Pool Party

Many of the past years I have paid a fee so that our family could join a swimming pool for the summer. The pool graciously refunded our membership fee in 2012 after I discovered I was on bedrest and wouldn't be able to take Nadia and Ian swimming that summer. Due to the kids' schedules plus rainy or cooler days, last year I decided it wasn't financially wise to join the pool this year. Thus far I am not regretting my decision. The pool we stayed in Baltimore for one night had an indoor pool. The Airbnb condo in San Diego had two outdoor pools and a jacuzzi. We spent one day at a water park (Aquatica), one day at a beach, and they was a water park within Legoland. Next week we are going to Sesame Place, which also has a lot of water slides. We plan to spend a week on Long Island in July - which means trips to my aunt's indoor and outdoor pools and her cabana at the beach. The kids can swim every day (weather permitting) during horseback riding camp the last week of June. They can swim one day at Camp Good News. Nadia and Ian can swim every day (if they

want to) at Camp Susque. I have signed Oliver up for one more week of swimming lessons (in August) and Nadia for a week of diving lessons (also in August). I think they'll have plenty of chances to go swimming this summer even though we don't currently belong to a pool. Yesterday we were able to get in free to a pool 15 minutes from our house because the library was having a pool party there. The air temperature was a lot warmer than it was most of the days we were in San Diego (low 80's) but the water temperature was FRIGID as in much colder than any water we encountered in San Diego. We had planned to stay at the pool for two hours, but we only stayed for one because it was so cold. I had my suit on and planned to swim, but I changed my mind after stepping in the water. The kids did get eventually jump in completely, but they were cold!

The kids slept in again yesterday morning. I expected them to sleep in on Thursday morning because we had gotten so little sleep on Tuesday night, but I wasn't expecting them to get so much sleep two nights in a row.

Oliver went to bed at 8:00 on Thursday night, and Nadia and Ian went to bed at 9:00. It was almost 9:00am before the boys woke up! Nadia woke up around 8:30. I guess switching back from PST to EST has helped Ian out as he usually wakes up by 6:30am. Not counting Paul, I was up first, and when I came down I discovered the neighbor who has what is always by far my favorite yard sale of the year was having her yard sale yesterday and today. Usually we are down there before 8:00 the first day of the sale, but I didn't have the heart to wake the kids up. We arrived around 9:00 and I spent about 45 minutes going through the clothing and shoes. Most things were $1 each.  A few things were cheaper (as low as 25 cents) and a couple of winter coats went for somewhere between $3-5 each. Altogether I spent $76.25 which means I bought a LOT of stuff. There was one coat I didn't get. I went home and checked to see if I had one in that size for the boys, went back to buy it, but someone had already bought it before I returned. After the kids ate a really late breakfast (9:45!) we put away all their new

clothing (some in their dressers and some in the closet for future seasons/years). They played for awhile and then we headed to the town park for the Kids' Café.

I have seen the Kids' Café advertised the last five years, but we never visited it. This is their sixth year of providing free lunches for kids (ages 0-18) Monday through Friday during the summer (every day except July 4). It's a ministry of the Methodist church in our town and they partner with other individuals, companies, and local organizations to make it possible. The kids had received free lunches in previous summers at a splash pad in another town, and I assumed the lunches would be similar to what they received there (sandwich, vegetable, milk, etc.). When I read the library's newsletter this week and the librarian was mentioning the burgers from the grill at the Kids' Café on Monday I realized I had been wrong in my perception of the meals served at the park. I toyed with taking the kids on Thursday, but I just wanted to stay home ALL day that day. So yesterday I told the

kids we'd check it out, and if they wanted to have lunch at home that was fine. Well they were serving pizza from Ciro's (the place we usually get our pizza from in this town), watermelon, yogurt, apples, and applesauce with milk to drink. The kids enjoyed the food and playing on the playground before we went grocery shopping (the park is right behind the grocery store). We won't go regularly due to the kids being in camps so many weeks, but I'm sure it won't be our last visit this summer. They gave a schedule highlighting some of the special meals and activities for the month of June.

After the pool party we made our first trip to the library in more than two weeks. Nadia didn't want to wait until today to go because she was *dying* to see Paddington 2. So we got some books and dvds, came home, had dinner, and watched Paddington 2. I had two things on our agenda for today but since we ended up being out and about so much yesterday, I scratched the art project at the Children's Museum off the schedule. The only place we are

planning to go today is a 90 minute Pond Critters class at the Montour Preserve (about 15 minutes from our house). I also need to plan my lesson for tomorrow as I'm teaching the Bible story twice most weeks this summer during the second service (once for K-2 and another time for grades 3-5).

The pictures in this post are from our trip to San Diego Zoo last Wednesday. Some of the favorite animals from that day were the panda bears, African penguins, koala bears, meerkats, and primates. We all rode the bus tour, but beyond that we traveled on foot because Paul's parents had rented motorized wheelchairs and that meant we couldn't ride the sky tram, kangaroo bus, etc. We did all ride an elevator together. At the very end of the day we split up, and two of the kids did go on an escalator with me. We did a lot of walking on this vacation! I was impressed with Oliver's ability to keep up at the age of five. It wasn't that long ago when he was still riding around in a stroller at places like this!