We had such a fun and busy summer with camps, swimming, camping, and ticking things off our summer bucket list. We even hosted a car show and remodeled the kids' bathroom.
We did lots of swimming with friends and playing outside: Cannonball!
Wheeeeeeee!
A fun swing on the neighbor's tarzan ropes (a month before the monsoon storm uprooted this tree)...
The first week off after school got out, Addisyn and Piper attended Vacation Bible School (VBS)
at our church. Going home on the last day, Addisyn said, "Why is VBS only one week long?"
Because she had so much fun, she wishes she could do it for longer. The theme was "Workshop of Wonders" so each day they would Build/Grow/Walk/Work/Imagine-with God".
Thank you Lisa and all the volunteers.
Addisyn and Piper also started swim lessons and an introductory synchronized swimming summer program.
Swim lessons were at Montgomery middle school for 8 days in June. It is so nice to be able to trust them in the water now. By the end of summer I even stopped "mommy's mandatory swim test" for Addisyn before letting her in the deep end. Piper I still regulated how far she was allowed to go, but she could swim across the short end of the pool fine.
They did an intro to synchronized swimming on Saturdays and participated in the team's annual Water Show in the end of July. The girls were in a group of 8 and did a synchronized routine to the theme song of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was cute watching the beginners do their kick/swim routine with kickboards to keep them afloat, and amazing watching the championship team! They got to keep their green swim cap and TMNT kickboards as souvenirs. Kirsten, a team graduate, helped coach the girls this summer (pictured below, in her Wonder Woman costume with the girls). At home, we had fun practicing putting our feet in the air in the living room, and set up blankets over chairs and the baby fence to create a sort of water/stage for pretend shows at home. The girls may have struggled with the distances they were required to swim this summer, but they loved it and want to sign up for the team in the fall.
Learning "smiling back"....
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Another new thing the girls did was YMCA camp one week. Mommy really wanted to break up the summer and the girls thought "Swim & Gym" camp sounded fun. We signed up with their friend Alli G and drove to Santee 5 days in a row so they could do gymnastics and swim every day.
Marissa definitely had to be flexible with our changing schedules this summer. Her poor nap schedule kept getting interrupted (third child syndrome?), but she was a sport, playing hard and napping when we let her.
The kids and I checked off lots of things on our "Summer Bucket List", including Sea World 3x, Library visits, bike riding, ice skating, movies at the movie theater (first time!), spray park, sewing, knitting, taking the boat out, lots of visits to Grandma Ann.
Posing with the acrobats at Sea World's Cirque de la Mer... they were very impressed with this show!
Love, love, love seeing Grandma reading to the girls:
Both Addisyn and Piper learned how to ride their bicycles without training wheels. Addisyn learned at South Carlsbad in July, and Piper learned at the same campground, the following trip in August. Grandma's park was a great place to practice...
Another great place to practice was at the bay--the girls and I rode around the bay all the way to the playground. I'm proud we did this together. Marissa did her favorite thing--hanging!
In addition to our big Big Bear trip, beach camping was popular this year. We camped at South Carlsbad a few times. The girls even got new boogie boards...
Marissa napped at the beach two days in a row: First on a blanket...
The kids thought bike riding at night with glow sticks in our spokes was cool:
Our house was a bit of a disaster with not having a lot of time/energy to clean, routine changes, and the demolition and construction in the girls' bathroom.
The bathroom project took a month in all, a test in patience. It came out great, in particular, I like the shelves and knobs in the bath/shower. In demo, we discovered termite damage, water damage, and had a close call with a burst weak pipe--thankfully the workers knew where the water shut-off was! Marissa was friendly with the workers, saying "Hi!" every time they came in or out the door. The bathroom was complete in early August, with the finishing touches in mid-August. I oops-ed and delayed the project one day when I let the kids all water color the walls... they were begging to help paint the bathroom and I had told them they could paint, so I compromised and let them water paint the walls. I thought water colors would just wash off or get painted over, but the color bled through the paint and our painter had to go buy oil-based primer and put a few extra coats on to cover it up. *Note to self: if we do it again, only let the kids paint behind where a cabinet will completely cover it, or let them paint after demo but before final stages.
Summer would not be complete without a sparkling fun Independence Day. We party hopped on July 4th. Grandma Ann's for the "parade", then the neighbor's for swimming, and one more party for sparklers!
We enjoyed a few afternoons with the boat in San Diego Bay:
And, some more miscellany summer fun...
Addisyn and I made a cereal box marble maze. Piper made one too (not pictured).
We had fun discovering at the Museum of Music in Carlsbad after watching Uncle Jerry at a motorcycle event.
Since we saw a billboard for the circus after reading a book about the circus, the timing was perfect. They got to go on the floor for a pre-show and try on costumes and sit on one of the motorcycles.
The kids were in school this day, but I enjoyed providing the venue for my mom & dad's luncheon after their car show one morning in August.
School started August 20, but our summer heat stayed through all of September. Thank you SDGE for raising our electric rates on the hottest month of the year when our AC was working all hours (Sarcasm!). We will have solar installed before next summer!
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