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)

June 28 - Mr. Butterfly

The final Orca dual meet was last weekend. Julia had a cold and stayed home to rest, so JD and I headed to the pool with Luke. Prior to this meet, Luke earned champ times in all of his events except for the freestyle. The meet prior to this he missed the wall on his flip turn so he was hoping to get a good (legal!) swim and cement his position on the A free relay. He had a private lesson with Coach Abby (one of the junior coaches who swam at a local HS and is heading to college in August) before the meet to work on his turns and strokes. 

IM: Luke did awesome in his IM! He took it out fast and was neck and neck with a boy next to him on the freestyle. It was hard to see who got the touch..but it was Luke!! 2nd place!! So incredible!! (the boy who won first is a 10 year old on our team and currently ranked #6 in the entire country so whenever he is swimming, 2nd place is winning LOL). 

Free: He did it! He nailed the flip turn and went a 33. Speed demon!! He made the champ time and is back on the A relay!!

Fly: The camera on my phone broke midway through the first Orca meet a month ago and I finally received my new phone a few days before this meet. I was able to record Luke's fly and you guys-it was amazing. He had a super funky looking fly a few weeks ago and it was just beautiful at the meet. He did fantastic!!

Go Luke!! So proud!!

June 24 - I Want to Look Cute

Yesterday morning, getting ready for school:

"Why don't you put shorts on underneath that dress? It will be cooler on the playground." - me (as she was trying to put on flower leggings)

"I don't care about being cool on the playground, I care about looking cute." - deadpanned Jillian (100% serious!)

10 min later, I was waiting for her downstairs:

"What are you doing up there? I know you are dressed." - me

"Sorry Mommy! I needed to brush my hair again and put on my lipstick." - Jillian

You guys...this child. She is trouble!

June 21 - Hula Hoop

One of the GS families in our neighborhood is moving (just a mile away to a neighborhood that is zoned to a different high school) and graciously donated some items to our family. One of those items..a hula hoop. We've had hula hoops before (they seem to find their way to the trash can quickly after losing their shape) but it's been awhile since we had one. Believe it or not, Luke is loving the hula hoop! He has spent 2h+ per day (over the last 3 days) practicing with it. He's even watching YouTube videos and trying to learn new moves. It's so cute! My phone camera is still broken otherwise I would post a video, but I'm super proud of him for taking on this new activity!

In other news, our weekends are still all about summer swim. I hired a babysitter (vaccinated!) to watch Jillian on Saturday and I'm so thankful I did because it was insanely hot and humid. She was nice and cool at home in the AC and played Barbies for hours instead of sweating at the pool. As for the meet, both kids did great. Julia and Kennedy also loved helping the 6 and under swimmers (pictured above with Neil, one of their favorite little buddies). 

Happy Monday everyone!!

June 17 - Fishing with Daddy

Jillian celebrated Father's Day with JD today at Primrose by "Fishing with Dad." They had goldfish crackers as the bait and fished for plastic fish. She loved it! It's been over a week since I last updated so here is a quick rundown on what's happening over here. 

JD
We jumped right into 'August/September' heat here in Houston and JD is currently at the phase he typically reaches mid-summer where he wonders "Why don't we have a lawn crew like everyone else?" He recently cleaned out and organized the garage which is pretty exciting for me, I can finally park my car in there again. Yay! He has been very busy with work but still squeezes in pool time with the kids on the weekend. 

Yours Truly

I'm currently a part-time "K-uber" driver (Kid-Uber):

6.30am - drop off Julia for swim

7.30am - drop off Luke for swim

8am - drop off Jillian to school (JD and I rotate this)

8.30am - pick up Luke from swim

9.30am - pick up Julia from swim (she is volunteering with the little ones after her practice)

4.45pm - drop off Julia for swim (she does doubles)

5pm - pick up Jillian 

6.30pm - pick up Julia from swim

That is the current weekly schedule (swim is only 5min away, so it's a fast roundtrip). On Thursdays, Luke also has a tennis lesson and Julia starts summer school in a week and a half so that will be a few hours in the middle of the day. It's a lot of driving back and forth but thanks to a good wireless headset and wifi in the car, I am able to work and be on conference calls. No issues!! Modern technology is great!! I still walk the dogs every morning and I'm currently loving all the Olympic trials coverage. 

