Winter Celebration

Today I went into Sofia's class for her classroom winter celebration.  Gone are the days of junk food at parties.  In fact, there was no food at all!  I was not surprised though as the school policy is to not bring sweets to school.  While I think that saying no sweets because there is an epidemic of childhood obesity is ridiculous since it is not the 13 cupcakes throughout a year that make a child obese.  However, having no food at the party makes it more of a parent/child interactive time which is definitely nice to have.  Today Sofia's teacher had us work on making a polygon snowman since the kids are just starting to work on polygons.  Sofia and I had fun making our snowman and made him quite snazzy with a vest!

Swimming Test

Yesterday the girls had their swimming tests.  They both are doing well.  It is nice to have a formal evaluation to know how they are doing. 

Sofia's evaluation shows the following:

1.  She can dive off block in streamline position although she needs to focus more on getting her head between her arms
2.  Freestyle - 50 yards with streamline off the wall, bilateral breathing with flip turns but she has to focus on not breathing from the flags to the finish. - She said she tried this but felt she was going to explode.  I'm not surprised becuase it is probably 7 strokes long so she will just have to get used to the feeling and/or swim that part faster.
3.  Backstroke - 50 yards with streamline off the wall on back to the flags then release one arm then stroke, her head is back and she has a continuous flutter kick (needs to focus on always keeping her feet up).  She also now counts her stroke from the flags to the finish so she can swim hard right to the wall.  She needs to work on her flip turn to make sure she always pushes off the wall on her back and make sure when she starts her back stroke off the wall that her head is back.
4.  Breaststroke - 25 yards with pull out/streamline, proper kick, proper pull onlyto chest with continuous motion to stream line.
5.  Butterfly - This is where Sofia needs work.  She can do 25 yards  with dolphin kick in streamline with correct timing and breaathing but needs to focus on keeping her knees and feet together and getting her elbows clear of the water.

So, she is doing great.  She will stay with another session of the prep team through March and then we will see where the coaches think she should go.  There is another girl in her class, Chloe, who she is friends with and I am friends with her mom who also needs work on her butterfly so we will get together and have Sofia and Chloe have 2-3 private lessons to get their butterfly stroke up to snuff.

Alessandra's evaluation showed the following:

1. Freestyle - This needs work.  Her instructor said that he knows she can do it but yesterday on the test she went out to fast and had to stop half way so he couldn't pass her on it.  I am not surprised that she rushed this on the test day since she was already exhausted before we even got to swimming. She has made big strides on her freestyle though and is no longer doggie paddling every third stroke.
2.  Backstroke - Complete with good body position, leaning back and relaxed.  She has a consistent flutter kick with proper arm pull, elbows straight and her pinky enters tha water first.
3. Elementary Backstroke - Complete with proper kick and arm pull in a glide position.
4. Breaststroke - This needs work.  She needs to coordinate the timing of her arm pull and kick.
5. Sidestroke Kick - This needs work.  She needs to improve her scissor kick and make sure she doesn't roll onto her stomach.
6. Butterfly - She needs to work on her breathing
7. Diving - Complete with a standing dive off the side of the pool.
8. Treading water - Completed with treading water for one minute.
9. Swim underwater - Completed streamline to flags
10. Open Turns - Completed.

So, Ali still has a lot of work to do in the next session of lessons but even though she has not completed all the items in the level four list she has made huge improvements in her swimming.  She has a different instructor on Thursday who will also be giving her a swimming test so we will see if there are any differences in the evaluations.  I'm hoping she will not be as tired on Thursday and will get the complete on the freestyle on Thursday. 

Crafts

Jason decided to do a craft with the kids over the weekend.  He found a craft that included shaving cream and glue to make a snowman.  This was a good craft for Jason to do since I would probably have skipped it due to the possible mess factor.  Adding to the fun is Jason mixed the glue and the shaving cream in red solo cups.  This adds to the fun because the girls have really been into the song "Red Colo Cup" lately and have been singing it around the house..  Here is a quick video of the kids at the start of the craft.  Sorry for the poor video quality.

Happy Birthday Pat!

Last Thursday was my brother Pat's birthday.  We headed down to his house on Friday to celebrate with him.  It was nice to have time with my brother with only our family (my parents, brothers, nephews) around.  Usually when we go to my brother's house for a party it is filled with his friends and we do not get any time to really see or talk with Pat so this was a nice change.  The kids all played together and had a great time and the adults got to sit around and talk.  At the end of my brother's road is a house that puts on a "Festival of Lights" every year.  The light display is amazing.  The man must spend hours putting up all the lights.  He even has little houses for the kids to look in to see toys making candy or Santa and Mrs. Claus's bedroom.  There is popcorn and cookies and even Santa was there.  It is definitely a lot of work for the owners of the house and they give the money they receive to charity.  So, after having some pizza we all headed across the cul de sac to see the lights.  It was a nice night and the kids left there exhausted!

Gingerbread House

The girls and I put together a ingerbread house this year.  Of course the kids just wanted to eat all the candy but they managed to contain themselves and did a nice job decorating the house.  My icing work was not of the best quality but the kids did not care.  it has been nice to see it on the counter every day.  The decorating quality is going down by the day as we continue to pick all the candy off the house to eat it!

Finally a night out!!

Jason and I have become accustomed to going out together every Friday night since living in Prague but since we have moved back to the States we have only managed to go out to dinner alone twice.  We sent the kids down to my parent's house for the weekend.  Friday night we just relaxed and Jason worked on Saturday but Saturday night we went out to dinner.  We headed into Boston's North End for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Giacomo's.  It was so wonderful to be in the city again.  While living in Hopkinton is nice and scenic there is just something about city life that is special as well.  We walked to the restaurant and enjoyed being in the city.  We had a fabulous meal of lobster ravioli for me and homemade fusilli with lobster and shrimp for Jason.  We love Giacomo's food and the hustle of the restaurant.  It is definitely not a relaxing restaurant but the hustle/bustle and small space make you feel like you are in an Italian kitchen.

We followed dinner  up with cappuccino and cannoli at Mike's Pastry.  I don't know if we have just been away from Mike's for too long but it seemed like the cannolis were much bigger than we remembered.  We could have just split one they were so big.  No matter how long it has been though since going to Mike's the cannoli was just as good as I remember them!  It was so nice to have time alone to just talk about life.  We are so busy here that life seems to fly by and we haven't had time to catch up with each other.  It was definitely a much needed break from the speed of life.  Thanks to mom and dad for taking care of the kids!

