Swim lessons

For the past five weeks the girls have been in swim lessons. Evie aspires to join swim team so we took a lessons to learn strokes better and Izzy just aspires to swim period. I was very impressed with both of their progress over the course of just five weeks, but Izzy in particular amazed me.  Where most kids her age cried to get in the pool for swim lessons she would pitch a fit every time when the swim lessons were over because she did not want to get out of the pool. After one lesson she was sticking her head under, blowing bubbles, trying her best kick, and without hesitation jumping off the side into the pool... she may just be swim prodigy :)  Of course now that she's in that awkward space between being comfortable in the water and not quite swimming yet she's totally a hazard to herself. But it is definitely fun to see your kid be so naturally good at something, not to mention so enthusiastic.  It's cooling off now so we probably are not going to anymore swim lessons for this year but next year I'm sure she will tackle it with the same gusto she did this past month. As for Evie she's already asked me if she's gotten to the level to join swim team and she totally has, she also improved a lot!  As for myself I learned that I'm not good at being the after school activity parent. I have felt so exhausted carting them to and from swim lessons for the twice a week that if we do lessons again it will have to be sometime before 6:30 PM. Maybe I just have a weak constitution, but getting home at 7 PM twice a week was a form of torture to me.  I really don't know how some parents do all the afternoon activities!  

Bugs!

Today I took the girls to the Arizona Insect Festival. As it turns out people in Tucson either a) love a festival or b) love insects because it was crazy packed with people, lines to wait to pet the cockroach and to eat cricket cookies among other fabulous actitivities.

Despite the crowd we had a blast and my brother came along to give us a bit 'o the insider knowledge on the social insects.  After an hour or so of bug business Izzy was worn out.  I think Evie could have spent the whole day there though. Her favorite parts were holding the caterpillar and making a clay ladybug.  Izzy's favorite part was the look like a butterfly photo shoot.... I pretty much had to drag her away from it so other kids could get a chance.  My favorite bit was all of the awesomely colored caterpillars!  Woohoo bugs!

Builders

Not sure what it says about the difference between my two girls, Izzy built a perfect straight-line, and Genevieve built a castle.  There some sort of telling information about the difference in their personalities here....

Pool games...

Patrick has discovered a new fabulous game to play in the pool. The push-daddy-in-and-watch-him-flail game.  Although seemingly a lesson in cruelty it is actually a sneaky way of getting Izzy to practice getting out of the pool and jumping back in.  After just a few nights of this game she is now pretty skilled at both pool ingress and egress.  

Car fun

Sometimes at the end of a long car ride you just need to wear your lunchbox.