summer snapshots

Don't let these guys fool you. Summer is awesome...so far.

someone will swim

In addition to this slow family living thing I'm testing out this summer, I've wholeheartedly declared that at least one--but preferably two--of our children will be swimming on his or her own by the end of the summer. We've been to the pool three of our five summer vacation afternoons so far, and I'm going to make the early prediction that our swimmer will be Scout.

Catcher has all the fundamentals down, but we call him lazy bones in the pool. He's more interested in clinging to the side than trying to swim ten feet on his own. Scout was the first to release her death grip from the side and swim out to me (of course the following afternoon she promptly forgot that she had actually been swimming on her own the day before).

Before we took off yesterday afternoon, I asked everyone to give me their "Yay! It's summer we can't wait to go swimming!" pose, and this is what I got:

banging on the ivories

Something interesting happened today--the first day of the first full week of summer vacation--Catcher and Scout got along! They're both enrolled in a piano music camp this week, and after their respective classes they came home and practiced together. It was so cute! Although they're both in beginner classes, Catcher's is a bit more beginner-advanced (as he informed me), so he taught Scout one of the songs he learned while her class was busy coloring pictures of Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear. I started them in piano at the same time because I figured a little sibling rivalry is always good for the soul, but I didn't realize there would be the added bonus of them working together. Bravo, kiddos!

putter's paradise

Scout found a new passion yesterday. Our first day of summer break was full of sunshine and a morning birthday party at Peter Pan miniature golf, where Scout discovered the game of putt putt. In the car on our way home, she informed me that she would like to get into golf "as soon as possible." I chuckled at first, but then I remembered an article I read a couple years ago stating women's golf is the number one underused Division I athletic scholarship...so she might be on to something there. Anyone know if they have a good golf program at Stanford (there's a wink there)?

Tillie, on the other hand, had trouble mastering her swing and spent most of her time trying to climb the structures. Catcher was his typical type A self trying to guide the group around the course in numerical order (hint: it didn't work).

y'all ready for this?

This morning things got a little goofy as we prepared to send Catcher off on his last day of first grade (last night's lost tooth helps with the goofiness factor as far as pictures are concerned). Tillie won the Best Morning Hair award, and before we knew it the day was over and we were off to a picnic dinner celebrating--is the end of the school year something parents should really be celebrating?--with friends. By this point in the day everyone was extremely goofy, so here you go:

P.S. It was also Scout's last day of preschool ever, but she's the middle child so you know how that goes.

two down...

True story: Alex told Catcher yesterday that his front tooth, which has been dangling precariously for weeks, had to come out before the last day of school. This was Catcher tonight. Tomorrow is the last day of first grade. Game, set, match.

let's get this summer started

Only three more days of school until every parent's worse nightmare begins--summer break. I'm kidding (but just a little). This summer I'm tackling the "slow parenting" movement that's getting a bunch of press lately. Instead of enrolling these little rugrats in camps for 12 weeks, we're going to explore the world together. (At least that's how I'm romanticizing it in my head right now.) We're hanging out in Austin for a couple of weeks, hitting the beach in Port Aransas with some friends for a long weekend, heading up north to Wisconsin for another couple of weeks, making the long drive back home to Austin... We'll see what shenanigans we can get ourselves into during all the in-betweens and long summer days.

Before the real summer party starts, however, we spent the last two afternoons at Scout's BFF's birthday party, giant blow-up waterslide included (see video). And yes, there was so much fun to be had the party was stretched out for two days (or else the company that supplied the giant blow-up waterslide failed to pick it up this afternoon and we just couldn't let another sunny Austin afternoon go to waste...not when there's a giant blow-up waterslide involved).