what's up weekly. (we're total pool rats now.)

It's been another hot minute since I last updated you on what we've been up to lately.  It's been a summer full of the best things: some structure, some relaxation, and tons of fun.

The biggest news we need to discuss is that this girl is nine.  NINE. 

She is such a thoughtful, deep-thinking, kind girl.  She is great with babies and loves taking care of them.  She is very clean and tidy, and is particular about her clothes and hair and how she presents herself.  She wears about one thousand bracelets.  She will often exclaim, out of the blue, "I love my life!"  She is very frugal and thoughtful about her money, and she is already asking how long she'll have to wait to start getting babysitting jobs like Penelope has, because she wants to save up more money.  She loves running and swimming and crafting.  There is not a dull thing about her - she is beautiful inside and out, and we love her so much.

She asked to go to Sonic for dessert on her birthday, so we met some other families there for shakes and play time.  She is super social and has some really good friends at church, so this was really fun for her.

We had her family party last weekend, and it was so fun having all the cousins come to play. 

I didn't get many photos, but here is one of her opening her new bean bag chair from my mom, with all the cousins and siblings gathered around.

In other news, we attempted potty training the babies.  It didn't really seem to click for them, so we tabled the effort after four or five days.  Eulalie is starting to seem like she'd like to try again, so maybe I'll try working with just her next week.  Some things are not really affected much by whether there is one baby or two babies along for the ride; potty training might not be one of those things.  We'll see.

Watching Elmo from the comfort of their potties.

Todd hung a flag on the front of the house for the Fourth of July and it looks so cute!

 Baby-approved

The day before the Fourth, we all went to buy fireworks for the celebration.

The girls wanted their nails painted red, white and blue, so we spent some time in The Salon getting all festival-ready.

We did a cookout-themed dinner the night before the Fourth, and here is a photo of me cutting strawberries while watching My Girl on my kitchen TV.  How Americana is that?!

Growing up, most of my friends who had stay-at-home moms had little TVs, or at least radios, on in their kitchens most of the time.  For some reason, I have always equated it with domesticity and coziness and a sense of 'home' - someone must be in their kitchen a lot to have a TV right on the counter.  Technically, I keep mine hidden on top of my dryer and I rarely use it, but I like the rare opportunities I have to bring it out.

On the morning of the Fourth of July, we drove through heavy rain to a college about half an hour away that was doing a "Spirit of America" event.  They had recently completed a building project that includes a replica of Independence Hall, and they had some amazing historical documents and a replica of the Liberty Bell on display.  We even learned that on the Fourth of July in 1804, Lewis and Clark were in that very town, shooting off guns and having a heyday.  They even named the local creek Independence Creek in honor of the holiday.  Kind of a neat coincidence!  The final event was standing in the rain and enduring a Lincoln reenactor give a speech that was... less than rousing, through no fault of his own.  Then we headed home.

We laid low through the afternoon, then after dinner Todd took the bigger kids to the theater to see Young Washington.  (The twins and I stayed home.)  They got popcorn and soda, and took up an entire row, and had an absolute blast.

Callista spent her birthday money on her blue shirt-and-skirt combo.  She had in mind exactly what she wanted to wear on the Fourth of July and made it happen.  She looked adorable.

After everyone got home and the babies were in bed, we messed around with fireworks in the yard for a bit.  Our town has a sizable military fort, and therefore tons of military residents.  The fireworks were amazing and constant for about three days straight.  Between the rain, which ended up producing 90% humidity (literally - that was the exact humidity reading that night) and all the fireworks smoke, there was a thick haze all through town.  It was almost like fog, but it smelled like gunpowder.  It was wild.

The kids saved back some Pop Its for the babies to throw later, since they were asleep during all the fireworks fun.  They didn't quite get the hang of it, since they couldn't throw them hard enough to make them pop, but it was cute to see the kids all encouraging them and helping them.

Other than those major items of note, much of our time has been spent at the pool in the neighboring town.  I bought us a family pass at the beginning of the summer, thinking that it was a better use of money than paying hundreds of dollars to enroll everyone in two weeks of swimming lessons.  I figured I'd just figure out how to teach them to swim myself somehow.

Well, it has worked and then some.  We've been going three or four afternoons a week, and just logging time in the water has done wonders for them.  Most were not strong swimmers, a few couldn't swim at all yet.  Now everyone from Juni on up is swimming like a fish.  They're doing great.

Many afternoons we wait until Oey and the babies are down for nap, and then we head to the pool without them.  (Atticus doesn't like going to the pool, so he stays home to hold down the fort with the little ones, but they're all sleeping so it makes his job easy.)  Maybe once a week, we take Oey and the babies with us.  We go right at lunchtime and eat a picnic lunch, and then we swim until it's time to take them home for naps.  Right at first, the babies were not fans of the water.  Knox would walk around a little, holding my hand, but Eulalie would not let me put her down.  But after a couple of visits, they've become little sea monkeys.  They like laying across my legs and pretending to swim.

Oey loves the water and is fearless, but she doesn't know how to swim yet, so Penelope and I take turns watching her like a hawk. 

And that has been our summer break so far!  The mornings are spent doing some simple schoolwork (math, reading, typing, piano) or household projects, the afternoons are spent having fun in the sun.  It has been one of the best summers we've ever had, and we still have so much break to go!  I'm trying to get in some planning for next school year here and there, and I'm trying to decide when we'll start back to school.  With as much fun as we've been having, we might wait until after Labor Day to start.  Why cut such a good thing short?  Viva summer!