Sofia's first bank account

Sofia's school has a program with a bank in the center of town for kids to open up passbook savings accounts.  They sent the paperwork home a while ago and we went back and forth about whether or not do have Sofia participate in the program.  In the end we decided it would be good for her to learn about saving money and she would also be doing math without even realizing it.  We completed the form and sent it in to the school with Sofia's $6 that she had already saved.  On the first Tuesday of the month the passbooks and deposits get collected at school and brought to the bank.  They get brought back to the school on Thursday and the children can take them home.  Today was the first month the Sofia participated in the program and came home today with her very first passbook savings book.  It is so cute and she is very excited about it.  We will have to work with her every month to make sure she completes the deposits slips correctly.  It may be about the right time to start a chores list that she can earn an allowance for so that she can add money regularly to her account.

Mikuláš

Every year on December 5th Mikuláš comes with the Angel and Devil to visit Czech children.  The last two years the girls have taken part in this tradition and I did not want it to end.  I want them to keep their memories of the Czech Republic alive in them.  So on December 5th when the kids went to bed I set about making my first batch of roholicky from scratch.  I had the recipe from Mrs. Pekarkova, our landlord when we first moved to Prague, and decided to see if I could do it.  I'm quite happy with my first attempt!  Anyway, I wrapped the Czech cookies up and put them in decorative bags and left them next to the kids beds for them to find in the morning.  Of course the kids didn't even notice them so before they left for school I have a brilliant acting job....."on my gosh! What day is it?" Did Mikuláš come?  I don't know if he did or even if he comes to kids who live outside Czech but maybe he comes to kids no matter where they are as long as they lived in Czech at one time.  Where has he left things before because I don't know since Iva was with you when he came in Prague?"  .... and the kids were off with ..."on the window sill!!"  I started up the stairs after them and saw Ali run into her room and straight for the window when she saw the gift out of the corner of her eye.  They both bee-lined for their gift bags.  They were so excited.  Sofia yelled, "I can't believe he came!!"  It was well worth making the cookies the night before to see them so happy!

Santa

On Sunday we brought the kids to see Santa.  He is pretty magical and was available in a couple places nearby over the weekend.  After having the kids up late on Friday night and Saturday night we thought anything was crowds was out.  Fortunately, Harvey's Farm was one of the places that Santa was going to be making a stop.  We figured it would not be very busy there and it wasn't.  We walked in and there was Santa sitting in his sleigh.  The girls walked up to him and Sofia climbed up on the sleigh first.  She didn't have a completely amazed look in her eye but you could tell she was nervous since when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas she froze and couldn't think of anything.  We gave her a couple ideas and she was able to add a couple things herself but overall her list at home is much longer than what she told Santa.  Ali cracked me up because before we left to see Santa she told me she was going to look her best...nice clothing, necklace, scarf, her hair brushed and down with a gigantic flower in it.  It was very cute.  When it was her turn to go into Santa's sleigh she was amazed.  She just kept staring at him in utter amazement.  She did come up with a few things that she wanted for Christmas but mainly she just looked at Santa with amazement.

Christmas Tree

 We went and got our Christmas Tree this past weekend.  I looked up places we could go to cut our own tree and found one about a ten minute drive away from us.  Not only was it close to us but it had any tree for $45 which seemed like a good deal compared with other places I had checked which had trees starting at $60.  I was excited to pick a big tree this year since in the past four years we have had fairly small trees.  This year we got an 8 1/2 foot tree.  Once we had it home we realized we could not get it through the sliding glass door even with the wrapping on it.  Fortunately the windows on the sun room are quite large and we brought it into the house that way.  We got the tree into the stand and took the wrapping off the tree and Jason put the lights on the tree.  We gathered up all the ornaments and started decorating the tree later in the afternoon when the tree had settled.  We have a LOT of ornaments.  Between all the ornaments we had stored in my parent's basement and all the ornaments we bought in Prague and at Christmas Markets in Europe as well as all of Jason's childhood ornaments we filled our tree. 

We ended up not putting a lot of the basic balls on that we had originally bought in Prague as filler (since we hadn't brought any ornaments with us) because there just wasn't any space left.

Happy Birthday Dad and Joe!!

Last week was my Dad's and my brother's birthdays.  This is the first birthday since 2005 that I have been able to celebrate their birthdays with them.  I picked up cards for both of them and made a custard pie for my dad since it is his favorite and once the kids were home from school on Friday we drove down to my parent's house.  The kids were so excited to wish them happy birthday and to play with their cousin, Michael.  It was an added bonus for us that my Aunt Carlene and Uncle Harry were there since I did not expect them.  The kids were excited to see them as well especially when they came in with all the Christmas presents to leave at my parents.  Ali wanted to open hers right then but I told her they had to stay there until Christmas Eve so now she is counting down the days!  Anyway, the kids had a blast playing together and they get along so well that as parents we don't have to worry about anything and can sit is chat.  We sat down for a Chinese food dinner followed by ice cream cake and then the kids were off and running again.  My Dad had put out the deer food so the kids spent sometime staring out the window watching the deer come into the yard to eat but otherwise they just ran around nonstop.  It was so nice to just be able to drive down for dinner and cake and spend time with my family that we ended up staying later than I had planned and didn't get home until close to ten o'clock.

Swimming/ New friends

The girls swimming is going well.  We realized that Ali's friend, Chloe, (from her bus) is in Sofia's group for swimming.  Now they all have a great time together before Sofia and Chloe start their practice.  I also met Chloe's mom, Erika, who is really nice.  I feel like we have a lot in common since she actually grew up in Berlin and her parents are German and French.  It makes me feel right at home to hang out with her.  I met her husband at swimming last week and he is also very nice.  They currently live down the road from us but will soon be moving across town.  We had them over for dinner on Saturday and you never know how it is going to go...will it be easy and fun or will it be awkward.  Well, I'm happy to say that we had a great time!  They are definitely a family that we will be spending more time with.  The kids get along fabulously and played until 11:15pm when they went home without a fight or any fuss happening.  It was a great night.

Thanksgiving

After getting the yard in order we were ready to head into Thanksgiving week.  The kids had a half day of school on Wednesday so we had planned to drive up to Maine after school.  I, fortunately, was organized and had almost everything packed for the girls and myself by Tuesday afternoon.  I did not want to feel rushed on Wednesday.  I'm glad I did that because when I got the girls to swim practice I got the call from Jason...."Matt says there is a big storm coming and it should hit Maine about 2am."  So as soon as the girls were done with swimming we went home and finished packing and loaded the car and headed for Maine.  We got there just ahead of the storm with about thirty minutes to spare before it started at 11:30pm.  I'm glad we left Tuesday night because it snowed most of the next day and accumulated over a foot of snow.  Jason's brother arrived about 2am so had to drive in some of it but at least most of his drive was not in a foot of snow.  We all relaxed on Wednesday and did not do much of anything except that the kids played together and Ali got her hand closed in a door. 

