The kids, minus Grace and Isaac, all took swimming lessons. It was Jude's first year for lessons and he was proud to be a member of the big kid club. All the kids made good progress and acquired new swimming skills. Joel seems to be the most natural swimmer of the bunch, an ability he most certainly did not inherit from me. I think I took intermediates three times and then they finally just passed me out of pity or something. I did take and pass the lifesaver swimming class, but not without a monumental amount of effort on my part. Joel just seems to have an innate sense of how to move his body in the water. Even his swim instructor was pleased with his ability to rotate his body as he swims, which I guess is unusual for a kid his age.
Speaking of Joel, he got a new cowboy hat. He figured out the hat he had was only a play cowboy hat bought in the toy section of Walmart. So he wanted a real cowboy hat--a beige one. Daddy found just such at hat at the feed store and bought it for him. The only time Joel took off his new hat, boots and Wranglers during the month of June was to get in the swimming pool. Right after swimming lessons he got right back into his cowboy garb. The other moms at the pool thought it was pretty cute--and rightly so.
The kids and Daddy spent an evening last week putting their individual goals for the summer on post-it notes and then sticking them to the family room wall. One of Joel's goals is to participate in the mutton bustin' event at the local fair in August. He's confident of his sheep riding abilities, even though he's never tried it. We're going to see what we can do to fulfill this dream of Joel's. Of course Mama thinks that mutton bustin' sounds like a dangerous venture, but Joel has his mind set. And it's very cute to hear him say, "muttin' bustin'."We were gifted a big box of Bing cherries last week, so Grace and I set to work. Grace cleaned and pitted them all, which is the messy, tedious part. I then put the majority of the cherries in the food dehydrator (in order to make chocolate cherry candy with them at Christmas time). I also canned a batch of jam and made four cherry kuchen.
The neighbor was finally able to swath and bale his hay this past week. Every time he rode past the fence separating our properties, he had an gaggle of seven kids waving, hooting and hollering at him. I'm sure he had never before baled hay in front of such an adoring audience.
Isaac learned how to sit up in June. He's also perfected the art of the roll as a semi-efficient means of transportation. He ends up at the other end of the room, not purposely, though he enjoys the journey and the playthings (forgotten by his older siblings) that he finds strewn on the floor along the way.
Matt has invited a bunch of people (including two of his bosses, yikes!) from work for a BBQ here next week, so I have high hopes to get the place spiffed up a bit before the big event. The weather is finally getting good and hot, so the kids and I will have to work early in the morning to avoid fading in the heat. I'm sure they'll be pleased to breath deeply of the pleasant morning air and set their industrious hands to such beneficial work.
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