Scenes from a Summer's Day ~ Aug 13th

Today was Life-saving Day once again for my boys, and the first time this year for the girls. They did wonderfully.

In fact, they are doing so well, that Myrna often uses my little 3 year old Chiquita as an example for the older girls (5, 6 and 7) in the class. I am so amazed that just last Monday I had to be in the water with them, and this week they were moved to a big girl class and have been given the techniques to save their lives if they were to fall in the water.

On life-saving day, the children arrive to their lesson fully dressed, and have to jump into the water, roll over onto their back, and then "be a starfish" and hold very still as they slowly float to the wall.

Here you can see Twinkle Toes... She is doing so great!

My brother says that he thinks these pictures are creepy since the kids are "just floating in the water fully dressed" but I think they are AWESOME since they show just how well the children are learning.

They also have learned that the more they move around while they are on their back, the quicker they get tired, and the harder it is to breathe.

They also learned what to do in case they fell in the water with a life jacket on.

Snuggles was not able to attend his class today since I had to get to a chiropractic appointment. I somehow threw out my neck and jaw, which I found out, has been the cause of a horrible headache I have had for the last couple months! I have another appointment on Friday...


If I have a chance, I will try and post a few pictures from the boys class... I was having fun playing with the continuous shooting mode on my camera! :) See you soon!

Scenes from a Summer's Day ~ Aug 5th

Relay Races...


Great Auntie B came to help...


First time off the diving board this year...

"I want to be a dolphin too-ah!"

All tuckered out...

A Very First Swimming Lesson

Snuggles had his very first swimming lesson on Monday. He LOVED it!

First he got use to being in the water...

Then he said hello to his big brothers.

He had a blast splashing.

It was so cute! He usually HATES being in water.

He worked on using his arms.

And then he learned about floating on his back.

He did great...

...and was just as snuggly as ever!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Graduation Day!

Life-saving Day

Each summer my children look forward to their swimming lessons.

They love the water, they love to swim, and the love their teacher, Myrna. She has actually been teaching children to swim for over 50 years, and is the best teacher EVER! I have known Myrna since I was a teenager, and her and her husband are wonderful friends of our family. In fact, she taught most of my brothers and sisters to swim! We are so blessed to have her teaching our own children to swim.

When Captain was almost 5 years old, he was not speaking very well at all, and we were looking at the possibility of him needing speech therapy. Myrna heard about this, called me, and told me that she would like to give Captain some private swimming lessons. By the end of the 2 week session, he was speaking. It was amazing. I guess the cross patterning of swimming helps develop the part of the brain used for Auditory Processing. In fact, Captain has been excelling with his tutor this last week and a half and is progressing by leaps and bounds in reading. This afternoon he walked up to me and read me a whole Dr. Seuss book without making a mistake, which is a huge achievement for him.

Anyhow, today was day 7 of their 8 swimming lessons. It is also known as "Life-saving Day."

Today Myrna worked on teaching the children a swim-survival-safety technique that she has developed over her 50 year career. "It is based on a controlled method of teaching infants/babies to roll to their backs after submersion and to be able to sustain a floating position until help arrives. This bridges the "danger" gap until the baby/child is old enough to learn to swim and take breaths on their own. This method has been credited for saving many toddlers and children's lives around water."

The boys had to arrive today, to their swimming lessons, fully dressed (with their swimsuits under their clothing). Myrna taught them what they would need to do in the event that they fell into a pool, lake or any body of water.

She had the children jump into the pool, and roll onto their back into the "starfish" position.

She also had them practice with life-jackets on as well.


"Ready... GO!"

(I just love watching Rascal jump/dive!)

Then she taught the children how to join hands and form a circle...


...and then how to cuddle to stay warm.


They also learned the position to get into to signal "help!"


Today she ended the class with a "pony" race.

Captain was very excited to finish in 1st place.

Twinkle Toes watched intently. The girls will be taking swimming lessons in August, and are really looking forward to it as well. In the meantime, they have been enjoying the pool Snuggles received for his birthday. Too bad Snuggles isn't enjoying it... He likes it about as much as he likes getting a bath -- which is NOT AT ALL!!

Thank you Myrna for blessing us with these wonderful lessons. We love YOU!!!!

At the Hotel

On day 6 of our trip we pretty much spent the whole day at the hotel, just visiting with my hubby's parents and getting ready for the Ordination the next day.

The kids were SO excited to see their Grandparents and be able to spend some time with them.


The kids were also very excited that there was a pool in our hotel, and that they were able to swim for the first time this year. Even daddy got in the pool with his girls.

We really were quite busy that first week of our trip, weren't we?!? WOW!!