Holy Cow - It's an Update!

So, it has been forever since an update, right? All I can say is three kids, tax season, busy husband, yada yada yada. I promise to do better. No really. So here goes....

Well, school is out for both Madeleine and James so summer has officially begun for us. We started swim lessons this week and will be doing those through Thursday of next week. M and J are in the same class; I drop them off at 2pm each day and pick them up at 2:40. Then I get in the pool with Charlotte at 3:45 for her lesson. I started J at just under 2 years old in swimming lessons and he hated it. He screamed the entire time, through all 8 lessons. The instructor said that starting them earlier, before the toddler phase, tends to work better so that's what I'm trying with Charlotte. So far she seems to like the water. She was a little scared at first, but now she is getting used to it.

Speaking of C, she is officially crawling now. She is 10 months old today and started really crawling about a week ago. Her cousin Taylor was walking around 10 months, but then John is a pediatric physical therapist, so what do you expect? :-) Both M and J crawled around 10 months so C is keeping up with them developmentally so far. M was probably a little more talkative at this point, but C has two siblings to talk for her. It is so much fun to watch M and J play together and with C. It makes me wonder if I got along with my siblings as well at that age.

Brannon took the older two kids sailing last night while I hosted bookclub at the house. The sailboat was delivered last week and he has been dying to take it out again. He is keeping it at WhiteRock Lake at the Corinthian Sailing Club. The kids were a little scared at first, but ended up loving it. B had a friend who is very experienced at sailing (and has taken his own kids sailing) meet him there last night to help out. I don't think it would be a good idea to have the kids on the boat with just one adult. B said his friend was a great help and had a blast with the kids too. I made a lasagna for bookclub and the other girls brought a salad, bread, appetizers, wine and desert. And they all helped with clean up! It was so nice!

M starts kindergarten in the fall at Christ the King. Can you believe it? They have several social events planned throughout the summer to help the kids and patents get to know each other before school starts. They also assign each kindergartener a host family - a family who has been at CTK with their older children and who also has a kindergartener starting in the fall. That way you have someone to ask questions of and who can give you advice and tips. I've been really impressed with the school so far. Plus we've been going to church there for years and I've been a member of the moms group there for years so we already feel like part of the community.

Well, I'm off to pick the big kids up from their swim lesson. I hope to update the blog more this summer... nothing fancy, just what's happening in our lives. Maybe it will help me remember what happened at this time when I am working on the kids' scrapbooks.... hopefully computers will still be around then. :-)