What We Did for Summer Vacation

Okay, so summer isn't officially over for us yet. The kids don't start school until September 8th. But I had a few random pictures of some of the things we've done in-between our travels and other events that we've already posted about, so I thought I'd just show a few of the extra things we've had going on this summer.

SWIMMING LESSONS

Kendall and Lynnsey both took lessons at the high school pool for much of the summer. They both had a ball and looked forward to it every day. They both improved immensely in their abilities. Kendall struggled for awhile but finally near the end he got a teacher who made him take some bigger risks and he was able to actually do some real swimming.

Occasionally the kids were rewarded with some jumps off the diving board at the end of a session. Both of them had some fears to overcome to do this and a lot of the time they couldn't work up the nerve and had to have one of the instructors drop them off the edge. By the end of the program though, both kids made the jump on their own.

Lynnsey took to the water like a little fish right from the start. She even learned how to float on her back when she needed a break and her teacher used her as an example a few times to teach some of the other kids how to float.

We're thinking she may have found her niche. She's tried dance lessons but while she loved dancing, she hated being in front of an audience. She tried soccer with the same stage fright. But swimming seems to give her enough to think about without worrying about all the people in the bleachers. She loves the water and had so much fun. We hope to encourage her to continue developing in this area.

LOTS OF TIME IN THE BACKYARD AND GARDEN

Kaya adores the outdoors! If she sees someone putting on shoes she is right there wanting to go out too.

This year we tried something new in our garden with our green beans. We made teepees out of bamboo poles so that the beans could grow up them and make an enclosed tent for the kids to play in. I just took some other pictures of what they look like now and when I get them uploaded I'll post them. They really ended up being so much fun. And it was a good thing because that was about the only success we had in the garden! We don't know what is going on with our soil this year but we have really struggled to get any sort of a decent crop. Our peas were a complete failure and didn't grow at all. Unfortunately that is what we look forward to the most. We even had our soil tested but it came out within normal range. They made some suggestions for us to try for next year, so we'll see. We usually get a boatload of tomatoes but this year we aren't getting as many and they aren't getting ripe as fast as in times past. We did get a couple of delicious cabbages, but lost some to some resident deer that invaded the garden. Our green peppers are doing great though and may be our best success of this year's garden.

A COUPLE OF FUN EVENTS

A few of us went to a community production of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical Cinderella. It was really cute and Lynnsey loved it and still talks about wanting a dress like the one that the girl who played Cinderella wore.

Our library hosted the zoomobile one day this summer where we were educated about several different animal species.

We even got to pet the snake at the end of the program. Some of us even thought that was pretty neat.

The kids also participated in the library's summer reading program where they keep a log of all the books they read over the summer. For each book they read they get to put their name in a drawing for all sorts of fun prizes. We missed the reading party on Wednesday (somehow it didn't make it onto our calendar so we totally forgot about it), but we did find out that our kids won some of the prizes. They're so excited to go tomorrow to see what they won.

THE PLAYGROUND

Of course, no summer would be complete without a few excursions to the playground. We adore our playground. It was built several years ago by the community to replace the old and unsafe existing structures. Since then, several surrounding towns have built playgrounds in similar fashion so we now have a few fun places that we can visit nearby. We love ours the most though!

Kaya could swing for hours! And her cute little giggle makes me willing to swing her for hours.

A future rock star?

A cool, refreshing "drink"of water.

It's been a fun summer. I can't believe how fast it has gone. And I am actually really dreading the start of school. I've heard so many parents wishing it would come sooner, but I really prefer the crazy busy chaos of summer of the organized mayhem of the school year. Hopefully we can live these last two weeks to the fullest!