Summer Garden

The kids got me a May Pride Peach tree some years ago. We moved it with us when we moved in to this house. It fell over in the move and half of it died. But it was still producing on the other sides and I was hoping to try to notch the side to try to promote the growth on the damaged side. However, just before the peaches were ripe last year, a raccoon came through and in one night, ate all of our peaches and broke several branches in the process. That killed off the rest of the tree.

Last year, we also bought another peach tree to replace one of the existing peaches on the side of our house because after two seasons, it did not produce anything. The new peach tree had flowers but did not produce anything. So, this year, when it started flowering and producing peaches, we were so excited. The birds attacked it a bit so we put a net over it. But, just as the peaches were almost ready to be picked, we were again, victims of that greedy robber that wiped us out of each and every peach growing in one night. And of course, the raccoons could not just deprive us of our peaches, but they had to break the main leading branch of the tree. So, no peaches this year...again. Plus the tree is now damaged.

I don't have much of a summer garden. A few squashes and one tomato. It's hard to motivate myself to work in the garden when the gophers reap more benefits from my garden than we do. Still, so far the gopher has stolen a couple of my squash plants and my basil. I let a few more of my squash and tomato seedlings die because I forgot to water them one hot weekend. Plus, pill bugs ate another set of squash seedlings before I could even get them into the ground.

We did manage to get a few oranges in the spring. And the lemon is also doing great. We made a lot of lemonade, some lemon cake and lemon bars. Incidentally, meyer lemons are great for things like lemonade because they are sweeter and you don't have to add so much sugar but they are not tart enough for proper lemon bars!

We have had pretty good luck with our apples so far. The raccoons only seem to attack the fragrant peaches. They have left our apples alone. We planted them last year (along with the peach) to replace an existing diseased apple tree (that was also not producing any fruit). We had enough to eat and taste last year so we were pretty excited to see how many we would get this year. We probably should have thinned them out a bit as the apples are a little on the small side this year. But we definitely have enough to eat and even bake with.

So far we made a yummy apple cake and an apple pie. Plus we even traded some for a giant bag of grapefruit from one of our neighbors. Caitlyn loves to go out to gather apples. It's like a treasure hunt. Plus, they are really tasty.

Fourth of July

We spent Fourth of July with some friends. We had a feast between Brett's bbq and Christian's homemade hamburger buns. Most of the kids were too busy playing to enjoy too much of the food. Their loss.

The fireworks that night was interrupted by several fires on the mountain. We had to wait quite a long time before they put out all the fires and restarted the show. We had just finished cleaning up and were ready to leave when it re-started. It was an exhausting and hot day but everybody had a great time.

Junk

In today's disposable world, we seem to be inundated with junk everywhere we turn. It started off with our brand new t.v. After nearly 20 years, we gave up our old CRT TV for one of those new fangled flat screen televisions with part of our tax return. We got one of those killer deals just before the super bowl. It was really nice...for all of 4 months. Then the screen went bad and we had this stripe of missing info down the middle of the screen. It was a day or two before the kids last day of school. They usually have a crazy movie marathon all night on their last day of school. They were not able to use our t.v. Luckily they still have an old CRT that we got from some friends of ours in their play room and were able to watch it in there.

Nearly a week later, we got the repairmen to come and replace the screen. They installed it and turned it on. It seemed mostly fine, but as they were walking back to their truck, we noticed that the color was off in another vertical stripe down the middle of the screen. The problem only showed up in certain situations with certain colors. We were lucky to catch it so quickly. So we called them back in and they said that the screen was bad as well and ordered us yet another one.

Another week went by before they were able to finally get it replaced as well. So far, it appears to be working, but I'm not going to hold my breath at this point. Plus they said that the warranty for the replaced parts does not start over but continues with the rest of the components with the original warranty, so in another 7 months or so, we are SOL if anything goes wrong at that point. And basically, the part they replaced is so expensive, that it would be cheaper or the same price to just go out and buy a new one.

The kids got a fun water toy at the end of the school year as part of their reward for all the hard work they put in during the school year. It was one of those sprinkler attachments that has these wiggly nozzles that is supposed to wiggle around and spray everywhere. We didn't get to use it until last week since it wasn't that hot at the beginning of their summer break. It was the saddest toy I ever saw. At least half of the sprinklers just pointed straight into the grass and the remaining ones shot out but would get stuck if even a single blade of grass obstructed it's way. The girls were so disappointed. What's more, they had a friend over for the purpose of playing with said toy. We ended up shutting it off and turning on the regular sprinkler for them.

