Elska, she's so adorable when she sleeps. She can be a real handful some days but we're all learning to work with her. We've been going to Obedience training classes with her and she's doing pretty good. We don't practice enough with her at home, even though we should. It's been really fun to watch Oliver bond with her. I think he loves having her around to talk to and at night we've had a few successful nights of her sleeping in his bed for a few hours till he falls asleep. He told us “She is calming and therapeutic for me. Plus she keeps my feet warm!”.
Oliver had a rough morning one day in June. He has been begging us to cook more and he wanted to make pancakes for breakfast. I told him to go ahead and mix up the batter, then wait till I came up to help with the rest. Soon afterward I heard monstrously loud footsteps pounding down the stairs. Oliver stormed in and said "well it all just magically fell on the ground." He had spilled all the unmixed ingredients off the counter. What a mess. It was far too early to handle it well, but I tried my best. He was a ball of emotions for the next few hours. Someday, my hope is Elska will be a tool to help him calm down faster. we're not quite there yet.
Lucius is still playing soccer and loves it. I think he loves it even more cause his team has been winning most of their games. It's been really fun to watch them play this year. They've learned to spread out on the field, stay in their positions they are assigned and pass the ball a lot. They've made some beautiful passes this year and it's fun to see them all play together while encouraging each other too.
We took a trip to Ax-Man surplus store with our neighbors to get some tinkering supplies. My kids didn't really find too many items to purchase for tinkering- I think because it's out all summer they don't really use it as much as I thought they would. But their friends love to come over to tinker, so I continue to leave it out. Still a fun adventure.
We also went to a new playground that looks like a castle with our neighbors. It was ginormous, much bigger than I had been expecting. Super fun adventure.
That same day we had a friend over all day. She had come to the castle playground with us and we decided to go check out a free giant slip n slide in the afternoon. We grabbed a pizza for lunch to take home and eat together then hopped into the car to drive to the Shoreview Community Center to see the slip n slide. It was quite large but so were the lines to take a turn. We ended up only going down once, but it sure was fun.
Over the weekend we went Strawberry picking. We picked about 11 pounds which was a LOT of strawberries. I don't think we need that many if we go again next year but it was fun to make four batches of strawberry jam with all those fresh red berries.
We haven't put the boys in swimming lessons for a couple years. The last two summers they had the little 3 foot pool to practice swimming and getting used to how to move their bodies when they are in water. We've also taken a lot of trips to lakes nearby to swim.
Well I wanted the boys to be stronger swimmers and to feel like I could let them swim in the deep end of the pools, like they want to, without me having a panic attack. So I signed them up for swimming lessons. They were both in beginner 1 last time they took red cross swimming lessons. Lucius passed on his first try through the 8 day program and Oliver did not pass after his 2nd attempt. (believe me it was not a happy day). Since we'd been swimming more I knew Oliver had mastered the skills he hadn't mastered to pass beginner one. This year I signed them both up for Beginner 2 class. They are both LOVING it.
They are learning the front crawl stroke, the elementary back stroke, treading water, the survival float, the dolphin kick, sitting and kneeling dives.
Oliver has a really strong backstroke and can tread water. His dives have been getting much better and only belly flops about 25% of the time.
Lucius has a very strong front crawl and can dolphin kick really well. He sinks straight to the bottom of the pool when he tried to tread water.
I love that they both understand their strengths and weaknesses & are both working really hard to get better. Neither of them thinks they will pass and I'm kind of thinking they are right but am excited they have good attitudes. We find out today weather they pass or not. Either way I'm happy they know more ways to swim in the water and feel a LOT more comfortable with pool trips!
Lucius' art has changed to too. He's never been huge on drawing, he is always outside practicing any & every sport. This year I noticed that his teacher helped him progress so much that he not only had time to finish his work but he had time to draw all over it just like his older brother has done. His drawings started off with lots of captain underpants and dog man characters. Soon though, all his artwork revolved around sports: making game plans, field plays, sports ladders and stats.
The one piece of his art that I thought looked fantastic was this robot. I think we're totally going to frame it as soon as possible and hang it up in the house. I don't know how he did it but I love the shadows, colors and the simplicity of it.
Every year I sort through the boys art and school papers at the end of the school year to keep some of it. I find it really hard to part with some of their art, so before I trash anything I usually photograph it all. Then whatever I decide to keep the paper version of goes into their keepsake file box and everything else can get tossed knowing I have a photo copy.
Each year is a timestamp of their interests and what they like the most. Oliver doodles a lot on his notebooks and his homework. His first grade papers came home with bunnies all over them. This year in fourth grade it was slime rancher (a video game his friend plays), a few dragons and his comic book characters.
He also made an art piece that the art teacher put in the district wide art show. It was really fun so we end up framing it once we got it back. We also turned it into art prints so that he could give his teachers an original Oliver work of art. His thank you notes to his teachers were so sweet too.
Lucius came to show me what he'd been working on one day after quiet time. It was a card holder that fit on his wrist to hold his yugi-oh cards. He was so thrilled it worked and so proud to show it off.