Julia and Luke

Julia is going to Girl Scout camp at the end of July, otherwise they are both home all summer. Right now they are reading for an hour a day and doing a math workbook for an hour, then JD had them each pick a hobby to do for another hour a day. Julia is doing an online cooking class and loving it! She even cooked us all fried rice last week for dinner. Luke is doing a programming class and enjoying it. He's also been baking cookies every week and this week opened "The Duck Cafe" where I can order lunch. The current menu is a banana smoothie and peanut butter and jelly. :)

Jillian

"Mom, I lost the toy I brought to school!" - Jillian, last week

"How did that happen?" - me, questioning how she smuggled the toy in as I know I patted her down

"Oh, I hid it in my shoe" - Jillian

So..our little sneaky one is still thinking of creative ways to sneak toys! She is absolutely loving the summer program at Primrose. She has splash day every Monday and in-house "field trips" on Wednesdays. This week they did a tile project with glitter and paint. School is closed tomorrow so she and I are meeting one of her friends for swim playdate, she is super excited!

Happy Thursday everyone!

June 10 - My Adorable Disney Children

If you want to know what you or your kids would look like as Disney characters, I highly recommend the voila app. So fun!

June 7 - Blurry Camera

Do you have a friend that goes through a lot of phones? I am one of those people. A few years ago I went through 3 phones in less than 6 months (a sippy cup leaked on one, the 2nd one flew out of my pocket and cracked, the touch screen stopped working on the 3rd). That was probably the worst period but I have a new one at least once a year. I've had my current one for just over a year and was telling a co-worker recently 'This Google phone works great' and...now the camera takes blurry pics all of a sudden. This actually started during the swim meet 2 weeks ago and I've tried rebooting, cleaning the lens, etc and nothing is working. It works fine in selfie mode but that isn't the easiest way to get pics. So..I'll post some older ones until I get this one fixed. 

Animal Update

I was concerned that Apollo would kill Lucky when we first got her, but I'm happy to report they get along just fine. She sometimes plays with his tail and occasionally drinks water while he eats. She has, on more than one occasion, waited for him to finish eating to go up to the dog food bowl to eat whatever he has left (it's pretty funny). She and Bella have always gotten along so no issues there. 

In not so good cat news...she is too comfortable with the dogs. She peed on their dog bed downstairs-luckily, it was an old one so I tossed it and ordered a new one. Guess what...she peed on the new one twice in the first few hours so now the dogs beds are locked in my room. I put a cat bed downstairs thinking that would help resolve the issue (she already has a cool thing she lays on that attaches to the window from Uncle Chris). Well, she laid on the new bed once, the dogs each curled up on it..then she peed on it. That went in the garbage. Apollo sometimes lays on the futon in the front room. I'm sure you can see where I am going with this...yes, she peed on that too. Twice.

One of my book club friends has a fantastic enzyme spray that did kill the odor so hopefully we don't have any more issues. But between me reminding (basically yelling..) Luke daily to clean the litter box and the this peeing issue, I'm at my wits end with this cat. If anyone has any suggestions on how to stop her from peeing, please let me know. Luke tells me 'She's trying to prove dominance over the dogs mom, that's why she is peeing.' That does not make me feel better. JD and the kids like to remind me the dogs aren't perfect angels (Apollo especially has eaten a lot of toys over the years) and 'I'm a dog apologis' (okay, that is totally true, I freely admit I'm a dog person but eating a toy and ruining a futon aren't equable in my book). 

For those thinking "yikes, their house must stink like cat urine, gross" NOPE! Compulsive cleaning and the occasional candle work. Plus..me constantly on Luke's case about the litter box. 

Kids

In kid news, there was another swim meet this past weekend and they both did great! Luke improved on his backstroke time and did his first ever 50 fly!! He survived and earned another champ meet time. So proud!! Julia swam the free, back and breast..and made her USA A cuts for all 3!! Wowsa, we were especially shocked with this breaststroke!! Jillian started swim lessons yesterday with coach Abby and did fabulous!! She did the back float (which she hates) for 7 seconds and swam about 1/3 down the pool. She also jumped off the diving board twice. Such a cutie pie out there!!

Happy Monday everyone!