Summer Days

Tobin--T is at scout camp; I hope having the time of his life. I'm not sure he is though given the fact that the forecast calls for rain and he has an ear infection. We told him to act tough and go get'em! Don't worry about that ear infection, rain, or thunder. Scouts are stronger than that! He had a few friends going which is a good thing, or I don't think I would have gotten him there otherwise. He didn't even have a scout shirt, for pete's sake! We'll see when he gets home. I'll let you know.

Noah--has found himself oddly adrift after swim team ending. He doesn't know what to do with his days, but he sure does know what he doesn't want to do. Summer reading or summer math. It took me two hours yesterday to help him finish 3 pages!! Thanks teachers! I really wouldn't mind less during the summer. Less is more!! He has been training for the start of football. He has run the mile twice and lowered his mile time by over a minute. I'm sure the trend will continue knowing how competitive he is!

Brenna--continues to be as cute as ever! She is in a day camp with a lot of her friends and feels like everyday is a playdate, but more fun as she gets to do things like show her spirit by dressing up (this week is decades week), tie-dye shirts, go to a pool with huge slides, and make ice cream! Sounds fun, I wish they had camps for grown ups.

A little story I have to tell about Brenna. The other day I bought a box of donut holes. Entemanns, my kids love them. Anyway, Brenna discovered them when there were 8 donut holes left in the box. She ate two of them right away. I'm not even sure she tasted them, that's how fast she ate them. (I wasn't there, so this is according to her). Anyway, she put two more in her hands and ran downstairs to where Andy is and asked if she could eat them! Did she think to tell Andy that she had already had two? Of course not! In fact, she posed the question in such a way that she melted Daddy's heart and he would have gone out and bought a donut store had she asked. Anyway, Tobin, at this point, had discovered the donut holes and promptly had eaten 3 of them. By my mathematical prowess, that makes 7of the 8 gone. Guess who walks in? yep, Noah. And what does Noah do? He freaks out that he hadn't gotten any this go round and he deserved the last one!! Now, I don't know about you, but anybody who yells at the decibal that Noah does, doesn't deserve anything in my book.
Brenna had been walking back upstairs and heard all of this going on. As she walked into the kitchen, she held out her hand close fisted and slowly unwrapped her fingers to offer Noah one of the donut holes. Noah knew an offer when he saw one and immediately grabbed for it, just in case Brenna was playing him. She held firm and Noah was able to eat the proffered donut hole. This seemed a lot more funny in the moment it happened, realizing what Brenna had done: eaten two, asked for two, and then giving up one and getting kudos for having done so from her brother who hadn't realized she had already had two.

Andy is busy working! I keep telling him that all work and no play makes him a dull boy. He tells me that I get to be high maintenance in the summer! And then we laugh...and then...he gets back to work. Sigh.

Bre is at the Beach

Bre is at the beach as I type this and we miss her sooooo much. My brother and sister-in-law invited her to go to the beach with them for a few days. I was excited for Brenna and said yes, but didn't realize how much we would miss her. I think she got a little inkling of how much we would miss her when she said, "Can someone with our last name go with me to the beach? or Can one of my brothers go with me?" We miss you baby girl and hope that you have some fun stories for when you return.

Noah swims backstroke

Tobin swimming.

Swim meet videos

My friends are in Denver right now trying to decide if this is the place for them when they leave us next year. (Really, I will be truly sad for days when they move). We were able to watch their oldest Annie Kate for them at the swim meet today. I decided that I could videotape AK swimming so they could see it. So, here it is:



Tobin, Noah and Brenna all swam in our meet today! It is sooooo fun to see all of my kids participating in a sports event together. I love it. Noah shaved time off his backstroke and freestyle today. His goal is to beat one of his friends. I keep telling him he only needs to beat his own time, but he's too competitive for that to matter. I keep hoping. I'm not sure Brenna gets how swimming is a team sport as she gets in, swims her event, gets out and will then go chase butterflies, get a donut or go jump in the other pool. Her time means nothing to her and I have yet to get her to get her time when she hops out. Tobin is sooo long these days and looks like a dolphin in the water. He is really fun to watch, especially in breast stroke. He loves the chants and completely is all about the team. Our team lunch was at noodles and is a great time for team bonding. What I love about Tobin and the lunches this year is that his group crosses grade boundaries, school boundaries, and gender boundaries. It is so fun to see them hanging out and talking, joking and having fun.

