Peanuts, gentle digenists, and bicycles

This week has been busy!  Gwyn and Lyla have swimming lessons two days a week and Celee has gymnastics two days a week.  Lyla got moved up out of the preschool swim-lessons into beginner lessons and she is almost able to swim independently.  I don't think it will be much longer until I will really have to keep a close eye on her - for now ,as long as she can't touch the bottom, she feels the need to have a hand on one of us and so there's not much threat of her slipping away un-noticed.  Which is nice because she is my most impulsive child and most prone to slipping away.  It may become easier to swim at Spalding pool (normal-shaped and -sized pool here) rather than Sholem (large, crowded, water-park-type pool here) when she does start swimming just so I can keep her close.

Celee is doing great at gymnastics - She enjoys is so much and is really learning a lot!  She also won a hoola-hoop contest at church and then got to give a demonstration of her many and varied hoola-hoop tricks in front of the children's church that day.  She can do all kinds of crazy stuff like jumping, doing a split, running, squatting - all while hoola-hooping.  I keep thinking of the lady at the circus that hoola-hoops with like 100 hoops all going at the same time to the point that you can see her body anymore - that could totally be Celee one day.

We got to see some old friends this week.  We haven't seen Mason and Brynna for a year or so and it was really nice to have them over to play.  My kids have played with these kids since we first moved here and I kept Brynna after pre-school for two years until she went to kindergarten.  They've always played so well together!  It's neat too because Mason is one of the few boys that age which Gwyn enjoys playing with and who will actually play with my girls without destroying whatever it is they happen to be playing.  No offence to boys here, my girls just usually like to "set up" a lot of things (which is most of the actual playing) and most boys end up messing up whatever the girls have "set up."  I also happened to have found a crockpot recipe for boiled peanuts, and found out that at least 3 of the kids loved it!  It's not quite the same as getting them from the trucks that sell them on the side of the road in Newton Co., but they were good.  As an aside- the "recipe" isn't much, put peanuts, water and a lot of salt in a crockpot on high for 18 or so hours.  I don't know why I hadn't tried this before!

Friday Jason had the day off which was super nice because the girls had picked going to the Bloomington-Normal Children's Museum out of the Fun Jar this week so he got to go with us.  This museum is 3 stories of fun, with a lot of stable exhibits but also some that change - like the theater zone complete with ticket booth and working lighting controls.  Gwyn and Celee had fun on stage putting on a dance show.  Lyla mostly manned the curtains and changed the backdrops at random points in the show.  There was also  a place to make puppets and then use them in a large puppet theater.  Then there was a large music area with a feet piano and a blue man group-style pipe piano.  Celee decided to keep her costume on from the theater to jam out the Harry Potter Theme song on the feet piano. 

Lyla also got to play dentist with Jason which is so funny to me because of her recent dentist experience.  She went to the dentist for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she was very nervous about it.  She ended up doing great and then told everyone for the next week and a half who brave she was and that she wanted to be a "gentle digenist" when she grow up. I guess she's getting her practice in.  

 
 Here is Gwyn with one of the puppets expressing love at the paint wall. 
Jason and I had a lot of fun with the pin-rack thing. (I have no idea what these things are actually called)  He thought it was especially funny to make the faces look like they were spitting or had horns, etc. 

 Yesterday was Father's Day.  We tried to make it a great day for Jason.  We got up to prepare his requested breakfast of fried eggs, biscuits, and sausage gravy.  Right before we were about to take it upstairs to him though he tentatively called down the stairs to see if it was ok if he came down or should he wait upstairs.  He knows how particular the girls are when they have plans (especially Gwyn) and didn't want to mess up any "breakfast in bed" plans.  So he did have to go back up and receive his breakfast in bed according to plan.  Since Jason has been riding his bike to work occassionally, and said bike is one I got out of a dumpster when we lived in Orlando, we had decided to get him a new bike for Father's Day.  We had carefully chosen a bike on Wed. and hidden it in the garage the whole week.  Then Sunday morning I realized - I had bought a women's bike.  I was so preoccupied trying to make sure the bike was a steel framed, hybrid, cushy seated bike that I neglected to notice that it was a woman's bike - until I got it out Sunday morning.  For those that know me this shouldn't come as a suprise.  I often get overwhelmed with details that I can totally miss something big right in front of me, but this was just too much!  I felt like such a blunderer.  All's well that ends well though b/c after church we all took the bike back and exchanged it for one that Jason got to pick out himself that was actually a little bit cheaper anyway. 

Well, with a new bike we all had to take a bike ride!  So we purposed to ride to Meadowbrook Park (Lyla riding in the trailer behind my bike).  This was all good on the way there.  We had a good time although it was hot.  We even saw a deer that came really close to Celee while we were riding around the back of the park.  After playing on the playground, everyone was tired and the ride home was not so pleasant.  Bless her heart, Celee persevered, but her bike does not coast well and she has to make 2 pedals at least for every one of ours and she was dog tired.  Gwyn is also getting too long-legged for her bike, so we are going to have to upgrade everyone soon.  Gwyn also crashed on the way home.  I guess some thing got caught in her spokes and threw her off as we were going up Windsor Road.  She wasn't seriously hurt, but we had the whole "I am not getting back on that bike!" discussion prior to getting back on that bike in order to get home.  I guess all in all, everyone did pretty well considering.  When I mapped it at home, we had gone 8 miles in all.  For the girls I think that's quite a distance. 

Once we got home and everyone had a bath they were all in fairly good moods.  We had a really nice evening.  I made steaks and we watched Back to the Future (which I did not remember having so many potty words!).  Then eveyone sacked out peacefully.  Jason said he had a good day and felt very appreciated so I suppose that was a win too.  I wish we could have spent some time with our family this weekend.  It's always weird to me to give the "Happy Father's Day" or "Happy Mother's Day" or "Happy Birthday" call instead of actually seeing the person and saying it to them then.  At least I did get the cards in the mail in time for the Fathers to get them on time.  And we'll get to see them in two more weeks.  I am thankful for my family! - my family of origin and my now family.  I'm so blessed that Jason is such a wonderful daddy and such a great husband.  I am really glad that even through my blunders, he felt loved and valued on Father's Day.  I'm all about making the day special (he can't expect breakfast in bed everyday!) but I would like to remember to cherish him as a habit as well.  Again, this is one of those habits that is better honed under accountability.  So for now this is my accountability that I've said it on here.