Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

And that is what we did most of this summer. For the 3rd year in a row at least one of the kids were on our local Parks and Rec team. In fact, this year, all three joined the team. I was a little worried that Super (age 6) wasn't ready, but I shouldn't have. He did great! They all had a great summer. It kept us busy, that is certain, but it is great exercise and fun and lets them set goals and all of that too!

Here are some pictures from the 2011 Sharks season:

Excited to be starting! The kids had been asking all winter and spring "When does Swim Team Start?"

Super earned the nickname "Lightning." Why? Because he has SPEED of course!

Jelly Bean with her coach

I have some videos of the actual swimming, but I don't want to bog things down too much here, especially since I would have to post a video of each of them. But trust me, they can actually swim, ok? :)

Super with his coach/head coach AND the championship trophy! Yep, the Sharks won conference for the second year in a row!

And here is Super! I was worried he wasn't ready for swim team? Well, there he is wearing all of his conference medals AND he won MVP for the 6 and under boys! Go Super!!!!

All three of our swimmers with their medals, certificates, and trophies along with the championship trophy.

The season was exhausting, but the kids already miss it! Well, only 9 more months until it starts again!! Will they three-peat? You will just have to stay tuned!

So do you miss me posting yet?

Summer's are crazy for us around here. The kids are in Swim Team - this year all the kids, even Super, are on the team, and it seems like we are always at practice or at a meet. Practices are M-F from 7:00 to 8:30 am and 5:00 to 6:30 pm. And meets on most Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings. So that's where I've been quite a bit of the time.

Then, I no longer teach preschool really. It has morphed into daycare. During the school year, for the 2-5 year olds, I do do preschool activities from 9 am to 11 am, but during the summer, we do mostly free play. And I have a school age child that is here full-time for the summer. So when I'm not at swimming practice/meets, I am watching my own 3 kids plus 3-5 other children from ages 7 to 1.

Then I haven't had much to blog about in terms of holidays. We did go to Bass Lake for both Memorial Day and 4th of July, but I didn't take any pictures. And then, to completely add to my lameness, I didn't even watch the fireworks this year. I wasn't feeling well, so I just stayed back and went to bed early. I know. COMPLETELY lame. Can you even imagine what a fuddy duddy I'll be by the time I get into my 60s? Or even my 50s? Sheesh.

I have been doing lots of gardening, and I SHOULD post some pictures of that. Let's just say that the Square Foot Gardening has been a 90% smashing success! And I love that the garden is just steps away from my back door. And the weeding has been almost non-existent! Mostly just green beans are being harvested in my garden right now, but it is nice to be able to just go out every night and pick a cup of green beans for dinner! I planted green beans successively, so I'll be harvesting green beans for the next 8 weeks or so. And I'll be starting to preserve them soon. I'm hoping that between my garden and picking some up at farmer's market that I'll be able to can about 36 pints and freeze about 10 quart bags. Speaking of preserving, I made pickled beets this year! And they are good!

Sometimes, I really can't believe how different I live than just a few years ago. I always wanted to do less formal activities and do more with gardening and preserving and all of that, but just didn't. And now, 2-3 years later, it is just a part of regular routine. And for Super, who is 6, it is just mostly what he knows. He doesn't remember when I didn't make our own pickles and spaghetti sauce. When I didn't shop at farmer's market most Saturdays. When most of our food doesn't come out of a box. When we didn't spend most of our time together doing "whatever."

All right, next time I get here (which probably won't be until August. Just being honest.), I'll try and post pictures. Pictures of swim team. Pictures of the garden. Pictures of canning and dehydrating and freezing.

Oh, and did I tell you I picked up a great Summer Recipe book at the thrift store.

You know, there really are many things that I enjoy about my life. :)

Somehow we turned into a swimming family . . .

I'm not sure how exactly it happened. We started doing swimming lessons throught the Park and Rec department when Flower was 18 months, but it was one Tot Spot session in the summer. And then, maybe a couple sessions the year she was 3, and a couple sessions of Tot Spot for Jelly Bean. Flower didn't NOT like swimming, but she didn't love it. Jelly Bean, on the other hand, was SO excited. She loved the water so much, that the instructors let her jump off the diving board, with a life jacket on, when she was only 2 and a half. The kids were slowly moving through the swimming levels, doing a session or two every summer.

And then, when Super was 2 years old (so this would have Fall 2006), we started doing swimming lessons during the school year instead. Parks and Rec offers two sessions in the fall, and two sessions in the winter. Flower was in level 2.2, Jelly Bean was in 1.3, and Samuel was in Tot Spot. (The levels go 1.1, 1.2., and 1.3, 2.1, etc. until you get to level 4. Then it is level 4, level 5, through level 7.) It usually takes a student a few sessions until they get through level 7 because there are many endurance skills, such as treading water for 5 minutes, swimming for 500 yards, doing each stroke for 50 years, retrieving a 10 pound brick from the bottom, etc. When you complete level 7, you have completed or "graduated" from swimming lessons. As we went to swimming more often, the children really seemed to enjoy swimming more and more too.

Flower had started level 7 in Fall 2008, and did two sessions last fall, and two sessions last winter. She worked SO hard, but at the end of each session, there was one or two things that she hadn't passed. We started again this fall, and she was hopeful that she would pass level 7 during the first session of the fall. But when she got her card at the end of the session, she had not passed. She had really done her best. And I suspected that if she had had a different instructor, that she would have passed. I was so tempted to just tell her that she could stop. She had completed all the skills in one session or another. Did she really need to keep going??? But she said that she wanted to keep trying. So we started the 2nd session of fall. All of the children were having a good session (Jelly Bean was in Level 5, and Super was in 2.2), but I was so afraid that Flower still wouldn't pass.

The end of the 2nd fall session was November 18th. She came walking over with her card. I held my breath.

And then she couldn't walk anymore. She stopped.

And then she looked up at me.

Threw her arms up in the air.

And said "I passed!"

Seeing her face made me glad that she had decided to try one more time.

Seeing her face reminded me to always try one more time.