Updates

Wow!  I can't believe how quickly the summer passed this year!  Here is a little update.

The girls loved swim team!  They both did well, and their swimming skills have greatly improved.  Hailey is indeed more comfortable in the water after spending some time at the pool this summer.  She did take one session of swimming lessons, but spent most of the time saying "no, thank you" when asked to participate.

The frogs were indeed bull frogs.  Daisy did not make it very long after she completed her metamorphosis.  Ribbity-hoppers was doing quite well, but recently met his demise.  I actually think one of the girls' friends may have gotten a bit rough with him.

We had TONS of Monarch caterpillars on our milkweed this year.  There were so many that the milkweed is now bare.  Unfortunately we did not have very good luck getting them to become butterflies this year.  The first 2 we had successfully became butterflies, however we did not have any others that we brought inside successfully eclose.  I think there may have been a parasite issue.  We have had to settle for watching them in the wild this year.  The girls have missed being able to release them, though.

Unfortunately we also lost 2 very special pets this summer.  Our 7 year old chow/shepherd mix, Maggie, passed away very unexpectedly at the end of July.  It was quite a shock to all of us.  She had been with us since Madeline was 5 months old, and they essentially picked each other out.  A couple of weeks later our guinea pig, Abby, passed away as well.  She was almost 6, and had clearly led a long, happy life.  The girls have a lot of happy memories with both pets, and miss them both.

Hailey and Maggie

Maggie on a hike with the girls and me.  She was always our "protector."

Abby

We have, however, added a new member to our family.  We adopted an Australian Shepherd puppy, Addison.  He is very loving and playful.  He is neither timid nor aggressive.  He seems to have just the right personality for our family!  He plays well with the girls and is ready for any adventure.  The girls have taken on the challenge of training him, and have done some reading and learning about how to train dogs.

Madeline and Addison

Addison on an adventure with the girls.

Addison also follows our other dog, Wrigley, around everywhere she goes (although he does not nap nearly as much as she does).

Addison and Wrigley

So, all in all it has been a very eventful summer.  We are now getting settled into a fall schedule.

A New Adventure...

Madeline and Isabella decided to take on a new activity this summer, swim team.  We talked about it last year, but decided that they were not quite ready, or rather Isabella, who REALLY wanted to swim was not ready, so we decided to wait a year for both of them.  This year I was still a bit concerned about Isabella and her swimming ability.  She seemed to do more treading water than swimming, and honestly scared every adult who watched her swim.  They were excited, and I knew after watching a couple of practices last year that there were several kids on the team who were not real strong swimmers, so we signed them up.

I have to say that after watching them in practice, I was still concerned about Isabella being able to swim across the pool for her first meet.  I was surprised when she said that she did not want a coach in the pool with her when she swam her first race, and shocked when she jumped in and swam the entire lap without stopping.  She even came in third.  She then went on to swim backstroke and a relay.  I was so very proud of her!

Madeline did equally as well!  She swam two relays, freestyle and backstroke.  She was just touched out for first place in the freestyle.  When I asked her what her favorite thing was about the meet, I was surprised that she did not say the freestyle race, but instead she said that her favorite parts were the relay because she got to make new friends and work as a team; and backstroke, because she made up a song while she was swimming.  She also pointed out how beautiful the setting sun looked on the water as the meet ended.  You never know what amazing stuff is going on in their heads!

Swimming!

I have been meaning to get some pictures of the girls swimming since they were taking lessons months ago. I finally got around to it.

Hailey spends most of her time in the shallow water. She has gotten braver as the summer has progressed, but she is still unwilling to put more than her mouth in the water.

Madeline loves jumping in these days.

She has even gone off the diving board more than a few times this year.

She can swim the length of the pool and back, but really prefers the doggie paddle.

Isabella is a great back floater, which I really envy because I have always hated to float on my back.

She has figured out how to swim a good distance, but tires easily, and I don't let her swim too far from me because of that. She has actually gone off of the diving board this year a couple of times, but is not really a strong enough swimmer to be doing that. A few more lessons and I'm sure she will be ready to do it without scaring me.

The water slide was by far Hailey's favorite part of the pool this year.

Isabella (and Madeline) enjoyed it too. Isabella always wanted to be caught by the life guard, but unlike the diving board, she was able to swim from the slide to the ladder with little difficulty (not quite as far).

Now I just have to decide what we are going to do this year to keep their swimming skills up. I know that Madeline and Isabella really want to be on the swim team next summer, so I want to be sure that they are ready!