Swimming lessons

Xander is going to camp for three weeks and will get to go swimming every day, so we decided to sign Jordis up for some swimming lessons. Neither of our kids have had any instruction before, so we had no idea what to expect. We've never even been to the pool here. It was a beautiful morning and Jordis was all smiles sitting on the ledge waiting for class to start.

Then they called her name and she wanted NOTHING to do with it. Jason was quick to grab her before she got too far, but she made a valiant effort to try and drag him out to the parking lot. Unsuccessful, she put her head down as all the other children went around the circle introducing themselves. After the teacher pretended to be interested in her Tinkerbell beach towel Jordis reluctantly went with her as the last child to enter the pool. She still had the scowl on her face for the first 10 minutes or so into class.

She did some more pondering after they moved to deeper water, but eventually participated in some leg kicking and jumping off the side of the pool.

She was excited after she high-fived the teacher and was allowed to exit the pool.

And then of course our Daddy's Girl ran to her favorite guy. She doesn't like him best, he just had her towel. That's what I tell myself. :-)

July 4th

To celebrate Independence Day this year we went back to Tennessee for a long weekend. Jason's brother had four days off but the Army would only let him travel so far, so we decided to go to them instead. We took turns having girls day and guys day. My sister-in-law and I spent a really fun day together....clothes shopping, lunch, winery tour/tasting, more shopping and coffee.

The guys spent a day fishing. I have no idea why or how they had matching shirts.

The kids went fishing, too.

We all went out for a very hot and muggy evening of beautiful fireworks over the Cumberland River.

See the little faces in those windows? That's the jail. I guess if there's such a thing as having a prime cell, these people have it.

We dressed up the kids

There were lots of afternoons in the water with popsicles.

And in Tennessee it's legal to buy and set off your own fireworks, so we had our own fireworks show two nights in a row. Jason and Jeremy tried to pretend they bought the fireworks for the kids, but in the end we all knew that when they said kids they were referring to themselves. The pink smoke was for the little girls, though.

Of course on the way home we had to stop in Newport, Kentucky to eat dinner at Pompilio's. Yum, Italian!

Parental Celebrations

So I'm a little behind with my posts for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Yes, I realize it's now mid-July, but I figured better late than not at all.

For a long time now I've been wanting to go to the paint-your-own pottery store to make a family birthday plate. I thought it would be a neat tradition for the birthday person at our house to get to use it on their special day. My mom's group went there for an outing but I knew I'd never have time to complete one, so I ended up making this plate....

I love it, but it doesn't fulfill the purpose I needed, so for Mother's Day my mom and I went to a different pottery store to each make something. We had lots of fun painting as we drank big fountain Coke's and ate Arby's. No one at my house likes Arby's so sometimes it's my special treat to eat when I'm with my mom. My mom made a plate to match her kitchen and I made my birthday plate. It took me 6 long hours, but I'm happy with the result. It takes a lot of coats to get that paint dark.

The kids made each of their grandmas a decoupaged vase and we went to Jason's parents for a cookout. Jason and the kids also made me breakfast in bed. I forgot to take pictures of all that. I remembered to take pictures of these though.....

For Father's Day the kids painted some canisters and we made all the grandpas some cinnamon-sugar popcorn.

We went to dinner for gyros with my step-dad and mom and then Jason's parents, his sister and boyfriend and my dad and step-mom came for a cookout. Jason treated himself to some private fishing time and the kids and I made him a few gifts.

Not sure where we're going to put the stepping stone, but I made sure it was LSU colors.

June no more

Where has the time gone? The first week of July is already over. Here's a quick summary for the end of June.....

The kids made their own kites. Out of coloring book pages and yarn. On a day with absolutely no wind. As Xander would say, we like to be "resourceful" here by using what we have on hand.

We have a garden this year. If you could call it that. It's about a 5' x 5' square Jason tilled for me that I filled with WAY too many plants. I have a LOT of lettuce, so I decided we'd have taco salad one night. There might be other vegetables out there as well, but if so I can't find them.

The kids went to a birthday party for our neighbor, Megan. It was a candy-themed party and the kids were super excited that I let them eat a bunch of yummy junk food. Xander's girlfriend was there AND he won a game. It was a banner day for him.

We've had out the pool.

Jordis hid from the camera, as usual, though getting creative this time in her escape. I thought I had her cornered on my mom and step-dad's porch, and then she just climbed right up on their garden hose reel.

Yep, that about sums up the end of the month. July is super-busy, so stay-tuned.