Then again, this past week was our first real break since school got out.
We had swim team practice every morning except Mondays, and of course the meets on Saturdays. Both the girls kept improving their times. Rebecca now has a qualifiying time for all 4 strokes, freestyle, backstroke, breastroke, and butterfly. Not bad for an 8-year-old. :-). She missed All-Stars by 2 seconds on her backstroke, which sorely disappointed her. But I can't lie...I was a bit relieved. Divisionals (which was outdoors for us) was so long and hot...whew! I can't imagine All-Stars and the long day that would have been.
Some random pics of the kids swimming.
After swim team was over, we had Vacation Bible School at St. Ignatius. And no, I didn't get a single picture. I was busy in the kitchen, helping with snacks, and honestly didn't stand still the whole week. It made me a bit sad, realizing this was the last year Joshua would be able to participate. Sigh...
In between all this, I took the kids blackberry picking, bought farm-fresh peaches, and made lots of homemade jam. Of course, we had to make trifle and cobbler with all our bounty of fresh fruit. And we sure have been enjoying it too. YUM!
Gabriel when to his first birthday party at a fire station. It was really fun...and he loved it, especially the eatin' part. That child would not stop eating the bananas and grapes off the food table! I had to stop him at one cupcake too...darn kid!
My brother popped into town for a quick visit. He had to meet us at IKEA because we were trying to pick out cabinets for the study nook. (We still haven't ordered any yet!). The kids were thrilled to see their Uncle before he heads out to Fr. Rucker for more flight training.
Speaking of the study nook, David has been hard at work. I helped him glue down the wood floor last week. It took all day, but I think it looks pretty good!
David will use the leftover planks and some matching trim to build the step down into the room. There's still the electrical and floor trim trim to install, the cabinets (if we ever get around to ordering some!), building the work stations (a large, build-in desk along one wall), putting in the bar sink, etc. Sigh. It takes major patience to deal with a big home improvement project!
We had a great 4th of July. I made a big dinner, we had friends over, and David shot off fireworks with the kids outside in the street until nearly 11 PM. Nobody got up before 9:00 AM this morning. I felt bad because I had David cut up a whole watermelon, put it in the fridge to chill, and forgot all about it until after dessert. Oh well!
I think that cover the last 5 weeks. Hope everyone else is having a great, hot summer!
