Swimming Lessons
We were a little concerned about swimming lessons on day one, when the instructors failed to do an assessment and simply put all three girls in the very beginner class. Responses from the girls: "That was SO lame." "It was a baby class!" Fortunately, another mom with kids the same age was also in the same boat: our girls can swim; we just want them to be better. We talked to the instructor, and the next day he took them back to the lap pool, actually assessed them, and decided he would do a level 4 class for all of them. Much happier little girls!

We quickly made friends with their classmates (another military family who lives 2 minutes from us!), and hung out a few times after class--once at the outdoor pool and once we checked the girls into child care so Miss D and I could go to a yoga class. A good time was had by all!

We have swim necklaces!

And yes, they are all much better swimmers now. In fact, Monkey and Lion passed the swim test and earned their necklaces and their freedom! They can now go anywhere in the pool without me (as long as I'm at the pool) including down the water  slides. Their instructor marked them all as ready for level 5 next time. Technically, he said Lion didn't quite master every skill, but based on her improvement from day 1 to day 8 and her sheer determination to keep up, he decided she'd be better off moving up to level 5 than redoing level 4.

Our little drummer has a full kit now!
She's thrilled with the electronic kit--besides
having more than just a snare, she can also
adjust the volume at will or put on headphones
and play anytime she wants.

Happy Independence Day!
The biggest excitement of the 4th of July was that Daddy had a four day weekend! We spent two of those four afternoons at the pool, and the girls had a blast chasing Daddy around the pool, being launched across the water, practicing hand stands underwater, and diving for rings. Lion even learned how to pick up rings from the bottom of the 5 foot section!

We decided to see our fireworks early this year. We found out about a concert happening Friday night featuring fireworks afterward. We skipped the country music concert, but instead went to a friend's house for snacks then walked down to the beach--great view with no crowds. Somebody streamed patriotic music on their phone; the kids ran around the beach and ate Popsicles. Perfect.

On the 4th itself, we started the day with our traditional patriotic parfaits (vanilla yogurt, blueberries, and strawberries) and watermelon stars (a challenge this year since our watermelon fell and cracked open into jagged pieces). In the afternoon we watched Captain America, followed by a dinner of burgers and homemade ice cream. Happy Independence Day!

Reading by Design

The library's summer program has begun! They girls were pretty excited to get their registration bags and start checking off activities. Once they've accomplished 25 activities, they earn a prize (as yet unknown, but they have high hopes). The activity chart does include a few "read for 20 minutes" boxes, but it's actually mostly non-reading activities: all good things like "write a poem," "illustrate a scene from your favorite book," "attend a library program," and "help cook dinner." The girls have until September to complete enough activities, but I'm pretty sure we'll be collecting prizes within a week or two! Last week we attended the children's area game day, where the girls played Shoots and Ladders and Scrabble Jr. Good times.

Work Picnic

Recently we attended the office picnic at a nearby park (sadly, Daddy couldn't actually come himself). The girls enjoyed lots of good food, played on the playground, played a yard game I'm unfamiliar with, attempted to dunk one of Daddy's coworkers in the dunk tank, and Bug was even brave enough to hold someone's ball python.