Summer Fun

Half of our summer break is already over! Time flies so fast!

It is odd, but even though I am only working half days, it truly feels as if we are even busier than when school is in session! I guess it is because I want the kids to enjoy every possible opportunity they can while we have more time, which leads us to less time. Oh well!! They are having a blast!

We are in our neighboor hood pool almost daily. I swear I have fish for children!! Andy and Aubri will be taking swim lessons next month and have had several in the evenings this month. Andy is swimming underwater and above water like he was born in the water. It is hard to believe that 2 summers ago he would scream and scream when he had to take his toes off the bottom of the pool. I think Aubri has been a better teacher for him than swimming lessons have. She is a pro and may consider joining a swim team this next fall. Sera doesn't swim, but she loves to play in the water. Someday SOON, her little lip will close and she will be able to keep the water out of her mouth. I think talking about her lip surgery when she wants so badly to swim like her siblings, has helped her want to have it done even more. She will be a fish next summer, no doubt there!

Sera is taking a ballet class that I got to watch for the first time this last week. It was so cute!! She tries so hard and really does a great job following directions. Now balancing on one foot, well that will come :-) I had several good chuckles as I watched her bounce around. She was very clear to Aubri, Andy and I that we were to watch her, because " I am a ballerina and you must watch me! " I was so proud of her. Especially knowing that since most of the other girls she is in class with were just 3 and that at 3 she was truly toddling and falling on her bottom like an 18 month old. She is catching up by leaps and bounds!

Additional to her ballet class, she is also taking gymnastics, as are both Aubri and Andy. Aubri is a very late starter, but she is enjoying learning and that is what it is all about. She had not taken a gymnastics class before, but has enjoyed dance classes. I had not put her in them for a while while completing adoptions and putting her in more music lessons, but she really wanted to do this with her little bro and sis. Her class is more focused on skills for cheerleading which I doubt she ever really uses for that purpose, but she will use the stretching. dance techniques and self confidence she is building. Andy loves bouncing and flying around the house, so a place where this is encouraged and shaped into more useful practice is truly right up his alley. Sera is so excited to try everything and has really made huge improvements with her balance. They will all be taking a week long camp program there this next week and all of them are really excited about it. I am taking kids back and forth all week for these classes!

Aubri has a band concert this week, and a choir concert. She had to make a mask for the band concert so I am very curious as to what the director has up his sleeve. She really is enjoying the French horn and I am very proud of her efforts.

Andy had a Dr appt this week to talk about some issues he has been having with bladder incontinence. The anal atresia repair he had as a baby may have damaged some of his nerves. He will be going in for a huge study under total anesthesia in July to determine if further surgery is needed or if we will be catheterizing him. I am really hoping that his leaking is due to a fistula, which can be repaired surgically. Neither option sounds very good to my ears, but we will figure out how to help him cope with this somehow.

We also went to a Cricket game this last weekend, to figure out what it was like and the kids had fun until we were rained out. It was a very different game from what we are used to watching but since I have Quiddit*h fans in Andy and Aubri, they both had figured out some of the similarities Cricket has to their favorite magical sport. The league here is not used to many specatators, and we stuck out a bit as total newbies who knew nothing about the game. It was OK though, because one of the players was very kind to explain what was going on. It was a good learning experience and we even had fun doing it :-)

Now that ESY will be out on Friday, we are going to head to Science City a few times to check out the Chocolate exhibits, the Dinosaur digs and the Narnia experience. Gymnastics camp and swim lessons will keep us out and about too. The public library will also be keeping us busy. Then Sera's Chicago appts, Andy's testing, Sera's surgery and then back to school!

Wish me luck in getting some of the other more mundane housekeeping things I had wanted to do in the meantime!!! I think I will need it!