Elephants Never Forget...But I Do!: Achievements

The past month has been so full of achievements for this family! To begin we had ballet recitals.

Both of our dancers did a wonderful job. I was so proud of them both. Duchess did great- she had a beautiful smile on her face and followed along with her teacher and barely missed a move.

Bubba did wonderful as well. He had a short solo in the beginning and had partnering moves with each girl in the class. Miss Amanda even recognized him to whole audience after the recital was complete. He was very proud of himself for overcoming his fear! He told me he said a prayer before dancing to help him be brave- love him!

I got to take a trip without kids! I went to New York state for my brother's Change of Command ceremony as he took command of a Marine Reserve unit. It was very impressive. I have never seen a military ceremony with all the Marine on line and such.

I got to sit in the cockpit- wow there are a lot of buttons, switches and dials up there! Be impressed by anyone you know who can fly a plane.

He has his name on a plane and everything :-)

Mike's family was there and my mother and other two brothers. Mom and I got to spend some girl time together.. There was an outlet mall near by that was very nice and mother kindly bought me some new summer clothes. We also got to eat Friendly's ice cream! LOVE that Reece's Peanut Butter Sundae, takes me back to my childhood...

We watched William and Dillon one night while Mike and Sara were at a reception and Scott and I took them swimming.

I almost didn't get home in time for Bubba's birthday... My flight out of New York was cancelled because of weather. Mom was driving to see my Aunt Pat outside of Hartford the same night I was leaving, so I was able to get my flight changed to leave from Hartford. We jumped in the car, drove the 1 1/2 hours to Hartford, I jumped on a plane and got back to Dallas at about 1 AM. Sooooo worth it in the morning when Bubba came in and woke me up and said "I knew you would make it home in time for my birthday, Mom!" in the sweetest voice ever.

This was the first time Bubba's real birthday fell during the school year so we had to make it special. We all went up to school and ate lunch on the stage. A teacher had the whole cafeteria sing Happy Birthday to him!

Later I took cupcakes to his class and they sang again!

And of course we celebrated at home. His choice for dinner? Shrimp tacos. A birthday post will come.

Since Duch's birthday is in the summer we did cupcakes for her the last week as well.

A big achievement is finishing school! Duchess loved Kindergarten and is looking forward to 1st grade. How is it possible that Bubba is going into 3rd grade??? I have the summer to get used to it, I guess.

Bubba started out the summer with Cub Scout Twilight Camp. I went one evening and it was very pleasant weather. It was fun to see how far he has come since last year as far as his skills. He is quite the archer, if I must say so myself!

We have spent much of the first weeks of summer in the water. We have played at home in a kiddie pool, a slip and slide, and water fights. We have been to the Splash Park a few times as well. Bubba has been swimming at a friends house 3 or 4 times. We have been swimming at Miss Linda's pool and with friends at the KC pool. The big kids started swimming lessons last week and are doing great. Bubba is doing a petty good forward crawl and learning the breast stroke. He can do handstands and is working on somersaults. Duch is getting closer to a forward crawl and is jumping off the side, putting her face in the water and learning the breaststroke and to tread water. Huck is the big surprise. In his life jacket he is swimming on his own, with me right there of course. He floats by himself and makes doggy paddle-type motions saying "kick, kick, kick, scoop, scoop, scoop." He tries to swim for toys and jumps off the side from a sitting position.
We are still on the waiting list for the KC pool. After 4 years we were #401 this Spring... Maybe nest year. In the mean time we joined the J (Jewish Community Center.) They have a nice outdoor pool and an indoor warm water pool as well. The outdoor kiddie pool is pretty small, but the indoor pool has a nice beach entry kiddie area that Huck loves. So far it sees like a pretty diverse crowd there. Tons of summer campers during the week days which makes the water crowded. On the way home the other day Bubba said, "Mom, the J is just fine. Let's not worry about joining the KC at all." Until I reminded him that many of his friends go the KC, then he backpedaled a little bit. But I am glad they are enjoying it so much.