it's a family tradition

If at first you don't succeed
try
try
again

bubbles under water

the girls' last swim meet (possibly, might be one more) was this past weekend.
and nothing says swim meet at the end of july like a blanket.
it was cold.
i digress. {r} worked up the nerve to go off the blocks.
she pretty much went straight down though so there was a lot of underwater swimming just to try and resurface.
based on her age she should only be swimming 25 meters, but she likes to swim up a level to do 50s. on saturday she threw in her version of a flip turn. tug and i had a good laugh about that.
she is now saying she wants to drop gymnastics to try and be on the swim team at the Y.

and she wants to do tennis.

and dance.

and soccer.

and. . .

here's {j}.

and {r}
and {l}. that {l}, she doesn't want to do any sport besides gymnastics. i did get her to admit tonight though that swim team has been fun.
she even worked up the nerve to go off the blocks.

so what if i coaxed her.

coaxed means bribed.
all it took was telling her they could pick up food for lunch (ie: fast food) and she could get a movie to put on to her ipod. oh, and all it really took was a fellow friend saying she'd go off the blocks if {l} did.
that friend is the one still sitting on the blocks while {l} is already diving in, catlike reactions that one. the other girl still beat her in the actual swim.

and, here's a wink from {s}.
do you smell what the {j} is cooking??
and cute little chicharone as we usually call her.
WOW, two posts in two days. dont call it a comeback.

Tennis

i don't think i ever said here that regan got dropped (AGAIN) from her gymnastics. as part of a 'clearing out, let's try some new stuff' campaign (how i got her to drop baton) i said she could try some new sports. she decided on tennis. then she started gymnastics at a different YMCA (so she could still try the competitive route). tennis never happened. now she says she wants to drop gymnastics altogether and try something else. i said no dice. i will let her drop gymnastics but she has to finish out the month so she isn't making the decision on a whim.
i did finally let her start tennis though. When we were ready to leave {l} decided she wanted to give it a try.
that's {j}, then {l}, then {r}, then some random little girl. i should stop forgetting my zoom-ish lens.

unfortunately another coach came and took {l}, {r} and two other kids who showed up late outside therefore i have no photos of them. so, you only get a shot of {j} with a swing and a miss. . . notice the ball behind him.
i think one of {j}s favorite things was picking up the balls.
{r} and {j} gave tennis big thumbs up. {j} just yelled, "I LOVE TENNIS. i want to do it forever. . . except the nights i am doing hip hop." oh, he starts hip hop dancing next week.

not surprisingly, {l} gave it a big thumbs down. she is the type who if she isn't good at something, she doesn't want to do it. i've already paid for three additional lessons so she has to give those a go, then she can quit if she wants.

hope i can get some pictures of that hip hop!

Baby books

I am not a baby book type person. The eldest four do have baby books and first year calendars, but they are rather lackluster. Lots of blank pages.

tangent--I tried to be a scrapbooker, too. I bought lots of supplies. I have maybe 15 pages total, 10 of {l}, 5 of {r}, a big goose egg for {j} and {s}.

I didn't have a baby book growing up and didn't need counseling for it, so I never really thought they were a big deal. For each of her four kids my sister-in-law (the rancher one) would write in their baby calendar daily. DAILY. Something written in each day.

"Sucked on my boob again today, good boy."

I don't think she ever actually wrote that.

The kids, though, like looking through their mostly blank baby books and first year calendars so I figured I should at least buy them for {c} -- because it is totally apropos to pay $64 for something you will leave mostly blank.

Here's what I got (minus the baby on the front):

Advice please

oh wise ones who have kids older than mine and have gone through this before, what advice do you give to a child when people she considered friends decide not to really be her friend anymore??

i did the usual, "be nice no matter what, don't exclude people, try to branch out to make new friends." easy for an adult to comprehend, hard for a heart broken kid to.

any advice??

How many licks does it take

to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
A ONE. . .
A TWO. . .
A THREE. . .
Happy 3rd birthday to our tootsie pop loving little {s}.

replace tootsie pop with the word gum in that last sentence.

and just for fun, here she is with her sisters.

Racer

Decidedly not speed racer though. {r} decided she wanted to be on our pool's swim team this year. She has never been on a swim team. She doesn't even know how to do the required strokes (aside from freestyle) but, luckily, this is an entirely 'for fun' league. Her first swim meet was this past Saturday. She came in last (including relays) in all but one race (finished 3rd out of 4) but she had a great time (she swam 25m free, 25m butterfly, 25m backstroke for the medley relay--no one wanted to swim backstroke so she said she would--, and 50m free for the 4x50 free relay). She was afraid to go off the blocks but Tug worked with her later on dives and I think this weekend she might give the blocks a go. She is in lane 4.

{l} didn't want to do swim team but I made her sign up so she could get the workouts in (I make her go to the half hour daily practices, but told her she didn't have to do the meets if she didn't want to). After seeing this meet, she has decided to give it a try next weekend (I think she was nervous she wouldn't do well but after seeing people cheer on even the last place straggler, she now realizes it is just for fun).

And, just to give you some pool relief, here is {c} sleeping. . .
Back to the pool we go.



This is where we are spending most of our days (in between breaks to go to gymnastics--and breaks due to rain). Hope you are all having a great summer!

Fourth fun

Happy 4th of July! Here is {c} in her bouncy seat while the others were outside (too cold to take her out there). . .
having lots of fun with sparklers . . .
pretending to play the guitar (notice the flag that she drew and taped on her shirt). . .
or fly rocket ships. . .
and imaging herself playing drums. . .
and it was all great fun. . .
until daddy lit a firecracker that made noise. . .
and then two decided to watch from indoors.