Luckily, we were able to return it and get something else for them. We ended up with a cheap slip and slide and a couple of squirt guns.

We had to restrict the water going to the end bumper though because so much water dumped out of it that the grass was flooded in that spot after only 5 minutes of use. Emily's squirt gun didn't last to the end of the day.

Next on the list o' crap is the ceiling fan in our dining room. We splurged on a fancy new ceiling fan after we got into the house some 2 and a half years ago. We use the light all the time, but we don't turn on the fan except during the summer months (otherwise, it is quite unbearable)...and only while we are having dinner, so it hasn't gotten that much use. We turned it on for the first time this year last week as it is getting quite warm, and found that the blades barely moved. It is either stuck in the slowest position or the motor is just plain dying. I don't know which. The warranty is only for a year so we are out of luck on that one. I got one of those cheap ceiling fans from my brother for our old house some 10 plus years ago and it wiggles around and isn't quite that nice, but you know what? It still works! I don't know what's up with the streak of absolute junk we've been having to deal with lately but it is more than irritating.

Father's Day Weekend

Since we were meeting up with Christian's family on Sunday for Father's Day and to celebrate some birthdays, we decided to make a weekend of it. We went down on Saturday and we spent the afternoon at the pool with Christian's brother. We wanted the kids to show Uncle Mark how far they got in their swim lessons and continue a bit.

Caitlyn with a kick board

Uncle Mark helping Emily with her form

Caitlyn swimming a short distance without any support!

Emily practicing her backstroke

Caitlyn jumping in without holding anybody's hand
(or without being thrown in)

Emily doesn't jump in feet first, she jumps in like she is pouncing on something!

After a few hours of practice and extra instruction, Emily was able to do a few things they showed her at the end of her lessons for level 3. And Caitlyn made some real attempts at actual swimming. I was so excited!

We spent the night at Uncle Mark's house. The girls love it. They get to camp out with their sleeping bags on his floor. I guess anything different is fun for them! It was Mark's wife's bithday so we had a nice bbq after we got back and cleaned up. I offered to make a cake for her since I thought it would be wrong for her to make her own cake for her birthday (although, I think I do the same thing for my birthday). We had a pretty late night. We put the kids to bed at some point and stayed up quite a bit longer watching a movie.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got up on Sunday for church. Afterwards, we headed over to Christian's sister's house to hang out and prepare for dinner. I think the exhaustion got to Christian by then and he wasn't feeling too good by the end of the night. He caught the bad cold that I had been fighting for the last half of the week.

The kids earned a free swim pass through the summer reading program at the library, so we met up with some friends this past week to go swimming again at the local city pool. I was so excited to see Caitlyn make some more progress in her swimming. It didn't quite happen that way. She pretty much regressed and would not do any swimming or anything unsupported. She spent most of the afternoon, hanging out in the shallowest corner of the pool. I was pretty frustrated.

What We've Been Up To...

We got invited to a Luau last Saturday. The girls were so excited to attend. We thought it would be a great opportunity for the girls to see some real Hawaiian dances (plus they get to dress up).

There was lots of Hawaiian food and then came the dancing. It was really fun. There were many different dances with corresponding costumes. It was hard to believe that this was just someone's backyard!

The girls' favorite was the last dance for the evening...the ones with the fire! But everybody did a really great job and we had a great time.

On Sunday, after church, we went to visit my family for an early Father's Day celebration as we are planning to spend the next weekend with Christian's family in San Diego.

Swimming lessons are over. We finally got some sunshine for their second week of swimming. They actually had to reschedule one of the days last week because it was just too cold. Both the girls did great. We found that Emily started as a very high level two so by the last couple of days of swimming, she got to try her hand at a few level 3 skills since they finished everything that they needed to for her current level. Caitlyn also is advancing from level 1 to level 2. I can't say that she learned a great deal though, as the class is merely designed to make kids more comfortable in the water. Not a whole lot of actual swimming is involved.

I was hoping that Caitlyn would at least try jumping of the diving board again, but alas, it was not meant to be. Then I hoped that she would at least jump in off the side without holding on to the teacher's hand, but she wouldn't have any of that either. I was starting to wonder if she got anything really out of the class but I know she is more comfortable in the water now so hopefully I can get her to really start to put some of the skills she practiced to use and try some actual swimming on her own now.

