what a week

Like most weeks, the first week of summer has had its ups and downs. The highlights for the girls have definitely been our "Summer School" program and swimming lessons. And for Tom and me, it was not having to spend all day today in the yard!

I've been so surprised at how much the girls are loving planning the week, being involved with errands and shopping, working in their workbooks and having reading time. In fact, they are begging me almost everyday to be able to do their workbooks (we'll see how long that lasts...). It's nice to have something for them to look forward to, to keep them busy and to work on together. We also did our first scrapbook layouts in their summer memory books and they turned out so cute! We printed a picture that highlighted their favorite thing from the week, Ella wrote about it, I wrote Ava's and they decorated them with stickers. Such a fun activity--might as well start them early in my favorite hobby!

So, what, are you asking, did they do their layouts about? Swimming lessons, of course! They both loved going to their daily lessons at North Davis Gymnastics. Ella's teacher was Natalie and Ava's was Sarah. They both were little fish in the water, jumping right in without any hesitation and being game for whatever their teachers told them to do. Even though it was cold and rainy all week, they didn't seem to be bothered and just wanted to get there everyday. I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time in the water this summer.

One more highlight of the week was my visit to the doctor. I'm now almost 35 weeks and am at that point where I'm pretty ready to be done. This has not been an easy pregnancy for me--I'm definitely feeling all of my 35 years--and although I don't have everything ready for the baby, I'm seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel and can see that this will all be over soon. In fact, my doctor said she would schedule my induction for July 11th as long as there is room that day and I'm ready. Hooray! Now I've got a day on my calendar to look forward to and prepare for. So mark your calendars, one and all, because I'm getting this baby out as soon as I can!

So, we had a lot of ups this week, but we ended the week on a down. Tonight while we were eating dinner, Ava was climbing up to get into her stool, slipped, hit her chin on the corner of the countertop and split it open. She is definitely our little accident-prone child. Any freaky or weird thing that can happen will happen to her. We haven't had to go to the emergency room until now, though. All the clinics were closed so we headed to the ER for a nice family outing. Luckily, it didn't bleed much, she wasn't crying or upset and she was amazing while they were doing everything. We couldn't believe it! I definitely expected a horrible, screaming, thrashing situation, but she was calm, happy, singing, cooperative and, believe it or not, actually fell asleep while she was being stitched up! Amazing. What a cutie. One funny thing about it all was that the ER doctor who was there was Matt Pollard, a friend that I've known since elementary school. So, all in all, it wasn't how we would have chosen to spend our Saturday night, but it turned out the best it could have. Oh, and Tom even got another tree in the ground after we got back (a darling little weeping cherry for the front)--only 4 left to plant! I guess we ended on a high note after all!