On Friday the kids had their swimming graduations with Aubrey. They have been looking forward to this all week because it meant free time in the pool, and afterward Aubrey gave them popsicles.
This is Lydia’s card to Aubrey. It says, “Dear Abry, I will really miss you. thank you for teeching me to swim good. I feel like a star. without you I would never ever have the talint to swim grate. xoxo”
That part about Lydia feeling like a star just melted me.
Here was Mary’s card:
It says, “dear aubrey, I miss you if you weren’t there i would not be able to swim. Love aubrey.”
So cute.
Then we headed home to change, eat lunch, and practice harp and piano. I taught Mary the third phrase of “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” and it almost killed both of us. The third phrase is EXACTLY THE SAME as the second phrase (which Mary already knew) with the exception of ONE NOTE. For some reason, she could not figure out how to play it. It took an hour, but we finally did it and she got it. By that point every time Mary played it wrong Lydia screamed in frustration from the living room. Lydia knows the song and could not understand why Mary could not figure this out, and she was almost out of her mind because she was dying to go to This is the Place and meet up with Suzanne for the beginning of their sleepover.
Anyway, Mary finally got it, and we got in the car an hour late to meet up with Suzanne at This is the Place. When we got there, the kids panned for gold and mined for gems. Clarissa loved eating the woodchips in the gem box. She had a great time doing her little dinosaur crawl all over, and it was so much easier to control the kids with Suzanne there. Normally I am chasing Ammon everywhere, but this time he actually spent time “panning for gold” –with his own Ammon modifications to the activity, of course. Most of his panning involved scooping up sand and running it to a different part of the stream to dump it out. He’d then pick up giant rocks and say “I found a golden!” All of the gold was a “golden” to Ammon.
Then I took Ammon and Clarissa home to beat rush hour traffic while Suzanne took Lydia and Mary to the ponies and hospital. Then she kept them for their first grandparent sleepover. The girls had the greatest time!! There were notes and presents from Gwendolyn and Mrs. Twinkleton (the fairies), a scavenger hunt, conversations with Google, deer and fawn watching in Tom and Suzanne’s back yard, and paper fairy dolls. The girls were elated.