Birthday Girl!

 We've got a 9 year old in the house!  It's hard to believe that this little girl will hit double digits next year.  And yet, she looks so old in some of these pictures.  She's not our little monkey girl anymore.

 Celebrations started on Friday, with family presents.  Bean had opened swim flippers from her Rara that morning which she put to good use in the pool after swim practice (when she could keep ahold of them--all the kids at the pool were pretty excited to try them out.)  That night, she got to open the rest and now has a couple new crafts to try, a couple books (one is an old favorite, the other written and illustrated by Bug) and new Legos because it wouldn't be a gift giving occasion if there weren't Legos.

Then we had some cake and ice cream.  I didn't actually decorate a cake for her this year because the big cake event was coming up the next day for her party, and I was off the hook for that.  But she grabbed a Lego elephant to top the cake.

 Saturday, it was time for an ARTastic party.  All the girls (we were still waiting for our friend, L, to come). 

 First up, they go to do a little name painting.  We taped out their names with painters tape,

then they painted over/around them and when the paint dried, we pulled off the tap and they were left with a personalized painting.

 L makes the best photo faces--we love this kid.

 Then, it was on to a more active painting project.  A couple types of textured balls and some pans of paint with a blank canvas just waiting to be decorated.

 Some hair and clothing may have also been decorated, but it was washable paint.

 The finished product looked pretty cool.  It will make a great canopy or tent for backyard play.

 Finally, after lunch, the kids got to decorate their own cakes.  I thought it was pretty brilliant of me to get out of doing the cake this year, and I was saved from the stress that usually occurs the hour before the party when I can't get the frosting quite right.  But I'd forgotten that I only have one 6" cake pan, so it took a long time to bake 8 cakes, and I still had to make all the frosting and do a base layer for each one, so I'm not sure this was as hands off for me as I'd been thinking.

 The kids had a blast, and their final masterpieces were appropriately disgusting for 9 year old designed cakes.  I don't even like to think about all that sugar they put on top.

 Bean swears that Skittles on the cake taste great.  I broke our no artificial colors rule because I haven't figured out how to dye frosting good colors yet, so I figured I might as well go all out.

And this picture perfectly captures what they party was like for Peanut.  All these girls, fighting over him.  He alternately loved the attention, and ran to hide in my legs.

Bug, on the otherhand, had no leg hiding.  He is a total ham when he has an audience, and there were enough people around to send him into overdrive.  He's loud anyway, but oh my goodness, I think he reached a whole new level on Saturday.

And now our Bean is 9.  She's silly, and smart, creative, and thoughtful, kind, and hardworking, strong, determined, and imaginative.  Just 9 adjectives that describe our 9 year old girl.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!

Swim Meet!

 First swim meet of the season and these two fish rocked it!  It wasn't quite as traumatic as last year's first meet.  Bug was a little nervous because it was his first meet ever, and he wasn't feeling very confident about his freestyle skills, but he handles the pressure a little better than his sister did.

 And he did great!  He's working on his dives, can make it across the pool without stopping, which he couldn't come close to doing 3 weeks ago, and is loving being part of the swim team.

 He swam two races last night--25 m freestyle and part of a 100 m freestyle relay.  His relay team came in second, and he won his heat for the freestyle race.  We'll find out tomorrow how well he did overall.

 And Bean swam 5 races-- 100 m. freestyle relay, 25 m freestyle, 25 m. breast stroke, 25 m. butterfly, and the breaststroke leg of the 100 m. medley relay.  We'll find out her official times tomorrow, but by our timer, she has shaved about 10 seconds off most of her times from last year, and closer to 15 off her butterfly time. 

Breaststroke is still her favorite.  And she's good at it--she was already out of the pool before anyone else had even touched the wall.  She does have the age advantage--this is the sport where a June birthday comes in handy and this year she gets to be the oldest in her age bracket, but she's also been working hard on her strokes and it shows.

Love watching these kids put everything into something and seeing their faces when they achieve a goal.

Springtime Baby

Daddy-o found a little surprise in the bush he was trimming this weekend.  A nest with a very little baby bird.

