Monday, June 29, 2009

Mario Wars

Chris found a new video game that we've been playing with the girls. It's called Mario wars and essentially it's just various game boards were we all try to bounce on the other's heads. At first of course Chris was beating us all pretty badly. Then, slowly, Laura and Alli and I got the hang of it and weren't getting beat quite as badly. After a while I started being the first one out, and now Alli wins more often than not. It is really funny to see she and Chris go head to head and her to win. Whenever I cried out "No! You Got Me!" She just says, "It's part of the game and you can't get upset" and grins really big.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Laura and Charlie in the Pool

Charlie seemed to want a little pool time today and lucky for her she has a wonderful big sister who was happy to help. She had a great time splashing and playing with Laura. The pool is shallow enough that Charlie could stand up if she wanted to, but generally she just kicked and floated around. And, yes, I stayed very very close at hand.

Diving

Alli was pretty timid about the diving board idea, but once assured that she could have help (and after watching the other kids get lowered down) she was ready. Once she got going, she really had fun and "jumped" off the diving board 4 times today.




Here is Laura jumping off the edge of the pool and then swimming all on her own to the side.




Laura was a little apprehensive as well about the diving board. Last week she was able to jump off the diving board by herself while wearing a swim belt. This week she tried it without a swim belt, but ended up needing someone to get her off the board.

Catch the Baby *









*No babies were harmed in the making of this slide show...in fact Charlie seemed to think this was a hilarious game.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Gymnastics vs Karate

The other day we were at Burger King letting the kids play at the big indoor playplace. There was one other little boy also playing on the playplace and apparently he starting picking on Laura and Alli. As Alli tells the story, she said to him, "You better leave us alone, Laura knows Karate!" He was worried for a minute, but then he says "Oh yeah, I know Gymnastics!" At which point the girls ran away.

Laura Can Swim!

Here is a clip of Laura swimming taken from far away.

Laura Swimming




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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Playing Dressup


Laura decided we all needed to be chinese girls today. This was what we came up with. The kids said that Charlie looks like a Shrek baby. I agree.
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

swim lessons

The kids are in their second week of swim lessons for this summer and things are really starting to click. Laura went from being afraid of getting her face in the water to being able to swim front crawl (freestyle). With the aid of swim goggles she now readily plunges completely under the water and floats around. It is really an amazing difference. Laura has also made several friends that she plays with in the kiddie pool while Alli is at her lesson. They dive for pennies and race and typically have a good time. Today a boy joined the group and was the "shark" that chased the girls around.

Alli is still pretty scared of the water, but she too is making progress. She went from a refusal to go anywhere near the pool with her teacher to blowing bubbles and letting her teacher dip her under the water. She has fun swimming with a noodle or swim belt on, but is pretty timid about trying anything new. Still, I think it's helping her and maybe she'll be ready to do more next year.

Charlie enjoys the water too, but two hours at the pool is a bit much, so she usually naps the second half.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Geometry Lesson

Chris is giving the kids a late night math lesson and tells the kids that the sum of all angles for any geometric shape is 360 degrees. Laura asks him, "What is a sum again?" Alli, exasperatedly pipes up, "Your 7 years old Laura you know everything." Laura's reply, "I know, but sometimes it pops out of my head."