Thursday we went outside with the kids to enjoy the snow.  I'm glad I packed all the snow gear because we all had a blast in the snow.  We all wore our orange so as not to be shot by any crazy hunters and headed out into the woods where we had a great snowball fight.  Of course it ended how all snowball fights end...with a child inadvertently getting hit in the face by a snowball meant to go from one adult to another.  Oh well, a few tears and Sofia was ready to move on.  She was a trooper. 



We had a great Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings and then we all relaxed again.

By Friday the swelling and pain had not gone down on one of Ali's fingers so I took her off to the emergency room.  Fortunately for us the emergency room was not busy at 8:30am the day after Thanksgiving so we got in fairly quickly.  They took x-rays of her hand and said it was fine.  If there was a hairline fracture it would not show on the x-ray yet though so the doctor just said to keep an eye on it and let the pain be her guide as to what she can do.  This was good advice for me since Ali had been doing non-stop hand stands and I would have told her to stop doing them but the doctor said if she can deal with the pain of doing them then she should be fine.  I'm not sure he knows my children though since Ali continued to do the handstands and after a while of them she would come ask for ice to put on her finger.  Maybe she is a natural gymnast....continuing on through the pain!  Anyway, after getting the all clear from the doctor we headed back to the house to meet up with everyone in order to head into North Conway to do some shopping.  We weren't planning on doing any major shopping as in years past as we have pretty much already finished our Christmas shopping but it is always fun to take a look in some shops.  While we weren't doing major shopping we did purchase a major item...new skis for me!  Since our skis were stolen lost Jason and I have been looking at skis.  I finally decided which ones I wanted and one of the shops in North Conway had them at a good price so we bought them.  We enjoyed lunch together at one of the restaurants in town and then continued our shopping. 

On the way back to the house we stopped at Walmart to pick up a game for us to play at night.  We decided on Apples to Apples.  The game is hilarious and with a few drinks is even funnier.  It took us late into the night and had us laughing a lot.  I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a new game.


Before leaving on Sunday we went and cut greens and made our holiday wreath.  To be honest, Jason's brother Matt and his daughter Keely did all the cutting of greens and the rest of us stood around or played in the snow.  Sofia ended up getting a stick just above the eye so I walked her back to the house and cleaned her up.  She was fine but I'm sure it did hurt.  Jason's mom prepped all the wreath making for us and then the girls and I prepared the pieces of greenery and handed them to Jason to tie onto the wreath.  It was a nice family project and out wreath turned out nice.

Busy Weekend

 

This weekend Jason and I began our fall clean-up process as well as installing the deer fencing around the back yard.  I spent most of the day of Saturday and Sunday cleaning the yard while Jason installed the fencing.  Jason worked diligently only taking breaks for food and managed to complete the fence install before it was dark on Sunday.  I took breaks for food and to run some errands. 

Ali had a birthday party to go to on Saturday for her friend Erin.  This meant I had to go out on Saturday to get a gift for Erin as well as bring Ali to the party.  The party was only an hour and a half so it didn't really make sense for me to come home so I fit in a run while Ali was at the party.  Once we were back home again I got back to work on the yard.  I continued my work today until I went to the cheese shop to pick up cheeses in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I'm happy to say I finished the front yard and started on the back.  I will hopefully finish the back yard tomorrow. 

At least tomorrow I can let Watson out back with me while I clean up and I don't have to worry about him wandering off!

Dentist

Last week I took both kids to the dentist.  Ali had complained about some pain in her mouth so I figured now was as good a time as any to have their teeth cleaned.  Ali went first on Monday and Sofia had her appointment on Friday.  They both did great.  The dentist said they do a great job brushing their teeth and neither of them had any cavities.  The dentist did talk to Ali about sucking her thumb since she is changing the shape of her jaw.  I guess we will have to get more strict about not sucking her thumb.

ENT update

Last week I brought Sofia in to have her ears checked. She had had a slight cold in the middle of November and I thought her hearing might be a little down so I figured it was a good time to bring her in to an ENT. I had wanted to have her checked anyway since having all the issues and tubes etc in Czech I just wanted a U.S. doctor to check her out. We arrived at the doctor's office and the nurse practitioner came in to take down Sofia's history. When I mentioned that when Sofia had her tubes put in Czech they found a cholesteotoma that definitely changed the game plan. It was definitely something to be taken seriously. They moved us to a different room so that the doctor could look at Sofia's ears through a microscope. He said they looked good and had some fluid behind the drum but that is was very liquid so not a problem. He mentioned that one ear drum had a slight bubble shape to it which could just be how she was formed but since he had never seen her before he couldn't be sure. He wanted to make sure that there was no reoccuraence of the cholesteotoma so he sent us down to have a CT Scan done of Sofia's ears. Once complete we headed back to the doctor's office. I am happy to say that there is no cholesteotoma and Sofia's ears look healthy. The doctor did say that at a minimum I should have her ears checked every year but he would like it done every six months. If there is any dramatic change in her hearing that would be a sign that the cholesteotoma is back and they would want to see Sofia in his office right away. He did soften it a little by adding that if it hasn't come back by now that it probably wouldn't. That was good to hear. So, after a thorough check I am happy to report that Sofia and her ears are doing fine.

Ski Expo

Last weekend we also went to the Ski and Snowboard Expo in Boston.  Jason and I had gone to this expo years ago and decided it was time to check it out again.  We were hoping to find kids equipment for cheap.  We remembered the expo being filled with vendors selling equipment at fairly low prices.  Well, we were dissappointed on that front.  We did get a pair of gloves for Sofia and also one for Jason but there were no children's skis at all.  The event is mainly vendors from resorts/mountains.  It was still not a complete waste becuase it was fun and we were able to speak with a rep from Shawnee Peak about lessons for the kids.  We will stop by when we are near there next week just to confirm the information but I think that is where we will put the kids into ski lessons this winter.  We also stopped by the booth for Big Sky Montana and the guy gave us a Big Sky sticker.  We were very excited about this becuase he just had some in his bag and wasn't just giving them out so we thought we were going to be out of luck.  Big Sky is the only place that we have skied that we did not have a sticker from.  All the other mountains we have skied we had stickers for that we put on our ski tube.  It was just a fun way of keeping a memory.  Unfortuantely this leads to bad news.....On Monday I went to go put the sticker on our ski tube only to realize that we do not have a ski tube and also therefore no skis!  They apparently never made it over from the Czech Republic.  Of course it is already past the insurance time period so we are out of luck and left with trying to figure out what we do about skis this year.

On a more upbeat note, here is a video of the girls at the expo trying to walk across a rope.