Unfortunately, he had already cut back a lot of the branches around the nest before he realized what it was, and then, with the heavy rain, the nest ended up at a precarious angle and the bird was on the ground Monday morning.  Daddy-o replaced it and tried to straighten the nest a little, but this morning, this is what I found.  Poor little birdie bracing himself so he didn't tumble out.  The mama was trying to stay with him, but I don't think that she was really helping.  I managed to put a stick under as a support and get the whole thing level, and mama bird still came back, so now we'll just hope that it all stays put until this little guy gets his feathers in and learns how to fly.

Last Day of School!

 

Can't believe how much these kids have grown this year!  And I'm a little surprised that we survived this last year.  It was far from easy, and there are a lot of things I'd do differently if we were going to keep homeschooling, but I guess that means that I learned, too!

 

Last day was spent at swim practice, and then the kids had their last science class at Discovery Place.  After class, we hung out with our friend, L. in the new exhibit--Animal Grossology.  All about the gross smells, sounds, blood and guts of animals.

The kids had a blast with the hands on aspects.

Peanut was pretty excited by the really big bird.

I think we succeeded in having a fun last day.  We met up with Daddy-o after work and went to dinner and for ice cream before heading home.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Just last week, we got almost 6 inches of rain.  That's more rain than we got some years that we lived in San Diego.  And while most of that came in one very heavy storm, it still felt like it was a very rainy week.

On top of making it hard to get out of the house, and causing swim meets and practices to be cancelled, we're afraid all this rain is starting to cause some issues with our house--rotting siding, sinking foundation--not sure this house is going to hold up if this keeps up!  One of the hazards of living in the south.

Just Keep Swimming

Swim team is in full swing.  We had a fundraiser Lap-a-thon on Friday night to make money for much needed equipment.  Our two crazy fish swam 16 (Bug--using a kickboard the last 8 laps) and 20 (Bean) laps that night.  I didn't know they had it in them, but there is a little competitive spirit between these two.  And considering that Bug couldn't make it across the pool 3 weeks ago, I'm very impressed with his new skills.

The party ended up being continued the next night because of a massive thunder storm that rolled in before everyone had finished.  They decided to call the laps at Friday night's total for money purposes, but let the kids have a contest just to see who could be the last one swimming in each age group.  There were only a few kids from each this time, and after about 15 minutes, our two kids were the only ones left in their lane.  They kept pushing for a few more minutes and then finally had the idea that they could both finish at the same time and split the prize.  I think they were completely worn out by this point, but neither one wanted to quit and let the other one win.

  It was a proud Mama moment to see them team up and both touch the wall for the last lap together.  And the same thing eventually happened in each of the age groups so they just gave the 6 winners a $5 gift card to the snack shack.  My kids are overjoyed that they can finally get ice cream after practice without having to ask me ('cause last year, I only said yes once.)

First swim meets this week!

Good Ole' Murphy

Why is it . . .

      when you finally get around to changing the sheets, someone wets the bed that night?

      when you run into the grocery store for a lemon you need for dinner, you see a woman leaving     with what turns out to be the last two bags of lemons?

     the one time you wait in line for stamps at the post office instead of using the machines, they are completely out of anything besides the regular flag ones?

    

Post Game Wrap Up

 Bug has found his sport.  He loves T-ball and I think it helps that he got to play with 4 of his friends.  (Also made it fun for us to go to the games so we could hang out with the families.)

Last game, Bug got two hits off coach pitch (no tee for him this game!) and had a couple great plays at third base, including stopping a hopper.

 I think Daddy-o enjoyed helping out the coaches this year, too.  One of our friends ended up getting roped into coaching and since she doesn't really know baseball, she recruited her dad and several parents to assist.

And this little guy loved cheering everyone on at the games.  He'd yell, "Run! Run!" and clap enthusiastically for everyone.

The only one I didn't get a picture of was Bean with her notebook.  This age group, they don't keep score, but she became the unofficial scorekeeper for the games.  All the kids would come over afterwards to find out how they did, and the coaches, sometimes, too.

I think we'll be back at the ball fields next spring!