Fish...

The girls have been taking swimming lessons all week at a friend's house. It has been amazing to see how much they have grown in boldness and skill in just one week! Monday afternoon, they had to learn to put their faces in the water (mouths and noses at the same time!), kick, and glide out to us. By Thursday, Katy still did not want to jump into the water without holding onto her teacher's hands. Once she got over it and did it one time, she wanted to do nothing else but jump the rest of the lesson! Even yesterday, she still didn't want to put her face in the water while swimming (Darsie, on the other hand, takes a dramatically deep breath and puts her face in even before she puts her arms out and kicks!). Today however, Katy put her face in the water every time, even coming up for a breath and then putting it back in! Both girls jumped off the diving board (to Pam's waiting arms) and then swam to the side of the pool! Katy even swam from the deep end all the way to the steps at the shallow end several times today! Amazing! We are so proud of them!
Pam prayed at the beginning of lessons on Monday for God to help them to be brave to try new things and to help them to be able to do them. He certainly answered her prayer!


(Wouldn't it be a little intimidating to be the one in the water when they jump like this??!!)

Camp - Twinkle, Twinkle LIttle Star

Here is Katy's group playing the handbells. Pretty good, though each of them looked like they were clutching their bell waiting and wondering when their back would be tapped. :)

Camp - Sah Chi Chi

Here's Katy's group performing with the umbrellas that they decorated themselves. She did so well the whole time!! I'm really proud of her!

Camp - Ging Gong Gooli

Here's Darsie's group performing their song, "Ging Gong Gooli" with ribbons. Notice how Darsie zones out for a little while and then gets into it. Ben is standing next to her.

Camp - Jelly on the Plate

Here's "Jelly on the Plate", one of our favorites. Notice Darsie's hip action.....:)

Camp - Hello From All Over the World

Here are the girls chanting "Hello from All Over the World". Notice how Darsie kind of stares off into the distance sometimes - we hesitate to say it out loud too much, but she definitely is our blonde.... :)

Camp!!

The girls LOVED their week at camp! Today they put on a show at the end, and both did great in it! I have several videos to upload, so stay tuned! In the meantime, here are some pictures from the show...

We love Home Depot!!!

Green Fingers...

We started our seeds a little later than usual this year, but they are growing happily anyway. Here are Katy and Darsie's garden plots (along the back fence). They each have wind chimes, so we built little teepees to hold the windchimes up. Their pumpkin vines (not planted from seed) are expecially happily taking over right now. The girls are hoping for a pumpkin by fall.
Katy's plot, with her hostas and marigolds

Darsie's plot, with her hostas and pumpkin vine

Here is our vegetable garden. We have corn, beans, carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and lettuce planted. It is so fun to plant things and watch them grow and then eat the fruits of your labors!

Happy

I love summer flowers!! We added a flower bed along the back fence this year, and here is the view from my kitchen door now! I love to be able to see flowers from the house, without even having to go outside!

Katy planted the sunflower, and it just opened this weekend. Darsie also has one open and both have several more in various stages of development.

We forgot to prune our hydrangea last year and therefore have a monster this year, but it is such a beautimous blue monster that we are not really sorry at all!