End of Soccer

The girls had their last soccer game of the season last week.  Thankfully it wasn't as cold as the previous week and actually ended up being quite pleasant.  It is amazing how much the girls have improved over the course of the season.  Their teams have stopped moving around the field in clumps.  They haven't mastered the game by any stretch but they are starting to see how the game works.  They had a great season and are excited to play again next fall.  They opted out of playing in the spring league because it is a coed and they are not quite ready to play with boys.  I am fine with that.  I am just happy that they had such a good time playing a game that I loved as a child.  Here is a picture of Sofia's team at the end of the game.  Unfortunately i forgot my flash card for my camera when we went to Ali's game but I did take a quick video with my phone.

Halloween

Due to the freak snow storm trick or treating was put off for a week in our town.  Fortunately the kids had Tuesday off from school and the weather was beautiful so having the delay worked out well.  To be honest though, Jason and I were both done with Halloween.  We kept up appearances though for the kids.  I was a little worried about how trick or treating was going to go since I knew some people/neighborhoods went trick or treating on Halloween even though the fire chief said not to.  I wanted the girls to have the full experience of Halloween with lots of kids on the street and loads of candy in their bag.  We decided to head over to my friend Margaret's neighborhood since I knew their neighborhood had not done any trick or treating on Halloween.  I gave her a call and we headed to her house for pizza with about seven other families.  The kids had a blast.  Jason finally got to meet some of my friends and was able to meet all the husbands as well.  We had pizza and drinks and then headed out for trick or treating.  I stayed for the first few houses on the street but when we looped back past Margaret's house, Margaret and I headed back inside with all the women and let the Dad's take the kids trick or treating.  It was great all around.  Jason got guy time, kids got kid time and I got girl time.  After filling their bags the kids game back and headed into the basement to play while the Dad's headed to the basement to watch hockey.  We didn't end up coming home until around 10pm.  The kids were exhausted but it was definitely a great introduction to Halloween American style.

Aldi/Lidl

While we lived in Statenice I would go to a shop named Lidl.  The slogan was "It's Cheap".  It was cheap.  You couldn't go there with a grocery list since what they had was always different and some days they wouldn't have butter.  However, it was always a surprise when you went and sometimes you felt like you hit the jackpot and other times you made due with what was available.  Fortunately for me there is an Aldi supermarket in the next town over from us now.  Aldi is a German grocery chain like Lidl which is also German.  It is very random but cheap.  They surprisingly brought the whole european concept with them when they opened this store...you have to insert a coin to get a cart which you get back when you bring the cart back and you have to pay for bags or bring your own.  They don't bag any groceries for you either.  As I'm so used to this it doesn't bother me at all and makes me feel slightly at home.  Today I went to Aldi since they had sweet potatoes on sale for $1 per bag which is quite a deal.  I didn't get a cart becuase I was just going in for sweet potatoes.  I should have known better!  I went back out and got a cart and added items to it as I went along.  I was reminded of how I felt about Lidl today when I hit the jackpot at Aldi and came across bacon wrapped filet mignons on sale.  I never thought I would say it but I miss Lidl.....thank goodness for Aldi!

Swimming

This week Sofia started with the Raiders Prep Clinic which is the group that is getting ready to move onto the swim team.  Technically it is a step backwards for her but she doesn't seem to notice and had a great time on Tuesday. It is a much bigger group than she is used to and a lot more kids her age.  I think all the change to the new team makes the fit fine for her.  She is still swimming laps and building endurance.  I'm not in any rush for her to move up to the actual swim team either since this current schedule works well for us.

With Sofia's increasing ability and endurance with swimming I decided it was time to get myself in the pool.  I want to be able to keep up with my seven year old!  I know that if she keeps swimming she will at some point surpass my abilities but I want to keep that as far away as possible. :)  I get the added bonus of some good exercise and hopefully I will do my first triathlon next summer.  I'm already swimming 1/4 mile (18 lengths of the pool) without stopping.  I just need to be able to do it faster and without as much effort.It is fun getting in the pool but since it only takes 15 minutes to swim 1/4 mile I'm not in the pool for that long.  It will be nice going a longer distance so I feel like I have spent some good time in the pool to make the changing/showering time worth it.

American Girl Birthday party

Sofia went to her first American Girl birthday party yesterday for her friend Emma.  She has not expressed a ton of interest in American Girl dolls but my friend warned me that that would all change after the party.  As we walked in to the store (there is a cafe upstairs) I was asking Sofia is she wanted one of the dolls and she said not really I just like dressing them up.  I dropped her at the party and left to spend an hour and a half browsing the mall.  When I arrived back and picked her up she announced that she "really, really really" wants Kanani.  We left he party and Sofia and her friend Kate browsed the American Girl shop for probably a good thirty minutes.  I didn't mind that she was doing it since it gave her some more time with her friend and since she had a friend to browse with it meant I could stand around talking with Kate's mom, Kara.  As we drove home in the car Sofia looked at the American Girl catalog.  She announced that she really wanted Julie's bed.  I asked her how much it was since I want her to be aware that American Girl doll and their things are very expensive.  I guess she gets that though because she said, "Ummmmmm...I don't want to tell you."  She did eventually tell me it was $125 and we talked about that she can ask for it for Christmas but if she is asking for expensive things like American Girl dolls, accessories and new skis that she may get fewer packages since Santa can't spend all his money on one person.  She seemed OK with that.  I guess she is growing up yet still my baby who wants to play with dolls!

Good Bye Envious Swimming

When we moved back to the States I started the girls at Envious Swimming.  It is a great program offered in Warwick that has learn to swim programs straight through swim team so the kids can grow within the program.  The girls loved taking lessons there.  They loved their teachers and have really improved their swimming.  Sofia moved up onto the swim team and is doing amazing.  I sat down one day though and started doing the math.  I realized that I was putting one hundred miles a week on my car to bring the kids to swimming...about 5,000 miles a year!  Add the price of gas onto that and the fact that we drive an hour there and an hour home for 30 minutes of swimming for Ali and 45 minutes of swimming for Sofia.  It just was not worth it especially since Sofia really wanted to start swimming more than once a week.  I started looking around us for swim teams that also had learn to swim programs since Ali is not ready for swim team.  I spoke with Marshall who is the head coach at Envious to get his take on the different options.  We settled on the Westboro Tennis and Swim club which I will write about in a separate post.  The kids had their last practice with Envious on October 28th.  They were very sad to leave.  Hopefully we will have a chance over the course of the year to pop in to Envious to swim with the team since the kids would really enjoy that.  I made sure I snapped a couple pics before we left.  Here is Sofia with Marshall and a video of Ali diving with Dori.