Camp Antics

Tobin spent this week at sleep away basketball camp and came home last night!!!! I was soooo excited to see him until the ugly teenage attitude showed itself practically 30 seconds after he got home and I was ready to send him back. :)

I have asked Tobin about camp and have gotten the "it was good" response! Because Andy had a two hour ride with Tobin, he was able to get a little bit more out of him (at least that's what I tell my self). This is what Andy was able to get out of Tobin.

* Tobin went with many of his basketball team members and they were able to bond this week
* Tobin came back to his room to find his mattress and his roommates mattress' switched around
* Tobin and his friend went in the dorm bathroom when their poor unsuspecting friend was taking a shower and flushed all the toilets and turned on all the sink faucets, so that they heard their poor friend scream, "whhh, it's cold."
* Tobin came home one night to find all his food had been put in another room
*Tobin and another teammate went in and bought some food to share together.
*Tobin's room was kind of the hang out room because he brought ipod alarm clock to listen to their ipods
*As if they didn't play b-ball enough, Tobin and two of his friends went and did drills during one of the evenings after dinner.

I was so glad.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y--that is our Kingfish Battle Cry!

Our swim team came out strong and stayed "tribal" throughout the swim meet. We won and Tobin made an all star time in breaststroke. Tobin's birthday is a huge advantage for him and even though he is now 13, he is swimming with the 11/12s. Tobin's stroke looks beautiful and he has grown so much. Noah's stroke still isn't pretty, but his strength gives him a complete advantage. If Noah would finesse his strokes, he would be a force to be reckoned with. Noah just told me, "Mom, next time I swim, look at my free and back." Guess he didn't like my comment. I love swim team and can't say enough good things about it. I love that this is a sport where my kids can all participate and cheer each other on in place. The comraderie from the 18 down to the 7 year olds is amazing. I love it.



Tobin is in the far left of this picture with the green, grass skirt. Scary, right?








These two pictures are of Noah getting ready to swim and then swimming his heart out.

Our friend's bar mitzvah

Teddy's candle lighting ceremony! I love this part of the celebration. Teddy lights a candle with help from the people who have meant the most to him.


I love this picture of the 3 of us.



The whole gang! Tobin is right in the middle, sort of hiding behind Teddy's hat.


Our "adult" gang spending time together at the bar mitzvah.




I have loved, loved, loved going to the bar mitzvah's with Tobin. I was so excited to go to this bar mitzvah and celebrate with our friends. Teddy, whose bar mitzvah it was, was so excited. He is usually so restrained and quiet, but on this day, the day of his bar mitzvah, he let loose and had a great time. He was the first to be brought up on the dance floor and I was amazed at the largeness of his movements. Teddy was having a great time. It was so much fun celebrating with lots of friends as well; Andy and I loved who was at our table.

One of the most fun things that the DJ did was a game where each adult had to choose one teenager to dance with. For the first song (from my generation) the child had to imitate whatever we did. For the second song (their generation) we had to imitate what our young partner did. I deliberately didn't grab Tobin, knowing how easily embarassed he gets of us these days; I thought I would let Andy handle him (wasn't that nice of me?). I chose one of Tobin's friends whose parents wasn't at the party. I had a fun time and I think Tobin's friend was happy that I was pretty contemporary.
But I must say, that Andy and Tobin did great together. Some of you will remember Andy's break dancing days; we'll he's still got the moves! Tobin was actually impressed, even if he didn't want to say it. I do think it helped that the DJ gave Andy huge props and high fives for his efforts. Andy loved it! Tobin is quite the dancer and it was fun watching him quickly pick up the latest moves from the DJ. It's called the stinky leg. Look it up on Youtube. Tobin did a great job and was able to add in a bowling ball leg to it. It probably looks better in my mind than yours, but totally fun.