Practicing New Skills

No swimming lessons today! We planned on regrouping today and trying to catch up on some chores after trying our new skills in the water at open swim this morning. The morning went on and the kids kept begging to go, but we were moving too slow without time limits to prod us along. At 10am, Bob called to invite me to play 9 holes of golf with him over the lunch hour. So I left, with my little ones wailing behind me, "You said we would get to go swimming!", and Jonny consoling them with "Come on guys, Mommy deserves a break too."

It was strange to be without the kids in the middle of the day. But what a beautiful day to be spending it outside! It was fun to be on a golf course again, this time actually hitting the ball the majority of the time....a vast improvement over a few weeks ago. It was, however, so different than at the controlled atmosphere of our golf lesson mat. It was challenging to gauge exact placement and form, especially when there were people behind us twiddling their thumbs. It was a good experience for practice, and really nice to spend some time with my husband!

Jonny had to be at play rehearsal and Alex to marching band in the mid afternoon, so after dropping them both off at the high school, I caved in and brought all the little kids and the neighbor girl to open swim. Though I did not feel I had the time to do this, I am so glad that I did....Melissa and Crispy finally had the swimming switch "click" in their brains. Both of them were going all the way under the water repeatedly, and Crispy was actually dog paddling underneath too! It was really an "ah-ha" afternoon for both of them. They were pretty proud and happy with themselves. Tubby and Laura enjoyed much more cautious play in the zero depth end of the pool playing with water scoops and buckets.

We had a quick dinner of something or another, and then the Grandparents all arrived to see Jonny in his Tow Sawyer play. The play was fantastic. It was amazing that these kids put the whole thing together in only 5 days time. Jonny made an excellent Huck, and looked just swell in his patched up overalls and straw hat. He had a great southern accent to go along with his character. He had a great time, and loved every minute of it. We celebrated his stage success with huge ice cream waffle cones at the quaint local ice cream and coffee shop "downtown". It had turned into a beautiful evening upon which to reflect on this very lovely and successful day.

Icing on the cake was this adorable scene in the library on the couch when we arrived home at 10pm:
How cute is that?? When Tubby awoke later as I brought him with me to pick up Alex, he immediately started calling for his sister, "Row-rah! "Row-rah!" He must have remembered snuggling up with her before drifting off to dreamland.