Deer

We have deer that come to our yard.  We know they come because they are eating some of our bushes and most recently we know because they are kind enough to use our backyard as their personal toilet.  Apparently we will have to train the deer as we have trained Watson which is to only poop or pee in the woods!  I also think if they are going to eat my bushes and poop in my yard they should be kind enough to stop by when we can see them.  It is only fair!  I was finally rewarded with seeing the deer the other day.  I was sitting at the kitchen table and Watson was in the sun room.  He started barking like crazy.  I assume it was just a squirrel but he wouldn't stop barking so I got up to check to make sure it wasn't a coyote coming back into our yard.  I couldn't believe it when I got into the sun room and sure enough there were two deer standing at the edge of the woods.  I was surprised they hadn't run away with all Watson's barking and then with my movement walking into the sun room.  I turned around and called the girls in to see the deer.  Again even with the movement the deer stayed where they were.  I decided to go get my camera so I left eh sun room went upstairs to get my camera and change my lens and then come back to the sun room and the deer were still there.  They are clearly not shy of humans! I was able to snap a few shots before they wandered off.  We will be putting deer fencing up soon so that they won't be coming into our yard but I'm glad I got to see them at least once.

Freak Snow Storm

I can't believe we had a Nor'easter in October!  For those of you reading this who are not from the area a Nor'easter is basically a really bad storm.  You can read more on it HERE.  The problem with having a nor'easter in October is that all of the leaves are still on the trees.  The heavy snow sticks to all the leaves which become to heavy for the tree which then breaks limbs or completely falls over.  We watched the weather forecasts and we seem to be right on the line between the 4-8 inch band and the 8-12 inch band.  In the end I would say we got about 5-6 inches.  Throughout the evening Jason and I would go out and shakes the snow from the smaller trees/shrubs in our front yard in hopes of saving them.  By 11:30PM we went out for one last shake of the tree and to shovel the driveway.  The driveway was a giant pile of slush so we wanted to get it cleared before the temperatures dropped and we had 5 inches of ice.  We were fortunate in that we hadn't lost power all night when many people around the state had lost power.  We went to bed hoping for the best.  We woke up in the morning and still had power which was a big relief.  We had lost it at some point in the night since our clocks were flashing but that was easy to deal with.  We looked outside and despite being October and having snow on the ground it was beautiful.  The sun was shining and glistening off the snow.  We had breakfast and then headed out to tend to the yard and survey any damage.  We shoveled the driveway and shook the trees clear of snow.  Two trees had large branches snap but not enough to ruin the look of the tree.  One semi-big tree snapped its branches in two near the bottom so that had to be cut down but we didn't do it that day.  After clearing the driveway and shaking the trees we decided it would be better to enjoy the snow than to try to do any real clean up.  We got the sleds out and made two tracks down the hill in our backyard and the kids had a blast.  Jason and the girls had a snowball flight.     
Sofia was ready and had built a little snow wall to hide behind. While the snowstorm caused quite a bit of damage around town and around the State, we came through it relatively unharmed and were able to enjoy the fun of having our first snowstorm of the season.  The was enough damage around town though that the girls did not have school on Monday.  We will have to hope this is not a trend otherwise the girls will be in school until July.

Pumpkin Carving

While pumpkins seem to hit the shelves at the end of August I refused to purchase one until at least October.  I did decorate the house with fall items by mid September but pumpkins really mean Halloween to me.  Also I knew as soon as we bought pumpkins the kids would want to carve them and once a pumpkin is carved it does not last very long.  We waited until about a week before Halloween and went and bought our pumpkins from Harvey's Farm.  We all like going to Harvey's.  It is close to us and it is an organic farm and the farmer and his daughter are very nice people.  We bought to nice big pumpkins.      The girls decided how they wanted to carve their pumpkins.  Ali chose a design out of one of the pumpkin carving books but Sofia designed hers all by herself.  She got a piece of paper and drew what she wanted he jack-o-lantern to look like.  We taped it to the pumpkin and the cut it out.  I did the cutting but Sofia pushed all the pieces out of the pumpkin and she also sorted out her seeds from all the inside junk.  Jason cut Ali's pumpkin out but she also did the same as Sofia and sat there and separated all the seeds out of her pumpkin.  They were both happy with their end products.

Blogging slacker

I have been a blogging slacker.  For those who read the blog I apologize.  Life seems to by going by at high speed and before I realize it another week has gone by and I haven't blogged.  I will try to be better at writing regularly so you can keep up with our lives.

Marathon!

Yesterday I ran my first marathon.  I had done my training and was ready for the race.  We decided to sleep at my parent's house on Saturday night so that we would be a little closer to Newport for the drive in the morning and also so the kids could go to the race with my parents.  Since we had to leave the house by 5:15AM I did not want to have to get the kids up that early.  I packed all our stuff on Saturday which was very stressful for me as I kept feeling like I was going to forget something.  Thankfully I didn't forget anything.  I got up at 4:15AM on Sunday and got ready for the race....stuffed down two packets of oatmeal, showered and dressed.  Putting down two packets of oatmeal at 4:15AM is an accomplishment on its own!

Anyway, we headed off to the race in the pitch black of night.  We arrived at the parking lot by 6:30AM and got on one of the buses to the start line area.  Since there was no parking at the start/finish area we had to take shuttle buses from a designated parking lot.  We arrived at the start area and sat around in the rotunded on the beach (Easton's Beach/1st Beach in Newport) until it got close to race time.  I went to the bathroom and took all my extra layers off so that I was ready to race.  It was a little chilly to start but I stayed with my shorts and tank top since it was supposed to warm up.  I'm glad I did because once the sun came up it was blazing down on me for the entire race.  The first half of the race was fine except that I had to stop and use the porta-potty twice which is unusual for me.  Other than that my pace was fine, my legs were fine and I kept slowing myself down so that I didn't die on the second half of the race.  I kept thinking that the half marathon distance seems like nothing now which seems so strange since it seemed like a lot when I ran that distance before.  There was really not much wind to speak of on the first half of the race and I really enjoyed the section that ran along the ocean.  It was sunny and beautiful and the smell of the ocean air was awesome.  I completed the first half in two hours five minutes which was perfect for where I wanted to be and life was still good.  I continued past the finish line for the half marathoners and by mile fifteen I was looking for a potty again...not good.  I was meant to stop and stock up on powerade and power bar balls at mile fifteen when I saw Jason but all I could think about was a potty break so I just kept on to the next water station/porta-potty stop.  Thankfully that was the last time my stomach acted up.  After leaving the water station I started down a very looooong stretch.  OK, it was only about 1 1/2 to 2 miles but it was the windiest stretch of the race that it might as well have been ten miles long.  The sand was whipping off the beach and stinging my legs and I had to run at an angle into the wind so that I didn't get pushed sideways.  Fortunately I knew my family was waiting for me at the end of the wind tunnel so I kept pushing through and got some high fives, cow bell ringing, and pom pom shaking as I ran by my parents, kids, aunt, nephew, brother and sister in law.  Jason ran with me a few yards and stocked me up on power bar balls, gave me a pep talk and sent me on my way.  I rounded the bed and escaped the terrible wind.  I had six miles out and back with some big hills.  I did walk a little and had to fight my own mind telling me to quit.  I just kept thinking about what I have told Sofia with swimming her laps..."We don't quit! When we are tired we tell ourselves that we can do it and you push through to the end."  Her little face in my mind told me I could do it and I kept pushing myself.  I stopped to stretch out at one point because I could feel how stiff I was and my legs were like cement.  As I was stretching the EMT guy came over and asked me what hurt.  I  had to laugh because at mile 22 what didn't hurt.  He offered to spray my legs with what he said was a aerosol cold spray which acts like ice packs.  I said yes but I don't feel like it made anything better.  By that point I just kept telling myself, "two miles to Jason, two miles to Jason" since I knew he was waiting for me at mile 24 which was where there was a short but very steep hill.  Sure enough he was there and ran up the hill with me.  Oddly enough I am quite good at the steep hills and generally pick up my pace with shorter strides.  I powered through the hill and said bye to Jason as he took the short cut to the finish line.  I picked up my pace since I knew once I made it past mile 24 I was home free.  As I ran past a guy he said, "wooow where did you get that burst of energy?!".  I just said "don't ask. it might go away!" and I kept running picking up my pace for the final distance.  As I came near the finish I rocked it out and poured every last ounce of energy into my run.  They were annoucing people as they crossed the finish line but my name didn't get announced since they were annoucing the two girls in front of me as I blasted past them to the finish!  There is something about blasting past people near the end that is just fun.  The adrenaline of finishing before other people gives me the final burst to sprint to the finish.  Hopefully my finisher picture comes out better than my last race picture.  I always hope for a pretty finish picture but the mad dash to the end doesn't seem to lend itself to a nice pretty picture.  I'm ok with it though...a better finish time is better than a pretty picture!

