July Heat

Swim lessons are over (phew!), but everyone seemed to make big strides. Pearl gained strength in her strokes, and she can now do a bit of a back stroke. Sapphire splashed and hopped, loving her teachers. They often had to hold her during the circling since she was the shortest in her class.

Ruby and I had a nice weekend together alone at the house, so we picked blueberries in the cool of Saturday morning. She is a great little helper with this as with other things. She moved my buckets around for me to speed my picking.






Sapphire enjoyed some alone time with adults too when she accompanied my mom and sister to the farm to visit her great-grandma. Then, a few days later, she got to go to her beloved Miss Darlene's house for a day of baking and other-people's-toys.

Miss Darlene knows that if Sapphire naps, even for five minutes, she'll be up until after 10pm, so she tried to keep her awake on the drowsy drive home. From the back seat a  sleepy Sapphire had just enough energy to suggest "Give... me.... your... phone...."  She has a few favorite games, and that woke her back up.


With Sapphire busy and Ruby bonding with Daddy, Pearl and I enjoyed a day out together.  I realized she really values mommy-daughter days when she prayed about it over our Chinese buffet lunch. She dictated the day, so we hit the playground despite the smashing heat so that she could practice her skills at the monkey bars. She loves them, she tells me. We enjoyed her favorite 'Chinese chicken' then visited Tia, a 4-H friend, who guided us through the art of quilling. We all quilled for 2.5 hours!

If you don't know, quilling happens when you tightly twist thin strips of paper around a tool, then use the spirals of paper to create pictures. We mostly stuck to bugs and flowers, but Pearl tried a food collection too, as seen below. 




Our week also included a long afternoon at the new borough Splash Park with some friends. We splashed, then crafted in the library for an hour.  I keep suggesting to the girls that we go back and kick this heat wave, but they are too busy playing.

We are very much looking forward to our church picnic on Sunday and a visit to family in western PA next week.