be the first set of conjoined triplets.  

This weekend Todd and I exhausted ourselves with yardwork.  We spent 5+ hours on Saturday cutting down tree limbs and then breaking them down.  We have to have everything bundled in certain size bundles here or the trash guys won't take them.  We were completely spent by Saturday afternoon.  We showered and celebrated with Tex-Mex for dinner.  Sunday, we had to chainsaw the big limbs into smaller pieces.  The kids were all hands on deck to get in on the chainsaw action.    

After church on Sunday, Caroline had a special New In the Pew lunch.  She is entering 3rd grade this fall, which is the age the kids at our church transition from kid's church to 'big' church.  They had a pizza lunch and then walked them to the sanctuary where the pastor talked to them about what it would be like.  The music pastor spoke as well, and had them sing a few songs together.  They are great guys and gave some good advice.  Sing it out.  Stand up (when the parents stand to sing, you stand, too).  Take notes.  While we were there, Todd took the boys to the James Coney Island hot dog place.  Their menu consists of many styles of hot dogs and one hamburger.  Henry got the burger.

We went to a lunch class for jiu-jitsu this week.  The lunch classes tend to be nicer because there are far less kids, so each kid gets in more reps and more individual instruction.  This particular day, they got through everything and we still had 10 minutes left of class.  The instructor decided that each kid could fight him.  He started from sitting position and the kids had to get mount (sitting on top of him in a dominant position).  He went down the line and the kids gave it their best.  Josiah fought first:

Then Caroline:

Then Henry:

After that particular class, the kids washed the car.  There was a bit of car washing and a great deal of slamming their washing mitts into the bucket of soapy water.  Repeatedly.

This is a big week for Josiah.  He starts Challenge A/7th grade.  Last week, he had a Zoom session with his class that they dubbed Week 0.  His director told them what they needed to do before class.  They went through all the books together and she showed them where to find everything.  The kids were all cautiously excited.  Here's to a good start to the school year!