Thank you to all my family who came to watch me in the race.  I know that it is a long race and means watch a lot of people that you don't know but it means a lot to me that you came and cheered me on.  The small amount of time it take to run past you gives a great emotional boost and kept me going.  It gave me goals to look forward to....just 4 miles to Uncle Joe and Aunt Joan, just 4 miles to Jason, oh look there is the rest of my family, just two miles and you will see the kids, mom and dad, Joe and Jen, Michael and Carlene again, 3 miles to Jason, 2 miles to Jason, you might see the family group again so don't walk now....they aren't there but at least you didn't walk, oh there is Jason, and the final stretch to the end!  I can't imagine running that distance without any friends and family along the route.  You all were my mile markers who kept me going.  THANK YOU!

The Fryeburg Fair

We left Sunday River at the end of the day on Saturday and headed to Jason's parent's house.  Jason had to work Saturday so he met us at his parent's house.  He didn't get to see the kids on Saturday since he didn't arrive until 10:30pm but at least he made it early than I had anticipated. 
We got up on Sunday and resumed our long weekend.  We took the kids to the Fryeburg Fair.  Jason and I hadn't been to the fair in years so we were also looking forward to seeing all the animals as well.  We spent about four to five hours at the fair.  We saw, dairy cows, beef cows, oxen, sheep, goats, draft horses, llamas, alpacas and pigs.  We watched some harness racing and the kids played one of the dart games where they each won a stuffed animal. 

We brought the kids into the little red school house. This was the school that was owned by Jason's family and used to be on their property. His grandmother went to school in this school house and donated it to the fair. They moved it from Jason's parent's property to the fairgrounds and restored it. It was nice for the kids to see it and there is a picture of Grammie in the school house. I got a little misty eyed myself since Grammie died while we were in Prague and it just kind of brought it home to me that she wasn't here anymore. I wanted to tell everyone in the school house that she wasn't just some random lady pictured on the wall and that she was an awesome woman who was caring and funny.  Before any tears slipped from my eyes though we moved on from the school house and watched some oxen plowing the land. 

We stopped in the alpaca barn and spoke with a guy there selling alpacas.  I was curious and asked how much they cost.  I'm amazed at the difference in price.  A non breeding male is only $300 whereas a breeding male can be around $20,000!  At $300 though I was curious and started asking more questions...how much does it cost to maintain them (a bale of hay every other week), what kind of house do they need (only a three sided structure year round), do they get along with dogs (depends on the dog).  By the time I got to "does it get along with dogs" question Jason was giving me a look and then told me that we aren't getting an Alpaca.  I know we aren't getting one but the idea is fun and they are such cute animals.  I guess I will just have to enjoy the one that lives down the road from us. The kids enjoyed seeing the alpacas and they even worked with the alpaca fur to prepare it for spinning.



Throughout the day we would stop and eat fair food...fried dough, fried snickers, fried Oreos, hot dogs, fries, lemonade and maple cotton candy.  I was excited to try the snickers and Oreo since it seems to be all the rage.  I can now say I don't get it.  They were not good.  I don't want a partially melted snickers with a greasy mess around it.  I would rather just have a snickers.  If I'm going to do anything with my snickers it is put it in the freezer.  The Oreo wasn't as bad as the snickers but again I would rather just have a plain Oreo.  I did not get the fried Twinkies that were for sale.  They are awful by themselves so I didn't think frying them was going to help their flavor at all.  I did however enjoy the fried dough and the maple cotton candy.  Rather then buy regular cotton candy we went into the sugar house at the fair where they were making maple syrup.  When we went in we realized that they were also making cotton candy made from maple sugar.  We couldn't pass that up and bought some.  It was good and had a maple flavor to it unlike regular cotton candy which just tastes like pure sugar. It was good day and after all that time we were ready to head back to the house and relax

Sunday River

This past weekend took some juggling to make happen but we managed to get away for the long weekend.  The girls and I drove up to Sunday River on Friday after school.  The trip should have been easy but there was an accident on the highway which extended our time int he car by about an hour and a half.  We did make it up to the condo and got the beds made and I put the kids to bed and read my book while I waited for my brother with his family and my parents to arrive.  They were also stuck in traffic and had a very long drive.  I gave up by 11pm and went to bed.  They arrived around 11:30 to find their beds all made.  I figured that was the least I could do after their 5 hour drive turned into 8 hours.  In the morning we got up and had breakfast together and then headed up to the mountain to watch the Wife carrying contest.  It is a very fun race to watch but I will not be a participant in that race. We went to the craft fair at the mountain and then stopped in one of the shops and got the kids ski helmets since they were 50% off so 2 helmets only cost $60. We had lunch and dropped my parents off at the condo since they wanted to rest and my brother, his wife, son and me and the girls went back to the mountain. We took the lift up to the top and hiked down the mountain. The kids really had fun doing that. It took us about an hour to hike our way down the mountain.  The trails seem much steeper without any snow.  By the time we were near the bottom my thighs were starting to burn!  We took the lift up again once we reached the bottom but took it back down again rather than hiking down a second time.  It was a lot of fun hiking with the kids.  I'm looking forward to doing some hikes next summer with them. 

