July 31 - Luke & Jilly

With Julia away at camp last week, I had some quality bonding time with Luke and Jillian. Our house is also in the process of being painted, we like to keep things interesting over here. Never a dull moment! To avoid the painters, I picked up the kids on Tuesday and we headed to Jumping World for some fun. We practically had the place to ourselves. Luke had fun running around and jumping. Jillian played in the toddler area for awhile and then discovered the arcade type games. She was content spinning wheels and pushing buttons. 

In other Jillian news, she had her first ever gymnastics class last weekend. As the only child in the class with significantly older siblings, she was the only child with not one, not two, not three, but FOUR helpers!! Julia had a friend come and she wanted to help too. Jillian didn't really pay attention to the circuits and seemed to have fun just running around like a wild little monkey. She doesn't appear to be a daredevil like Julia was, but time will tell!

How sweet is this?

July 29 - Harriet Potter

Girl Scout Camp 2018! After an amazing experience last summer, Julia decided she wanted to go to Agnes Arnold again. Her best friend Kennedy also wanted to go-so she signed up for Girl Scouts as a Juliet (an independent GS that isn't attached to a troop) so they could go together as buddies. They chose 'Harriet Potter' which was...you guessed it, a Harry Potter themed camp. I emailed the rest of the parents in our troop and gave them the week we were signed up, and three more girls signed up! Jen (Kennedy's mom) and I carpooled last Sunday and dropped the girls off. They lucked out and were assigned the Treehouses, a raised cabin in the woods (very similar to last year's accommodations).

All five girls were in the same cabin together. After setting up beds and taking pictures, we headed back home. We had record breaking heat in Houston last week and I was worried about Julia sleeping (she's a hot sleeper, we packed her 2 fans) but I shouldn't have worried. When I picked her up on Friday, she had an amazing time! All of the campers do skits and I was shocked to see everyone in Julia's group (except Hannah) up on stage doing a Slytherin song. They explained to us afterwards that no one was sorted in Slytherin so they volunteered to switch over and complete for the House Cup.

Hannah, Sophia, Emily, Julia, Kennedy

They didn't win (Of course, Gryffindor's were victorious) but they had fun. Every day, they went swimming, canoeing or kayaking on the lake, had 'turtle time' in their quarters which is a quiet time to relax and then Harriet Potter time where they made wands, learned spells, made butterbeer and did magic type activities. On the last night they had a campfire and cooked their own food (some sort of Dorito pie..it sounded gross to me but they said it was delicious). And best of all-the girls were given 5min to shower as opposed to the 2min they had last year. It was a great week!!

July 27 - Oodles of Cuteness

Happy Friday peeps. Here are a few pictures that will hopefully put a smile on this face this fabulous Friday. Our little Jillian....so adorable!! She is saying a lot more words these days, including "Amelia, blanket, elephant, I want to go pee pee on the potty" and she's been speaking some Spanish as well, her favorite phrase being " I want aqua!" She's pretty good about saying "pease and tank you" also. Love her!! 

She LOVES her daddy (who she loves to call Mommy) and snuggling with him. As for me...she loves to run around, go down the slide, basically do anything but cuddle or be calm with me. She's a stinker!

Our little (pudge muffin) Jilly

July 26 - Dexter Episode

Life has been super crazy this week. Julia is at GS camp, we are leaving for vacation in a week and our house is being painted. And when I say the house is being painted, I mean the entire house, excluding the bedrooms and bathrooms is being painted. So...kitchen cabinets, baseboards, trim, doors, crown molding, banister spindles, all of it! We're also having the banister restained darker. I am sure it will be fabulous when it's over, but right now I feel like we're living in an episode of Dexter. All of the windows, light fixtures, flooring, furniture, etc has been covered in plastic and taped down. It's crazy around here!

"What is going on around here?" - Amelia

July 24 - CCSL Champ Meet

At long last...the Championship Meet Series! This is a huge meet held at the Texas City Natatorium. Eighteen teams are assigned to gym A or gym B and have a specific area taped off. It's always a cozy area but we were quite shocked when we arrived and found an extremely small area for our size team. We (Yamo's) arrived a little late and couldn't even fit our chairs in. It was a tad (very) frustrating JD was so mad he spent half the meet walking around measuring other teams spaces. The league sells t-shirts and sweatshirts every year too and three teams had names misspelled: PineBrookwood (our team) was Pinkbrookwood, Timber Cove was Timer Cove and Clear Lake Forest was Forrest. We wondered who was spell checking the merchandise (apparently no one) but we got a kick out of Pinkbrookwood. We joked that our team suit should be pink next year! LOL!

Tight Space

Saturday was the Reserve Meet and Luke swam free and fly. He did fantastic and had his fastest times ever! My favorite part of the meet was watching Luke get ready to swim. He always looks in the stands for me and waves excitedly when he sees me. It literally melts my heart, so sweet. After a long day at the pool (with Jillian on Saturday, she was a rock star most of the day but she started melting down after skipping her nap), we headed home and prepared for Sunday. 

Sunday we had a babysitter for Jillian and she stayed home. JD timed the first half of the meet and I spent time working at the concession stand. Julia swam 2 relays and 3 individual events while Luke swam 1 event. Luke did fantastic in his backstroke and had another best time. Great meet Luke! Julia was extremely nervous for this meet and while she didn't have any best times, she was close to her best times. The best part of the meet is that her medley relay placed 3rd and the girls earned a championship medal. Great job Julia!!

 

July 16 - Good Luck Orcas!

The CCSL (Clear Creek Swim League) Championship meet series was last weekend and the week before was jam packed. The kids had practice every morning and they had a few private lessons with Coach Abby to get ready (Luke's butterfly went from illegal 2 weeks prior to a beautiful stroke, amazing!). The Thursday before the big meet, I put together an Orca Spirit Party at the pool pavilion for all the championship series swimmers. The team provided pizza and cookie cake while everyone attending brought an appetizer or dessert. We had a great turnout! Some of the kids even put together some spirit posters. We love our summer team, go Orcas!!

Friday before the meet was a big day. Julia, Kennedy, Reese and Danielle (the 'Dream Team' relay girls) all came to our house for a bonding day. They watched highlights from the 2008 Olympics, including the best relay of all time, the mens 4x100 relay. They also watched Miracle and a few other inspiration movies. I love their friendship bond!! They knew they couldn't win the relay events as several teams had 2-4 girls with TAGS (Texas Age Group Standard Times, essentially the fastest in the state) and we had zero, but they were aiming for a medal. 

Friday night, JD's company had an event at the stadium. So JD took Julia and Luke into town for an Astros game. They had a blast!! And JD let them have Sprite so they thought that was 'the coolest thing ever.' 

Next post...the actual meet. 

Astros Game

The Dream Team (Danielle, Julia, Reese & Kennedy)

Julia & her coaches (Emily, Abby & Caroline)

July 13 - Park & Pool

Two weeks ago we had a nice "cool" week here in Houston. When I say "cool" I mean high 80s, which is extremely rare for this time of year. We took a family walk to the park one of those days and the kids played on the playground. Afterwards, we went to the pool to swim. Everything was fabulous at the pool...until Jillian wanted to bring her snacks in the water. Sorry little toddler, no can do! She likes the water like Julia did (Luke preferred to sit on the sidelines and snack while Julia and I swam), but she isn't quite a daredevil when it comes to Daddy tossing her in the air. She's totally content being carried around the water. 

Next post....our championship swim meet was last weekend. I'll do a recap. I hope you are all having a wonderful week!