Swimming again

I bet each and every one of you are sitting there thinking to yourself, “Hm.. I wonder what Tessa did today. I wonder if she had a good day or not?” Right?! Admit it, you know you are! Well the answer is…. yes! I had a super busy, but surprisingly good day.

I started volunteering for Good Beginnings again, for the first time since before I had kids of my own! After dropping off my own kids at school today I met my first family and spent the morning holding a 6lb baby who slept peacefully in my arms the whole time. Heaven.

Then off to the photo studio to review our family portraits. I forgot to snap a cell phone pic of the pics, sorry. You’ll have to wait a bit longer. I had low expectations, as you know, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a few nice ones. The woman tried to sell us on everything under the sun (hope no one wanted a stand-up cut-out portrait or a metallic photo book of my family for Christmas this year!) but Alan and I stuck to our one free 8″x10″ and went on our way.

Then it was off to school to volunteer in the library. I was worried this year because the kids both wanted me to volunteer on their library day (as I did last year for Lex) but they have library on different days! I lucked out that it works out best to go on Eve’s day and Lex decided it was fair since I went on his day last year. He is really maturing. More on that below.

Then I picked up the kids and we went to the farm to pick up our CSA share. They ran around like crazy people for awhile. Then home for a quick snack and to pack up the swim bag for another round of swimming lessons! I was worried at this point because we were home and they were tired. This is the one point in my day that could have flipped it from good to bed. But it didn’t! Hurray! They both hopped back in the car and off we went for swim lessons!

snack

Did I mention I let them have ice cream with chocolate syrup for snack?! Good to the last drop. I was just tempting the fates today!

We’re back at Dartmouth for their semi-annual lessons. We’ve been twice before (this spring and last spring) and each time it was a challenge to get Lex into the pool. He loved it, eventually, but day one was always tough. I braced myself today, but he surprised me! He cooperated the entire time. Happy boy all the way there, getting changed, googles on, and down the stairs with the rest of the kids. Happy boy. I saw him sitting on the edge of the pool talking to his instructor for a few minutes while all the other kids were in the pool and I started to get nervous, but it wasn’t long before he was in there too! Showing off his freestyle and flip-turns. I’m so proud of how grown up and mature and brave he is getting. Not always, but more and more often these days.

by the pool

Waiting by the pool for lessons to begin.

Eve hopped right in the pool with her instructor and had a happy lesson. She told me later that she didn’t learn anything new, because she knew how to do everything, except the side breathing that she needs to practice. :) She is a confident girl!

eve

Kickboard girl! It’s hard to take good pictures from the bleachers.

After lessons we headed home and faced another potential turning point, but we all survived. Pancakes for dinner, no showers, pjs, stories, snuggles in bed. Happiness is! Here’s hoping we can manage at this pace for four more days!

reading 1

Lex was apparently in the middle of a good book when I made him pause for lessons. Once he was dressed again he immediately picked it back up.

reading 2

Hahah… he cracks me up. Good thing I was watching where he was going!

Back in the water

After our favorite lake beach was closed due to Hurricane Irene we were forced to find a new swimming place this summer. We did! A real “treasure of an island.” :)

lake

Lake Fairlee

fish

Little fishes

beach

The beach

platform

Elizabeth and Alistair on the floating platform there (totally blanking on the proper word!) Eve and I swam out once too.

snorkel

We finally got to put our snorkels to good use!

walk

We did a little exploring on the little island nearby.

horse shoes

We found a horse shoe pit. Lex was the only one to …. get one. No idea what the proper wording for that is!

silly kids

Silly kids on a stump.

sandy

Tired, sandy kids.

Into the deep pool

When I picked the kids up from swim camp today Lex was super excited to tell me that he went in the big pool today! The big pool is the competition pool that he has so far completely and totally resisted even being near. His teacher said he wore a life jacket, but he didn’t mention that part to me ;) She said it only took a little bit of encouragement and he had a great time. He says he’ll be jumping in again tomorrow! I love that boy!

Sadly I was not there to take pictures :(

Splash Camp

The kids are at Splash Camp this week and SUPER excited! They have been waiting for this for months! There was no delaying or fussing getting out the door this morning. I’m a little nervous about how they are going to do sunscreen and bathing suits and all of that by themselves, but I’m sure they’ll be fine without me. That’s a hard thing to say!

unicorn eve

Unicorn Eve. How else do you start a new week?! Lex is working on a unicorn mask in the background.

campers

Two super excited swimmers! See the hot air balloon in the background? I love this area!

on the benches

They were so eager to join the group I had to stop them and request hugs and kisses. So it begins. Sigh. The girl sitting next to Lex is one of his favorite friends from school. Total coincidence!

I was a little sad to drop them off and leave. Fortunately I have a hot date with my cool car and the Toyota Service Department! Well, I suppose technically my car has a hot date with the service department and I have a long wait in the waiting room. Sigh. Happy Monday!

Summer Heat Wave!

It’s the first day of summer and a heat wave is upon us! The temps reached the high 90s, that I saw, and we returned to a popular pool that we haven’t been to in years! The kids had a blast, I met old friends and new, and we were all exhausted in the end. Tomorrow is supposed to be another hot one, but we have non-pool related plans. I’m sure we’ll be back there again soon though. It’s a great pool!

lex p1

lex p2

lex p3

eve p1

eve p2

Blub, blub, blub…

Under water photo from UVAC

This is actually from last month. I realize you have waited five days for an update then I show up with a photo from last month… but, well, things are busy around here! I just downloaded 114 photos from my camera! Just from the past few days! Geesh. I have to go pick up the kids from school now, but I’ll be back again soon. I promise! :)