Daycare Carnival

The other day the kids' daycare had their annual summer carnival. We went and had a GREAT time. They had set up THREE bounce houses (YIPPEE!) and had various carnival-esque games that we didn't take pictures of, and R got her face painted. Here are the pictures I did get.

The kids bouncing in the bouncy castle (R's favorite!)
RUS using the digger in the sandbox. I just adore this picture.
At the bottom of the slide!
Climbing up for another round!
Face painting!

Swim Lessons 2011

R absolutely loved her swim lessons this year. She made huge progress, too! She went from refusing to even dip her chin in the water to realizing that she loved going under, and she can swim herself around holding on to the noodle. We're still working on pushing off from the side of the pool and getting her head more fully underwater while dog paddling.

Pool Time

Is it bad for me to confess that this is the first time R has been to the pool this summer?

Water (and Sand, later) Table

R got a belated birthday gift from Uncle A, Aunt M, and cousins G and Trucker the other week. I discovered it when I opened my front door to find a giant box blocking my way onto the porch. It turned out to be one of these sand and water tables.

What an awesome gift!

R literally squealed with delight when she saw me pulling it out of the box and putting it together for the first time.

(Aside: It is so much fun to see how excited she gets about things! When Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and ordered her a quesadilla, which arrived on a plate heaping with french fries. You should have seen her eyes get as big as silver dollars when she saw all that food being put in front of her. She kept saying, "WOW! Wow! WOW!" while we all lived vicariously through her enthusiasm for the food.)

Anyway, we haven't bought sand for it yet because--and this is another bit of exciting news that I haven't publicized yet for fear of jinxing something--we are likely to be moving at the end of this month into a new, perfect-for-us, house. But we've set it up with just water, and oh my goodness, she has a ball.

It works out wonderfully with the water toys she got from Great-Aunt L and Great-Grammy (note the green fish on the left in the picture below) as well as Grandma and Grandpa (note the blue and yellow clams).

Second Beach Trip

Our second beach trip with R was a lot of fun, even if it was a teensy bit less successful than our last one. The day was beautiful, the company was great-- it was the three of us plus Grandma and Grandpa-- but R was having none of going near the water in the ocean. Boo!

She still looked adorable in her bathing suit, and she had a great time playing in the sand and watching all the other little kids run around and play. She especially enjoyed burying her feet in the sand and breaking them out, as well as burying my feet and J's feet.

Then we went on the boardwalk and bought salt water taffy and Thrasher's french fries. Mmmmm!

On the way home, R learned how to make glasses with her fingers and she clapped enthusiastically at every song that I, Grandma, or Grandpa could come up with to sing.

Swimming Lessons, a.k.a. "Starfish"

R and J finished up their swimming lessons yesterday. She got a picture and a certificate of completion--I guess she's officially a Starfish now.

R seemed to enjoy the lessons quite a lot, even though the time we signed up for ended up not being ideal (she was usually REALLY tired because she didn't always nap *before* the 11 a.m. lessons, and would be exhausted by the time she got home, too tired to even have lunch.) They practiced things like holding on to the side rail, sitting on the side of the pool and "falling" in on the count of 3, and blowing bubbles in the water. J said that R never really got into the bubbles bit but seemed to enjoy just being in the water. The instructors sang songs (like the Grand Old Duke of York and the Wheels on the Bus) while the parents would move around in the pool or do hand movements or whatever with the kids.

Here are a few pictures that I took when visiting the class last week.

Corn!

Growing up, my grandparents would always come visit us with bags and bags and bags full of freshly picked corn on the cob. Then us kids--me and my 4 brothers--would stand outside the front of the house husking a dozen or more ears of corn for dinner. Mmm, sweet corn.

Last night, R had her first corn on the cob. We weren't intending to give her the cob--originally we just cut off some of the kernels and put them on her tray. But she wasn't having any of it and started pointing and yelling for the cob itself when watching us eat our corn. She LOVED it, and ate it every which way, after inspecting it carefully, of course.