Thursday, August 04, 2011

Trucks, Butterflies, and Swimming

Since we aren't taking a vacation this summer, we're trying to do as much fun stuff in town as we can. Brian's been taking some "staycation" days and we're trying to cram as much fun as possible into the warm season. We've also done a couple of special outings with each kid on his/her own. (Except for Luke, who really prefers to stay home anyway)

Brian took David to a truck event in which he was able to realize his dream: climbing into and out of and pretending to drive every kind of vehicle imaginable. The pictures speak for themselves.

We had touted this as a "boy trip" for our family, so when they got there, David said, "I'm going to tell Mommy that there are girls here."

The only thing better than driving a big rig is doing it with your BFF Frank and his cutie sister.

A hot day for trucks.

Brian said the horns were blowing NON-STOP.

A fork-lift!



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In keeping with gender stereotypes, I took Katy to see the butterflies at the local conservatory. She's been very interested in butterflies lately and has a great library book from National Geographic right now. She was thrilled with this outing, and equally thrilled when we got sundaes from McDonald's afterward and went shopping for a clearance bathing suit. I love a girly day!

She tried really hard to find all the different types!

And she REALLY wanted one to land on her.


You weren't supposed to touch them, but she tried to get as close as possible just in case one accidently decided to rest on her finger. It only happened for a moment.
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Finally, I can't finish up summer without mentioning how much we have loved our neighborhood pool this year! I have always wanted to get into the habit of going consistently throughout the summer (2 times a week or so), but have never made it happen in the past. This year we have and it's been great family time in the evenings. I love running into other families that we know and the kids are making great progress in learning to swim. Luke is a NUT in the water. He just crawls until his face is under water and you rescue him. He's wild and he loves it.

The big kids are in lessons this week, so I was able to take the camera and get a few shots. They moved Katy up a level and I'm a nervous wreck! She's by far the smallest and least-developed swimmer. She's the only one who can't touch and clings to the wall the whole time. But she's swimming several body lengths under water and learning to dive and tread and I think she's doing great. It's just anxiety-provoking for me. (what isn't?)

The goggles mostly stay on David's forehead.

So proud of himself - and what an improvement from spring!

She's a serious swimmer now.

Countless trips down the slide!

Three weeks until kindergarten, four until preschool...let the countdown begin.

2 comments:

Weed said...

Looks like David had a blast! I took Rachel several years ago and I remember the constant honking. She was pretty scared.

So jealous of your pool loving kiddos! Wish we had a close pool so Rachel could learn to love it, too. I grew up with a pool in our yard, so that's how I spent every summer. I wish I could do the same for my own girls.

Kelsey said...

It's HARD watching them learn to swim! So much beginning swimming is barely distinguishable from drowning!