Emily has definitely honed her skills more and is comfortable and strong enough to jump off the diving board and swim back to the side without the assistance of her instructor by the end of the lessons.

Thank you Auntie Marian for the lessons again. It gave us a great start to our summer vacation and the girls had a great time (despite some cold days). Hopefully we will have plenty of opportunities to practice more this summer.

And lastly, since it was such a nightmare to wash Emily's hair every day after all the swim lessons, I trimmed a couple of inches of her hair to make it more manageable. I had not been having problems with Caitlyn's hair but I thought it might be good to trim an inch from hers as well so I asked her if she wanted a trim. Because she had seen an old picture of herself at grandma's this past weekend, she decided that she wanted to cut it all off again! 

So, Caitlyn is back to her sassy self. I think I could have done a better job with her hair but a squirmy 6 year old is not easy to deal with when you don't really know what you are doing to begin with. Oh well, better luck next time. I will try to give her a trim before school begins again.

Swim Lessons

The girls started swim lessons today. It's not quite warm enough to make the water comfortable. Even the swim teachers were shivering. But the girls did great.

Apparently, even though she only had one real lesson last year, her uncle prepared her pretty well. I signed her up for level 2 swim lessons. She will easily be ready for level 3 by the end of next week. Today, they pretty much tested her so that she was enrolled in the appropriate class. She is fortunate enough not to have to share her instructor with any other kids.

Unfortunately, Caitlyn has to share her swim coach with 3 other kids...most of whom are younger than herself. She has not been motivated or bold enough to have any real lessons thus far so I started her off in level 1 so that she will be comfortable in the water enough to not want her floaties any more. Her uncle also did a few of the things she had to do today with her already like putting her head in the water and blowing bubbles and stuff but she hasn't really been open to learning more than that.

30 minutes a day of lessons does not amount to very much. Especially if you have to share with a bunch of other kids who have to be coaxed into the water. For once (because she's the oldest), Caitlyn is the bravest out of her class. She's the only one to put her whole head under water and the only one to jump off the diving board into the water (well, she got a little help but she was mostly willing...she just needed a little help).

Emily was a little afraid to dive off the diving board as well, but she got a push of a different kind. Her little sister went in just before her so she couldn't NOT jump!

Last Week of School

The girls started their last week of school with ehem...a holiday (Memorial Day). On Tuesday, the 2nd graders enjoyed a fun water day as a bribe to behave during the last month of school. I guess kids tend to go a little nuts when they are in their final stretch of the school year. On Wednesday, it was the kindergarteners turn. On Thursday, parties broke out all over school. So I spent nearly all day at their school going from one party to another.

The second graders had a big family bbq party in the park in the back of the school. They were there pretty much the whole day.

I had to leave part way to attend Caitlyn's party. I have to say that Caitlyn has been extremely blessed with great teachers thus far. A good teacher makes all the difference in their experience in a school. Caitlyn has learned a lot. Her teacher made all the kids a memory book with samples of their work and pictures of them. Plus she had all their hand prints cast for all their parents as a keepsake. I will cherish them. She said a few encouraging words about all her kids as she handed them out to each and every one of them. I wish I could have gotten a video but I was helping her teacher at the time and did not think about it fast enough.

Their last day of school was minimum day, so they got out at noon. But all they did was clean out their desks, crafts, movies and had more treats.

We headed to the library to sign them up for the summer reading program but found out that they were a day early, so we still ended up getting them a bunch of books and movies for the next week or so.

We had a surprise for the kids for working so hard during the school year. Their Auntie Marian decided to sponsor them in a fun summer activity. So they are getting a session of swim lessons (which lasts about a week and a half). The girls are super excited about it. I hope that they take full advantage of it and learn a lot.

Christian and I got them a few odds and ends as well. We got them some cute swim cover-ups for when they get out of the pool, a fun water toy for the summer and a little set of new movies.

Christian always lets them stay up as late as they want on their last day of school watching movies. They stayed up later than I would have possibly imagined. I could not stay up past 1:am. Caitlyn tottered off to bed around 3:am (she did take a short nap in the afternoon though). Emily fell asleep watching. I have no idea what time she actually fell asleep. I went in and turned the tv off at 6:am.

I thought we would have a leisurely morning and the kids would sleep in but I was mistaken. Caitlyn was up again at 8:am and woke her sister up since she was still sleeping on the couch in front of the tv and they started watching cartoons all over again. They are totally insane.

Of course, by Sunday, they were exhausted and it took a bit to get them up and ready for church this morning.