Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school for my second grader and my fourth grader! Wow, we're going to have a third grader and a fifth grader around here, plus don't forget the preschooler. They have had a great year. Emma loved her teacher this year which is always a good thing. Other big news for her is that she just got accepted to the gifted and talented program for the school district. We're pretty excited about that. She'll be clustered with other G/T kids in her classroom, plus they have a pull-out program now where the kids go to a separate class twice a week. It was Alex's favorite activity of the week most of the time. They did lots of fun activities like making a mummified orange, a self-guided research project, and Lego robots.

Swimming has begun in earnest now. The kids have had 2 swim meets and done very well. Emma continues to be our awesome little backstroker while Alex still loves the butterfly. We really enjoy watching him skim across the water. His new challenge is the individual medley where the kids swim one length of the pool using each stroke. 100 yards is pretty long compared to his usual 25 yard races. By the last length, he has a hard time getting his arms up out of the water for the freestyle, but he must love it. He keeps choosing it for every meet.

Benjamin has been plugging along doing weans and therapy. He is making progress and can chew and swallow many different foods without gagging. He's had a little setback over the last 2 weeks because he has been battling a cold and an ear infection. Poor guy, his nose is like a water faucet. Not much eating going on during this cold bout. He'll get back to it soon, I'm sure.

Other big news around here...Alex is 10! He has officially hit double digits. He had a great birthday. We invited 2 of his friends to see UP and have a sleepover. Those boys stayed up until 1 a.m. on Saturday night despite the fact that 2 of the 3 of them had gotten up at 5:30 a.m. for a swim meet on Saturday. To top it off, they set their watches for 6:30 a.m. on Sunday so they wouldn't miss out on any XBox playing time in the morning. Alex loved having his friends over and even got to have 2 birthday dinners, one with his friends and one with us. We got Alex a guitar for his birthday since he has been asking about one for awhile. He starts lessons this afternoon, so he's excited. I know absolutely nothing about guitars despite all my other musical instrument background, so he'll have to teach me a little bit.
One funny story from the sleepover...There is a large cemetery on the way to the movie theater. Every time we pass the cemetery, the kids "hold their breath" so the "spirits won't get in". The funny thing is that Emma and Alex always talk their way past the cemetery and are still convinced that they are holding their breath since they haven't breathed in. Whenever we pass it, I always threaten the kids that I am going to slow way down so they have to take a breath, but there is always too much traffic. The perfect opportunity arrived on Alex's birthday. As we were approaching the cemetery, the boys got themselves prepared and had to warn each other not to start until we passed a certain gate. Then one of the boys took a huge breath and puffed out his cheeks like a chipmunk. The other boy just held his breath, while Alex talked his way past. I slowed down to see what would happen. When we finally made it past, the boys exploded out their breath and kept saying how hard it was. I had a good laugh! That made the sleepover worth it.