This summer the girls took two weeks of swim classes from our favorite teacher set. Both girls ended up with Ms. Kate as their teacher. Julia took the preschool level 2 class this session and when she completed it was told to move on up to preschool level 3 for additional classes. Emily took Ready-to-Learn level 2. The difference in the classes the girls are in is based on age. By being split like this it means more time at the pool, but the girls have really enjoyed the kids they are in class with. Both girls are learning to blow bubbles while under the water. Seems to be a tricky skill for them.

We went to Gatlinburg to celebrate Emily’s birthday. Some of Emily’s favorite things include staying in hotels and swimming, and we were able to make both of these happen. The weather was amazing for January and we enjoyed being outside despite a few rain showers that moved through. In addition to swimming, we played putt-putt, visited the aquarium, rode the trolley, walked the strip, shopped, discovered our way through a mirror maze, and rode the skylift. Emily loved discovering that the hotel had hot chocolate and cookies every night. The trip was fun and it was a delight to share the time with Emily and Julia.

Our little swimmers before they made their big leap in. The water was a bit cold so once we got out we didn’t want to get back in.

Daddy was a great sport and swam with the girls until Julia’s lips turned blue.

During the break in the rain shower we got a game of putt-putt in. The girls wanted us to take turns in the order we played. We only got one ball stuck and didn’t lose any of them. We consider this progress with our young golfers. The rules were treated as suggestions and more than once the hole was bracketed with feet to give a sense of success.

Despite our rule bending both girls successfully made hole-in-ones all on their own. This is Julia celebrating her successful hole-in-one. Quite proud! She hit the ball without looking and was holding the putter backwards, but gravity and some good luck was in her favor on the hole. Emily was not to be out done and made a hole-in-one on a later hole.

The six-year-old has some game and some attitude. Funny!

This was how we traveled this weekend. When Julia got tired of walking we gave her a push. Not a bad plan because one afternoon she gave out and slept for over an hour while Emily kept exploring.

Emily’s first visit to the aquarium had a similar photo to this one, but the fish was bigger than she was. She has now grown longer than the fish!

Dude!! We found Crush!

Mama and her birthday girl!

The girls love the fish bowl and Emily still fits in there. I think the only reason they looked at the camera was that the fish swam away.

While Julia napped Robby took Emily up to the top of the mountain on the skylift. Emily was so brave and the heights didn’t faze her in the least.

Checking out! Emily took charge of all of her and Julia’s clothes and special things. Mama loves the efficiency of giving the stuffed animals a ride on the backpack with a view.

What is a birthday without celebrating it with ice cream for dinner? We did offer other food later, but up to this point it was dinner. Yum! We had enough fun we might do this every year.

Emily picked to swim for her birthday party. She also picked her party theme to be a Snow Princess party. To be a Snow Princess she got a special blue dress with pom-poms sewn on to make it ‘princess-y’.

We went to a local heated pool to have her party. We started off with some running around a gym, followed by decorating princess shoes with gems (Aiden got a frog to decorate), then lunch of pizza and cupcakes, and lastly all the swimming the little ones could handle. Emily had a lot of fun at her party. She is already planning her next one.

The birthday girl – she was having a good time despite the serious face.

A little pre-party game of tag. They do not understand the game and just had fun running away from Ms. Rachelle.

Craft time

Emily was serious about her shoe decorating. She had been planning for days which shoe she wanted to decorate.

Julia took her gluing seriously. She spread it all over her shoe like she was icing a cake.

The frog turned out pretty cute!

Our table of goodies

Emily enjoyed a lot of freedom in the pool because she was willing to kick herself around on the kickboard. She seemed to have the hang of the kickboard more this day than she has before.

Julia was pretty busy in the pool. Every time the camera came out she seemed to be turning her back to it. She had a great time just playing.

Aiden and his Mama – what a great photo. They both have great grins.

Elena floating on her own

Maeve’s eyes seem to always have such a sparkle

The little girls floating and having a great time together. It is nice to have friends.

One of our trip goals was to have the girls swim a lot. We succeeded! The girls were a lot of fun to be with in the water.

Emily has a good deal of fear still, but would find a comfort level in the pool and play her heart out. Sometimes she would swim with an innertube, a noodle, or a kickboard. She found her freedom in swimming in the pool by herself and jumping in with the innertube. When we were at Jolie’s she used a noodle to keep up with Natalie. We challenged Emily to jump into the pool where she could stand. Once she figured out it would be ok, she loved bouncing around the shallow section after jumping in herself. She will be a great swimmer when she figures out how to master her fear.

Julia has very little fear in the water. She has two favorite games to play at the pool. One is an elevator game. I will hold her out of the water and say “second floor”, then lower her into the water and say “first floor”, then let go and give her control. When I say “basement” she bobs herself into the water. Emily plays this game too. She plays it from the side of the pool and does it all by herself. Watching Emily play this game is what got Julia to enjoy bobbing her face into the water. 

Julia’s other favorite game is to jump into the pool. She will jump in holding my hands. While at Grandma and Grandpa’s we started pushing her toward the stairs to come out and she enjoyed putting her face into the water. By the time we left Jolie’s we would give her a push toward the stairs and she would float face down all the way to the steps. She could go three body lengths with gentle kicks.

We just finished our two week swim class for the summer. Emily was in the Level 1 swimming class with Lauren and Julia was in the Mommy and Me class with Kate and Mommy. Both girls loved their class and teachers.

Wow, what a class – somewhere in the middle Julia decided that she wanted to be just like Emily. All she had to do was see Emily do some swimming activity and immediately she wanted to do the same thing. She was willing to do bobs, elevator rides, swim with a noodle, swim with boards, and “jump” into the pool. She loved it once she found some independence.

Emily was in her own heaven in her class. She found a new friend. When they weren’t doing something the girls hung on the edge of the pool and just chit-chatted. Emily is very proud of her kicking and swimming to the other end of the pool (with a board). She also enjoys the elevator game (a bobbing game). She was very brave to try whatever was asked of her.

Yesterday was the last day and Daddy got to come and watch the girls swim. Both girls were thrilled to have him there. They also seemed to “show off” their best tricks for him. What a sweet day.

The girls have graduated to the next classes for next time. Julia will join the pre-school classes (the only change from what we were learning now is no Mama) and Emily will move to the Level 2 class. The teacher said that Emily needs the kids from the next group to challenge her to new skills. We are so proud of our swimmers!

Happy Swimming Emily!

Our sparkling eyed, about-to-go-under Julia

Emily with Lauren

Julia with Kate

Floating with Mommy, she didn’t really like to do this and relax.

Emily with her new poolside buddy.

Kicking to the other end of the pool and happy to show Daddy her trick.

And she did it ALL by herself!

Hot days make for fun backyard pool days. The girls were being sweet with each other. The thing they seemed to enjoy most this day in the pool was the freedom to splash and pour water outside of the pool. In the bathtub they get in trouble for making a big water mess, but it was actually encouraged this day. They loved it!