Friends and candy

The girls have really started making friends which I'm happy about.  Two of their friends they met during their tennis lesson in the summer.  The friends, Emma and Kyra, are sisters and they are also 7 and 6 years old so it makes a perfect pairing.  You never know which kids will hit it off with each but these four have really clicked.  They crack me up when they see each other they yell out names and run to each other and give big hugs.  What makes it even funnier is that they have made up candy nicknames for each other.  Sofia is Skittles, Emma is M&M, Kyra is KitKat, and the best one is Ali as Almond joy!  If you notice all the candy names start with the same letter as their first names so I guess they couldn't think of any other candy that started with an A so Ali got Almond Joy.  It is fun to watch them together.

A Birthday Party

Ali was invited to her first birthday party of the school year.  When the e-vite came through on my email I had to ask the girls who knew a boy names Owen.  This didn't help since they apparently both have boys named Owen in their classes.  I moved onto the last name and found a winner.  The invite was for Ali to go to a Super Hero party.  The day came for the party and since Ali doesn't know who the superheros are and does not have any superhero gear I put her into a dress that had butterflies on it and told her if anybody asked her superhero power was to turn into a butterfly.  She was fine with them.  We arrived at the party and the mom was ready for kids who were not in costume.  She had capes ready for kids who needed them and then everybody sat down to decorate their superhero wrist bands.  After decorating the wristbands the kids put them on and then headed into the gymnasium (the party was held at the Boston Sports Club) for Superhero training school.  The mom went for about 45 minutes keeping the kids engaged in superhero exercises.  I was exhausted watching her!  The dad came in at the end as the evil clown and dropped plastic balls all over the floor and then he climbed into a box that came below his waist and the kids all picked up the balls and threw them at him.  He was a good sport because he must have gotten hit in the face with plastic balls at least five times.  After getting all the balls back in the box the kids lined up and filed back to the party room for cake and ice cream.  Ali had fun at the party.  It was nice to see her interact with her new friends.  She was ready to go home though by the end of the party.  I guess that is a sign of a good party...all the kids exhausted!

Chalkboard

Ever since seeing my friend's house in Prague with a chalkboard painted onto the wall I have wanted to do the same.  I thought it was such a brilliant idea.  The kids can draw on the wall, they can do homework, I can write grocery lists and keep track of schedules.  Once we moved into our new home I had discussed the idea with Jason.  He wasn't sold on the idea and he couldn't remember ever seeing the chalkboard in our friend's house.  I kept mentioning it and then finally I went and bought black poster board and taped it to the wall so that he could get a sense of what it would look like.  He finally agreed that we should paint the wall.  There is a company in a nearby town that sells magnetic chalkboard paint so rather than wait for delivery I drove over and picked up the paint.  I then headed to home depot for the correct roller and brush and tape to form the chalkboard rectangular shape.  It took me one afternoon to complete the painting and then we let it stand for a week without using it.  We have now been using the chalkboard for a couple weeks and it has been great.  I put the calendar up for the week so everyone can see the schedules.  The kids know when they have library, P.E., soccer, swimming, and tennis.  We all know what days Jason is going into work early.  We also list any oddities like when the sprinkler guy is coming or book fairs etc.  On the bottom half of the board the girls practice their spelling and math and when we aren't doing homework they draw fun pictures.  Most of our time is spent in our kitchen and having the chalkboard in the kitchen just adds to the fun we can have in the heart of our home.

Apple Picking

Every year in Prague I wanted to go apple picking.  It just seemed to me to be an integral part of fall.  Having lived in a town in New Hampshire with five apple orchards we had our choice of places to go.  I looked and looked but could not find any place in or around Prague that had pick your own apples.  People have apple trees in their yards and that is it.  Last fall we lived next to an old apple orchard that produced tiny apples.  They were quite tasty and we did pick enough to eat as well as make an apple crisp but they were too small to make large quantities of apple sauce.  This year I couldn't wait to go apple picking.  One of the benefits of moving back to the states is that i could continue my fall activity of apple picking.  I was excited to bring the kids since they don't remember going apple picking.  We went to an orchard pretty close to our house and it was packed with people.  I have never been to an orchard that was so busy.  Once you were out in the trees though it didn't seem crowded and we had a lot of fun picking apples. 
Jason put the girls on his shoulders to pick some apples up high in the trees.  When we finished picking our bushel of apples we headed back to the little hut selling cider donuts.  There were so many people at the orchard this weekend that they limited the number if cider donuts to 6 per group.  It is a good thing they limited it because we definitely would have eaten more than we should have.  The donuts were so fresh that they were still warm!  By far the best cider donuts I've ever had.  Since the main store was so crowded and they ran out of cider we called it a day at the orchard and headed home.  We stopped at a farm stand on the way home to pick up some apple cider to make the day complete.

Happy Anniversary

A little late but Happy Anniversary to us!  Jason and I celebrataed 14 years of marriage on September 20th.  It is hard to believe that it was 14 years ago.  We would be in Jamaica now if we were reliving that time.  In some ways it seems like yesterday.  It just doesn't seem possible that we could have done all the things we've done in only 14 years.  They have been a good 14 years of change and growing but always doing the changing and growing together.  I am looking forward to our years ahead and wonder what they will bring us.  Whatever the years bring I know that we will be together as strong as ever. Happy Anniversary!

Running

Running has been my outlet for all my feelings.  Moving back to the States has been difficult at times and my feelings have been all over the place...happy, sad, frustrated, excited etc.  I have maintained my running to maintain my sanity.  I can be near to tears and go for a run and come back refreshed and ready to tackle any issue in front of me.  It has been my rock to cling to in this big transition in my life.  It is solid and gives me something that I can have complete control over.  I joked with my friends before leaving Prague that I would probably do a marathon when I moved back to the States because I would have no friends and would just be running all the time.  Well, that statement is only partly true.  I have made friends and I have a lot to do but I need my running to keep me grounded.  I needed a goal to reach and give me focus with my running so I have been training for a marathon.  I NEVER thought I would run a marathon but here I am training for one.  I have been very good at sticking to my training schedule with an easy run, a speed run and a long run.  My easy runs have been a bit longer than planned becuase Jason and I have been running together with the kids on their bikes but it is a very pleasurable run.  My speed work has been more of a challenge but is getting easier.  I have started to run with my friend Margaret who keeps a faster pace.  I will basically run whatever pace the person I'm with is running so if she runs at an 8:12 pace then I do to.  We have actually been playing off each other though so we are both running to keep up with each other which just makes me laugh.  The long runs I've been doing by myself which I think is good since I will be by myself for the marathon.  My long runs increase every week so for the last few weeks I have had a new personal distance every week which feels good to accomplish.  Yesterday I ran my first 20 mile run and while it was not the best run, which I blame on the high humidity, I still completed it without any walking and with an average pace of 9:51 per mile.  I have a few weeks to go before the marathon on October 16th but I'm excited to run it and in addition to running it I'm excited to see my family (parents, aunts, uncles) along the race route since all the long races I've done have been in Prague without my family.  I'll keep you posted on how I do in the marathon.

