No Cleaning Today

Since Travis and Tyrel deep cleaned their room yesterday, they thought we should have a day off today.  We will finish it up on Thursday.

Trevin started swimming lessons today.  He is struggling with the deep end of the pool.  He gets nervous and then starts swallowing water.  He actually does fine jumping into the deep end and swimming to the shallow end, but every time they want him to go from the shallow end to the deep end, he beelines for the side of the pool and only makes it about half way (to where the water is above his head) and then grabs the edge and works his way down from there.  Hopefully by the end of lessons, he will overcome his fears and do better.  It makes me nervous until my kids get over that fear.  Tyrel was the same way.  Travis has always been a fish.  Once Tyrel got over his fear, he loves swimming and doesn't have any problems now.  Trevin was excited to have Riley as his teacher again this year.

Tyrel's friend Keaton came up today.  Travis drove Tyrel down to Keaton's.  When they got bored there, they decided to ride bikes from Keaton's house to Elk Ridge.  They were pooped, hot, and stinky when they got here.  After they recuperated, they went and rode 4wheelers all afternoon.  Keaton stayed for dinner and then they went riding some more and then came back and played video games. 

Travis had a few of his friends over too.  They watched TV for a while and then all headed to Spring Lake to catch toads once it got dark.

I wish, I wish, that I were a fish......

Swimming lessons round 1 are over. Travis and Tyrel both passed their stroke development class last year, but I thought it would be good review and keep them in shape to do it again this year. I was amazed at how much better they were than the other kids in their class. All of the other mother's kept saying, "Your boys are such smooth swimmers." They kept laughing at their kids thrashing around the pool. It was kind of comical to watch the others. Travis and Tyrel make it look effortless. After listening in to their classes, I decided I should probably take a class because I'm sure I don't do it right. The teacher gets very technical going over every little thing to make sure everything from their fingertips to their tippy toes are doing the right thing at the right time. It has been really beneficial for them and they are both little fish (I guess not so little anymore) and love being in the water. I am debating signing them up for a lap class later in the summer where they just swim and condition. We'll see what finances are like after we get our yard work done and our front steps replaced.

Trevin didn't quite pass his class this time around. He is really scared when he knows he is in water over his head although he is getting a lot better about it. I'm definitely signing him up for another session probably in August to reinforce the progress he has made so far and hopefully get him over his fear. The pool we take lessons at is a private pool here in Elk Ridge and it is landscaped beautifully. Their teacher said that they have quite a few weddings scheduled for their pool and yard this summer.

We are having to get our front steps and porch replaced because the wonderful builder forgot to put a barrier down on the old porch and then he put tile on top of the wood, so now we get water that leaks through the grout lines and collects in the light fixture in Trevin's bedroom and then leaks all over the floor when it rains really hard. What fun! This time we are putting down the water barrier and putting an epoxy finish on top. I think it will look really nice.

We have also got the front yard almost shaped and ready for the rock retaining walls to go in. I'm hoping we can get more than that done this year, but we will have to see how far our money stretches.

Sean and I went and bought peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, more ground cover and a tree for Father's Day today.

He is going to be busy tomorrow planting it while I host Andrea's baby shower. The back yard is looking really good though. I'm excited for it to be finished.

Andrea's baby shower is tomorrow at my house. I was in charge of invitations and favors. Heidi is doing the games and my mom is doing the food. I thought the invitations turned out cute and I think the favors are cute also. I'll have to post pictures another day in case she reads my blog tonight, I don't want her to see what they are before the shower. I'll also post pictures of the gift I made her later. Stay tuned!