An End and A Beginning

Last week was Clara's last day of school. She is officially a second grader, which seems so strange to me still. They had an end of year party that I was lucky enough to be able to help with. I helped out with the water relay. It was fun... maybe even more fun since I was on the winning team over and over again. I don't know why it was so one-sided. At one point, a mom asked me to tip the scales in the other teams favor by tipping my teams bucket just a little to let some of the water out. Well, in my effort to tip the bucket on the sly, I accidentally tipped it over completely and dumped all the water out! I felt horrible... especially after hearing the repeated question "what happened to all our water?" Now it's time to forget about that and move on to the summer reading program! Clara has already informed me that when she gets her coupon book from the library this year, that we actually have to go to some of the places to redeem the coupons! In years past, it was enough just to have the coupon book. My little girl is growing up.

Friday the swim team put on the Viking Olympics. All the members of both the Vikings swim team and the Little Vikings took part in a six event olympic-style fun day. There were four teams competing and Clara's team came in 4th and were all awarded Copper medals. She did have fun, but said that it would have been more fun if they could have got in the pool... which is true! How ironic that the swim team olympics involved absolutely no swimming!! Below is a picture of Clara participating in the swim cap relay (the caps were turned inside out, filled with water and then dropped on each teammate's head... the number of caps that "stuck" were tallied) and Clara with her medal.



This past weekend was dance recitals for Clara and Lucas. The dance recitals turned out really cute. We were worried that Lucas wouldn't perform (based on his preschool recital), but we had no need to worry. He got right in there and did what he was supposed to do and even had the audience clapping for him. We are definitely signing him up for dance again in the fall... he seemed to really enjoy it. Clara's recital was great, as expected. Her teacher really creates some great dances for them. Clara's dance was highly energetic... the girls were in constant motion. I honestly don't know how they remember the moves. I have uploaded both recitals to my YouTube account for those interested in watching.



Jason had a nice Father's Day... a nice relaxing day. He got to grill out, which he had been wanting to do. In addition to the cards that we all gave him on Sunday, Clara had a special Donuts for Dads day at school. She presented him with a card, while wearing a tie that she made herself, and enjoyed a couple donuts. The class also did a presentation for the dads, which I have included below.





Today was the first day of "summer" for us. Clara's swim team practice moved to the morning followed immediately by Lucas' swim class. This was to be a great setup... Eli and I could hang out in the baby pool while the older kids had their respective time in the big pool. I was excited! We all headed out in our swimsuits ready for an enjoyable morning. Reality hit the moment we got situated. Eli does not like the water. Wait... that wasn't strong enough. Eli HATES the water. As I was lowering him into the water, the moment his toe hit the water he started crying, and he continued crying even after I caved and took him out of the water. And he continued crying even after he had been out of the water for some time because his swim trunks were still wet. It was almost (I repeat... almost) humorous how upset he was by his wet trunks... he kept pulling at them, like I was going to take them off! So instead of hanging leisurely by the baby pool for 1 1/2 hours, we were on parade (back and forth between the baby pool and the playground (neither of which he was content actually being near). Moving on to Clara's swim team practice... what a difference! The last two weeks, practice was in the evenings and the pool was crowded. Now practice is scheduled before the pool opens to the public so the pool is empty. The swimmers can hear the coaches clearly and I can see a huge difference between Clara's performance before and now. I can't wait until their first swim meet... that should be video worthy! And Lucas... ah Lucas! This was his first swim class... he did good toward the end of the class (and I know that it takes him time to warm up to situations), but I worry that he has designated himself the boy who doesn't follow directions. On a rather funny note... when introducing himself to the coach, Lucas proclaimed his name to be "Lucas blah" (I don't know why he says "blah" after many things, but it's something that he's picked up along the way from Clara). Anyway... for the remainder of the class, the coach referred to him as Lucas Black, so I kept hearing "Lucas Black, feet in the pool" and "Lucas Black, feet down" and "Lucas Black, turn and face me"... you get the idea. After swim, we headed home for lunch and Eli's nap. By the time Eli woke up, it was 3:30p. A friend recently commented that swim was going to make me unavailable to do other things this summer and I was sure she was wrong... swim is only in the morning after all! Well, if today is any indication of what our days will be like, then I'm extremely sad to say she might be right after all.