N's Current Favorite Book

I know I haven't been keeping up on our life here, and I have plans of back logging it all very shortly, but for now you can take a listen to N "reading" through In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. He has really taken to this book recently and I can't help but see a little bit of N in the storyline myself.

A Little Street Cred

E was mentioned on our school's website!

(sorry for the screen shot pic)

Birch Bay 2012

Mom and Kids Only Camping trip! Looking back over the other 2 trips we've taken, I realized that we have steadily increased our stays each time (Deception Pass - 1 night, and Ocean Shores - 2 nights), soon, we may be up to a week! This year we decided on a shorter car ride up north and stayed at lovely Birch Bay State Park, right across the water from Canada. We nabbed a great site complete with it's own forest trails. E spent most of her time in a huge climbing tree with Asher, and N and Mini were great companions. The 3-night trip (as you may imagine) presented itself with its unique challenges; a burst of rain on our ill prepared tents, a tick lodged under Mini's eyelash, early wake up calls, raccoons bumping around in the night, mosquito bites, uncooperative children howling in the showers, and a table full of picky eaters. None were so terrible to deter us from planning another trip again next year. Here are some shots from our time, none sadly from my actual camera, all via Instagram on my phone.

2012 Shark's Picnic

To say that swim team was a good experience for E this summer would be an understatement. She shone; our family was incredibly proud of her hard work. She was up every weekday morning for a 8am-9:30 workout and practice and she really swam her hardest at each meet. Her times vastly improved over the corse of the summer! Good work Sweet Girl!



In League Champs, the final meet of the season which included 5 or 6 teams, she placed 2nd in the 25 yard Backstroke and 3rd in Mixed 100 yard Freestyle for her age group (that's out of 30 or 40 some odd kids in those events)! We're already looking forward to next year!

Fourth Swim Meet

E's coach has taken a special interest in appropriately pushing E's quickly growing skill set in the lanes. It was decided that she be placed in an event rated for 10-year-olds (she's 7). She was entered into the 100-Yard Individual Medley. This requires her to swim 4 lengths of the pool and a new stroke for each pass. It was exhausting just watching. But she pushed right on through and finished 4th, we were so
proud.

Here's the video:

 

Last minute instruction from Coach Monique

Backstroke

Freestyle

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And her best event; the 25 Backstroke was another success! She improved her time by 2 seconds and brought home another blue ribbon!

Third Swim Meet

The backstroke is E's strongest stroke, she won first in her division today! A very proud moment for all that were there cheering her on. D and I were serendipitously timing her lane and got to watch the whole thing unfold right under our noses. She's in lane 4 (4th from the top).

*Thanks to Grandpa for taking the video.

Second Swim Meet

N's First Swim Lesson

Swimming lessons have been a top priority for our family. I took them every summer until I earned a Red Cross Certification, E's been in the water since 2 1/2 almost year round, and now it's time for the boy. He's reverted back to his clingy self as of recent, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I gave him the rundown, and he had loads of questions. It helped that E was already in the water doing "her lesson," and he just got right in! For the most part he listened attentively and participated in everything (at one point he even shot off the raised dock to imitate his teacher only to find himself near the bottom of the pool...coughing a sputtering he have me a soggy smile while his instructor placed him back on solid ground, undeterred in the least).

*You can see E watching from the far left lane on the other side of the pool and cheering him on!