Summer Break

We had such a nice summer break this year. In the weeks leading up to the end of school, the girls had a hard time with fighting/arguing a lot. So when school let out, I sat them both down and we made a plan for the summer. We talked about what was going to be expected from them each day. At the top of that list was that fighting was not going to be allowed this summer. At the time, I was just hoping that maybe we would get a day or two of peace from this rule, but to my amazement it has stuck throughout the whole summer. Not that there has never been arguing, but I just call out to them, "Remember girls, we are not fighting this summer." And we have gotten pretty good results from this.

It also helps that I laid out exactly what we were going to do schoolwork-wise and chore-wise every day. It really does help everyone be happier when they have some structure to their day. Although, I am sure they would insist that they would be happier if they could do whatever they wanted 100% of the time. In reality though, that leads to arguments and grumpy kids/mommy.

We still had lots of time for play though. There was lots of arts and crafts time. One day the girls were painting (paint blots were a big hit this summer) and the paper towel Eliza was using to clean her paint brush became a work of art to her. She left this note for me. "I'll blot out the bad things for you!" What a sweetie!

Of course we also had swimming lessons. This was actually a huge blessing in my life. Right at the end of the school year, Eliza connected with another little first grader at school. The little girl told her that we were neighbors and that she had watched her learn how to ride her bike. This is surprising because Eliza doesn't attend the school that we are zoned for. Coincidentally neither does this little girl. So pretty soon they were arranging play dates for themselves, and we had little girls showing up at our door to play. No big deal, until Eliza and Miriam wanted to go to her house. I knew that I should let them go play, but I didn't know anything about the family other than a extremely brief conversation with the mom. And since she was so laid back about the whole thing, I felt awkward trying to invite myself over to get to know them better. So I let them go play at her house one day for just a few minutes and nearly had a panic attack. 

So how this relates to swimming lessons is that we went to the first day of swimming lessons and miraculously this little girl is in Eliza's class. This meant that her mom and I were free to chat and get to know each other for an hour every day for two weeks. Exactly what I needed! What makes this more miraculous is that these swimming lessons aren't at our neighborhood pool or even the closest city pool. They are across the freeway in a different city. Not to mention there are several different time slots for classes. So this mom happens to sign her daughter up at this really random location, in my daughter's exact level, and at this exact time. If it weren't such a tender mercy in my life, I would call it almost creepy. As it was though, we were able to get to know each other, exchange phone numbers, and even make friends. What a blessing!

The swimming lessons themselves were really successful. We also took the children swimming a lot this summer, and between the two activities swimming really clicked for both of the girls. I am sure it helped that Miriam got so much one on one time with her instructor. I love those small classes (the reason we signed up for swimming lessons at this random location!).

One day Miriam told me, "I just want to learn to swim really good so I can teach my children." She is so funny.

Eliza had a night and day difference compared to last year when we had so many swimming lessons, and she was just terrified of the deep water the whole time.

One of the photos shows her doing an obstacle course in the diving pool. Her instructor was amazing. Miriam took the level Duck for the fourth and fifth time this summer and finally passed by the skin of her teeth. She can swim freestyle but has a hard time swimming on her back. Holland was my little buddy at the swimming lessons--spilling cheerios, trying to eat stray feathers (gag!), and whatever else she could do to stay busy. We brought our spray bottle again and had a good time sweltering in the sun.

Our summer also included lots of magformers and legos. Of course we have girl legos at our house. 

There were also many, many performances. Lots of dancing and tricks. That aspect of Yosemite really stuck with our girls. It was a wonderful summer!