Changing clothes

Jason came home from work the other day and after coming in to greet everyone he said that he was going to go change.  Once he was upstairs Sofia asked, "why does Daddy always change when he gets home from work?".  I explained that just like she would change out of her school uniform before to comfy clothes that Daddy also likes to change out of his work clothes to comfy clothes.  I said that now that she doesn't have a uniform and can where her comfy clothes to school she doesn't have to change anymore.  This made sense to here and just to confirm we were on the same page she said, "like you don't do anything so you can wear whatever you want.".  I just had to laugh which she realized meant that those words weren't right so she tried again..."I mean you don't work." which also brought on a laugh.  I knew what she was getting at but she couldn't find the correct words to use to express what she was feeling.  Coming from someone else it might bother me but coming from her I'm ok with it.  She knows I do a lot and often says that she finds what I do a lot of boring work and doesn't want to be a mom who has to do everything so I'm not offended by her words but it is funny to hear my daughter say "I don't work" and "I don't do anything".

Soccer!



Ali is number 8.  It was nice to see her getting right in there
 with the opposing team.

Town soccer has arrived.  I have talked about town soccer to the girls for a while since they were so hesitant to play.  I played soccer all growing up and want my girls to enjoy it as I did so I told them all the fun they would have to get them excited to play.  Since we had loads of rain last week both of the girls practices were cancelled but the coaches had the teams meet at Bill's Pizza in town so the kids could meet and hang out together as well as get their shirts and talk to their coach for a little bit.  We showed up to the field on Saturday at 8:30 for Ali's first soccer game.  Her team is not very agressive and they were creamed by the other team but they all  had a great time.  They did manage to score a couple goals which is good since their are no goalies.  Ali had such a good time.  I was thrilled!  After her game Jason and the girls headed home for a while before heading back to the field for Sofia's game at 1pm.  I went for my long run and managed to fit in 16 miles of running and made it back just in time for the start of Sofia's game.  Her team also was not as agressive and lost to the other team but score isn't kept and the kids didn't seem to care.  They had a blast on the field and since their games are one hour long by the end they were beat.

After leaving the game and heading home the kids wanted to play more soccer at home.  They played for quite a while on Saturday and then called it quits near the end of the day.  By then they had had enough exercise.  Sofia even pointed out that Ali, Sofia, and Daddy (since Jason played soccer with them in the backyard) had gotten a lot of exercise and mommy hadn't.  I was astonished and pointed out that I did run 16 miles to which she responded that that was just running and I did 14 last week.  Oh well...I guess I will be playing soccer next weekend to ensure I get enough exercise!

Swimming Update

The girls are continueing to swim.  They really enjoy swimming.  Sofia has moved up to the swim team which she is very proud of and she should be!  The person closest in age to her on her team is her friend Zoe who is two years older than Sofia.  Zoe is a really nice girl and couldn't believe Sofia was only seven.  She gave her a "good job" with a high five when she founf out.  It was very cute.  The swim team is a lot of work.  They swin lengths of the pool so they end of swimming a lot.  It is so much that I can't keep track but it is easily 400 meters (1/4 mile) of swimming and probably more.  I will have to ask her coach how far they are swimming each practice.  By the end she is exhausted.  She has been practicing her dives as well and she is finally figuring it out.  last week was the first time she entered the water in a dive and didn't bellyflop.  Ali is also doing well and has moved up into the Marlins group.  She is working on all her strokes but her biggest issue is figuring out the breathing.  It doesn't seem to matter if she is doing breaststroke or freestyle she has to tread water for a second to catch her breath in between strokes.  She is getting there though.  She has started doing flip turns at the wall and starting to attempt diving off the platforms.

Here is Sofia doing breaststroke:

Here is Ali doing freestyle:

Here is Sofia Diving off the platform:

Homework

Now that the kids are back in school they have homework every night.  I was sitting with Ali while she read her book out loud to me when I looked down and saw Watson at our feet.  I guess he wanted a little time to do his own reading....

1st Day of School

The girls started their new schools last week.  Sofia was very excited to start her new school.  She couldn't wait to ride on the bus and meet new friends.  She was excited to meet her new teacher and to see where she would be sitting in her classroom.  Ali was a little more tentative.  She was excited to start school and make new friends .  She was excited about meeting her teacher and she had already seen her classroom which she liked.  She was a little nervous about going on the bus and about not knowing anyone at her school.  The way that the school system is set up in our town the girls go to two different schools this year so Ali was a little worried about not having her big sister around. 

Since the girls go to different schools they have different bus pick up/drop off times.  Sofia's bus picks her up at the end of our driveway at 7:40 and Ali's bus picks her up at 8:30.  Ali came outside with Sofia for the first day which was great.  She got to see the bus and the bus driver as well as see Sofia climb on the bus with great enthusiasm.  The bus driver had to tell Sofia to turn around to say bye to us since she was so excited to get on the bus she wasn't looking back.  When the bus came back around to pick up Ali the bus driver was great.  She said, "good morning Ali! Your sister just told me all about you."  Ali climbed on the bus and sat down with a little uncertainty in her eyes but no tears.  By the time she came home on the bus the fear of the bus was gone.  Now she climbs on and off the bus as if she has been doing it forever.

This school year is an adjustment for me as well.  I had to put my babies on that big scary yellow bus all by themselves to go to a place we don't know to teachers I have never met.  The classroom sizes are much bigger also.  They are used to having 12 kids in their classes and now they each have 21.  I worry about them getting lost in the shuffle, especially Ali.  The work they have been bringing home seems very simplistic but I'm hoping that will change as we settle into the year.  If nothing else I will just continue to have them read the more advanced level and more complicated math at home.  I don't want Sofia to get bored and I don't want Ali to accept work below her ability.  I'm hoping that once we have the first school meetings in a couple weeks that I will feel more comfortable with their new schools and that I will be able to get more involved.  Right now it feels like their school life is completely disconnected from me.  Like I said, it is an adjustment for me too. 


All my worries and concerns don't seem to be even a consideration for Sofia and Ali.  They are both happy with their teachers and thrilled with their respective schools.  They are making friends...Ali with two girls whose names she can't remember (very Ali!) and Sofia has already proclaimed she has a best friend and fortunately for us she lives about a half mile down the road.