Hello, Summer!

Today the kids had their last horseback riding lesson. They had two lessons this week because their fifth lesson would have been next week, when we will be in Maryland. Ian was evidently tired because he fell asleep while riding Clyde! The teacher said he certainly isn't the first student to fall asleep while riding his horse. I knew she was doing a horse riding camp this week. I asked her questions about it, and I think next year I will sign both Nadia and Ian up for one week of her camp (from 9-3 for five days). I also am planning to sign Nadia up for an overnight camp next summer. I toyed with signing her up this summer because she was old enough, but Paul thought she was too young. Next year I think she'll spend four days (three nights) at Camp Susque and both she and Ian will do one week of the 9-3 horse camp.

Tomorrow is Nadia's last gymnastics class; her last class would have been Tuesday night, but she was at VBS. She's making up that missed class tomorrow. We'll take an eight week break from gymnastics. She said she wanted to switch back to ballet (instead of gymnastics), but I think she is leaning back toward gymnastics. The next three weeks we won't be home very much between our time in Maryland and Florida, and some of the days we will be at home my sister and her husband and four children will be staying with us. Nadia's swim instructor called me this morning to schedule her private lessons, and I scheduled them for the week of July 14, as that will be the next week we'll be around all week. That will be the week Paul will start spending time on campus at Bucknell. He's already been putting in a lot of time working through a tutorial so that he will be ready to do computational research on their system (which is different from PSU's). Paul has been juggling three part-time jobs these past several weeks as he's been teaching at Bloomsburg on Tuesdays and Thursdays, working a couple of days a week at Kennedy Concrete, and also doing work on the computer for Bucknell. As of July 2, he will be down to "just" one job - Bucknell as the grades will be submitted for Bloomsburg and his last day of working for his dad will be July 1.

This morning we played in the backyard and went to the playground in the morning, and the kids were very confused because usually we go in the afternoon after Oliver wakes up from his nap, but our summer routine (when it's not raining and we're at home) will be to go to the playground in the morning (today we were gone from 9:30-11:30am) and go swimming in the afternoon after Oliver wakes up from his nap.  Paul had planned on working for his dad today, but he decided to do some work at home for Bloomsburg and Bucknell instead, and he's planning to go to Kennedy Concrete on Sunday after church to make up for this missed day, as the kids and I will be driving to Maryland after church on Sunday. He's planning to spend Sunday night at his parent's house as he's planning to work for his dad also on Monday. He only has two days left of teaching at Bloomsburg (24th and 26th). Since he worked from home today, he met us for dinner and swimming at the pool at 5pm. The kids and I stopped at the pool on the way home from horse back riding. The lifeguard who was on duty was very nice. In 2011 we belonged to a different pool, and two of the lifeguards at that pool used to play with Nadia in the water when we were the only ones at the pool. Last year we became friends with a couple of the lifeguards, but they never got in the water even when we were the only ones there. Tommy was playing sharks and minnows with a few children (including Nadia), and then when the other children left, he just kept playing with Nadia (throwing her up in the air and such) while Paul and I were in the baby pool with Oliver and Ian.

We capped off our day with a waltz class. Our pastor's daughter came over to babysit for two hours (the kids were asleep during the second hour) so we could attend the ballroom dancing class. It's wonderful to be taking ballroom dancing lessons again!

I had planned to keep on going with homeschooling Nadia throughout the summer, although I knew we'd take a week off here and there. Well the only "school work" we did this week was reading. I try to have her read at least 15 minutes almost every day. I had planned to just do three subjects this summer - spelling, reading, and math (and occasionally also do some art and/or handwriting). I've now decided that aside from having her read to an adult as many days as possible, we're taking a break until July 14.