July 29 - Painting Project

While Julia is at camp this week, Luke and I are painting her room (don't worry, she picked out the color). Luke and I have never painted anything before so..it may not be the most professional paint job but we are having fun! We are about 90% done. Can't wait for her to see it!

Should we keep the 'Luke' ? Hehe

July 26 - Zombie Apocalypse

 

Julia, Reese & Kennedy are at Agnes Arnold this week (Girl Scout camp), north of Houston. The theme for the week is "Zombie Apocalypse" and the girls have a fun filled week packed with swimming, archery, kayaking and rife shooting. 

All of the parents were required to fill out a covid monitoring form (7 days prior to camp) and they did rapid covid-tests at check-in for all campers. The girls will only be around their 9 person group so in the event of a breakout (fingers crossed there isn't one as Julia and her friends are all vaccinated), only those 9 girls will be impacted. It's going to be a HOT week but they are in cabins on a lake and hopefully they will get a nice breeze. Parents weren't allowed to get out of the cars doing check-in so this was the only pic I got (literally hanging out of the car). Happy Monday everyone!

July 22 - Swim Lessons

 

After 2 weeks of lessons, Jillian "graduated" today to the next level. She had a great experience at Aquastar Learn to Swim and I was impressed by the coaches. Here is Jillian with her friend Kara, who also moved up. Great job girls! 

July 19 - Braces 2.0

Albert, Addison, Julia & Hannah

We have another child in braces, welcome to the braces club Julia!! As Julia doesn't have a toothy smile, it was hard to get a good pic but trust me, she has them and her mouth is a tad sore. 

She got them last Thursday morning before the last day of summer school. After school (I'm the "pick up" part of the carpool), I treated the kids to ice cream afterwards and they were all excited for the treat. During the summer school session, the kids had to do a lot of typing, research future careers, college programs and mapped out their high school schedules (obviously none of this is set in stone). 

Albert: Albert wants to go Stanford and be a mechanical engineer

Addison: Addison wants to go to A&M and be a veterinarian 

Julia: Julia wants to go to UCLA and be a geologist 

Hannah: Hannah wants to go to Harvard and be a radiologist

Kennedy (not shown): Kennedy wants to go to University of Houston and work with CPS

Big goals for these kids! (also expensive schools for Albert, Julia & Hannah LOL). 

Happy Monday everyone!

July 16 - Summer Champ Meet

Crichton, Adam, Kaleb, Luke

The summer champ meet was this past weekend and I couldn't be more proud of the kids. 

Luke

Medley Relay: Luke swam the free leg of the relay and they won easily (15+ seconds). They also had a best time and just missed the team record for this event. He has been with the same group of boys for the last several years and it's great to see them cheering for each other. 

Free: Luke absolutely rocked the free, dropping 1.5 secs from 2 weeks prior and placing 3rd!! Go Luke!!

Breast: 7th place and another best time!!

Fly: 6th place and yes, once again-BEST TIME!!!

Free Relay: Luke was the leadoff swimmer for the free relay (meaning he is the 2nd fastest) and nailed it. All the boys did-once again, they beat the 2nd place team by about 15 secs and had a best time!! So proud!!

Ava, Julia, Erin, Kennedy

Julia

Medley Relay: on paper, there was no way the girls could win this race. The Fins had Laine, the fastest Aquastar swimmer and one of the fastest swimmers in the state of Texas. The only way to win is if every one of them had the race of their lives. And they delivered. They all had best times, dropped 3.7 secs and out-touched the Fins for the win. So exciting!

Free: I'm still in shock over this race. Julia swam a 26.88 and was out-touched by Laine. This is a USA AA cut and just missed the state championship qualification time by 0.3. Just, WOW! Julia was super proud of this 2nd place finish!

Back: 2nd place! Another best time!

Fly: 5th place and yes, another best time!

Free Relay: once again, the girls needed all best times to beat the Fins. Jen (Kennedy's mom) and I happened to be in the stands next to the Fin parents during the race and let me tell you, it was intense. There was a lot of cheering and some parents even jumping up and down on the bleachers. It was another close relay with Laine and Julia as the anchors. Laine was trying to chase Julia down (Laine split 25.74 which is insane for a 12 year old) but Julia held her off for the win. 

It was a great meet-the Fins won the championship by 9 points, their first win since 1977. We were thrilled to be relay champions but excited for their team as well. Orcas came in 2nd. Great summer swim season!

July 15 - Learn to Swim

Aquastar has a summer swim program called "Learn to Swim" and Jillian started this week. It's a 30min lesson every day for 2 weeks with a small teacher to student ratio. The first day, all of the kids were quietly standing next to their parents waiting to be called over. All the kids except..you guessed it, Jillian. Jillian decided to do "stretches" which consisted of crunches and then some interesting arm movements. It was hilarious! She loves teacher, Coach Lauren, and the other kids in her class (her friend Kason & new friend, Grace).  

How adorable are these little ones?!

Walking to the pool

Little friends

Donut treat after practice!

July 8 - First Haircut & Flowers

Prior to covid, Julia's last haircut was in August 2019. Needless to say, she has been in dire need of a trim, she was starting to resemble cousin It! I took her to a local salon on Friday and they trimmed off 3" (she could have easily done 6-8). Jillian came with me as JD was still at work and they ended up giving her a quick trim too. Her first haircut! She kept tossing her mask off (which is why she is maskless in the pics) but she did sit relatively quiet while they cut her hair and to my great surprise, she didn't talk the woman's ear off. 

I am also loving having a camera again, look at these beautiful flowers in our back garden. JD planted this butterfly garden for the kids and the flowers are coming in nicely. It's been raining a ton here (hours a day for weeks now) so that helps too. 

Happy Thursday everyone!

July 6 - Do You Have a Girlfriend?

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! On Saturday, I drove 4 girls and another mom downtown to do an Indiana Jones themed escape room (we were celebrating the birthday of a swim friend & the mom asked me to drive as she drives a Prius). Julia and the other girls had a blast! They didn't "escape" but they were pretty close. Afterwards, we headed out for pizza and ice cream. 

On Sunday, JD and the big kids played tennis while Jillian and I headed to the pool. Our neighborhood does an annual 4th of July party that is always fun. This year they had a DJ, hot dogs, chips and a Kona Ice truck (free snowcones!). Jillian and I spent almost 4H at the pool swimming and eating. It was a blast! JD grilled out hamburgers for dinner and then Jillian and I curled up for a movie..and I promptly fell asleep at 8.30pm! LOL

We attempted a swimming lesson yesterday but the pool was closed due to thunder. We did some unicorn crafts at home and baked cookies. It was a fabulous weekend!

And if you are curious about the title of this post..as I am signing into the pool this weekend Jillian asks the lifeguard:

"Do you have a girlfriend?" 

Also, as we are driving down any road, if Jillian sees someone walking or jogging she rolls down her window and shouts:

"Hello! Have a great day!"

And my favorite..while riding her bike or scooter, if someone passes us going the opposite direction. She will literally stop, turn around and try to chase them down to talk. Love this little spitfire!

Unicorn headband

My handsome little man

Waiting for thunder to end (it didn't)