She's My Fish

All the kids have been excited for swim lessons but no one as much as Erin. Her lessons started at 9:40 and she was in my room waking me up at 7:30 dressed in her bathing suit ready to go, everyday for four weeks! She has no fear of anything and loves, loves to swim. She passed two levels and was sad the last day had arrived. Here are some of the things she learned....

Always the first one in the group to jump in the water no matter how cold it might be! When she moved up to the next level they hold class in the 3 foot section where she can't really touch. That didn't bother her a bit! When they had to practice getting diving rings it became a challenge for her to get her lightweight body down far enough to reach the bottom of the pool. Her teachers were so good to her and helped her out taking her around the pool to look for rings and then helping her get down to get them.

Elementary backstroke, chicken..

Eagle...

Snake...

She does a mean backstroke!

She dives

She slides

She jumps. All while holding her little nose! She is not about letting water get up her nose and ruin her fun! I am missing the mornings at the pool watching her have such a good time. She is having so much fun when we go to the pool since she can keep up with all of her sisters friends. What an awesome summer she has had!

American Girl Doll Camp

Emma and Lindy with the "Cardinals" group.

American Girl Doll Camp has lasted all week and what fun it has been! The best part was seeing Lindy and Paige organize, set up, and get creative with the activities. I tried to stay out of the planning as much as possible (can be hard for me to do!) and just get them started and give them some ideas to get started with.

Paige chose to name their camp Camp Gowonagin after Molly's camp. She made the welcoming sign that hung at the top of the stairs leading to the loft where camp took place. The girls incorporated many of the ideas from their Girl Scout camp experiences.

Twelve dolls attended and we had seven little girls managing their camp group of dolls. Paige divided the dolls into three groups of four and named them the Blue Jays, the Cardinals, and the Robins. The first day each group made a camp flag and decorated it to take to the flag ceremony.

Stations were set up and the groups rotated through crafts, snacks, swimming, camp songs, horseback riding, bike riding, ice and roller skating, nature walks, and gymnastics.

Tonight is the big sleepover. The girls are making smores and then making mini smores for their dolls. We have camp pictures to pass out and all the dolls are sleeping together. More pictures to follow later!

Grace and Paige with the "Robins".

Erin, Rachel, and Julia with the "Blue Jays".

Taken straight from Girl Scout Camp, the girls created "Singing Trees" where the girls gather to learn camp songs each day. 

The girls took their dolls on nature walks each day complete with guide books and magnifying glass!

A makeshift swimming pool, a box covered in dark blue wrapping paper. By day 3 they had rigged a diving board too.

Icecream cones on bugles!

Love this, the girls put all their dolls in a group to play a card game.

Another snack, red M&M's with chocolate made to look like ladybugs.

Can you tell that I have as much fun as the girls?!

Lazy Summer Days

We are deep into our summer and the title says lazy days but that is strictly from a kid point of view because my days have not been lazy enough. Not to worry something is going to be done about that in the near future! We have spent many days hanging at the pool and last week we had a great time with all of our neighbor friends.

What to do to get away from all the GIRLS!

We're missing a few here but what a fun bunch they are!

No Fear

Erin is unlike any of the other Millers. She is always ready to jump right into anything, literally! She had no trouble passing her swim class and moving up to the next level, the girl is a fish. Fear of jumping off the diving board often held some of the others back but not Erin. She loves it and it shows!

A Happy Fourth

I am getting ready to start a huge blog post catch up. We have been so busy I have not had time to post pictures for weeks. We had a nice and relaxing July 4th weekend. Kyle and Bill got home from camp that Saturday and we had company for the weekend. Ethan was a bit under the weather so he missed some of the activities which he was pretty disappointed but he hung in there for the parade. Aunt Cyndi brought really cool, huge sparklers with her and the kids had a great time with those. The highlight of the weekend was having our cousins stay with us. It was one huge sleepover everynight!

Our dear family friend, Rachel, joined us at the parade. The heat didn't bother her a bit, she had a great time catching candy. Please pray for Rachel's mama, she is very, very, ill with cancer.

Paige still covers her ears from the fire truck sirens, I have pictures of her like this when she was two!

Alec is so serious about his candy!

I love this picture of Kyle and Lindy.

Ethan missed the Bexley parade so he missed our annual picture, not quite the same without him.

Ahoy! The High Seas Adventure

The only thing missing here is Kyle!

Vacation Bible School is nothing like the kind I attended as a kid. It is amazing to see all the things that the kids do each day. Games, crafts, singing, bible lessons, drama, snacks, and the list goes on. It is one of our kids favorite weeks of the summer. Ethan could not bear to miss it and go to Boy Scout camp. He has been waiting forever to be in the older kid group. They have a different program with service projects and cool things like tye dyeing t-shirts. He did not want to miss and as much fun as Kyle is having at camp, he is sad to miss this week as well. He is old enough to be a leader or work a station. We are hoping for no conflict next summer, hoping my connection with the new Scout Master will make that happen. We had a record year in attendance of 372 kids and 64 of them were Preschoolers which is where I have been all week. I am looking forward to a break this weekend. Have to get ready for my Brownie troops sleep out in my backyard Tuesday night. And the summer keeps on going...

I love Ethan's shirt! I have never gotten a tye dye shirt to turn out so cool!

Girl Scout Camp

It's that time of year again, camp! We are a very lucky Girl Scout group. Our service unit sponsors it's own day camp right here in Pickerington. Each year for a week in June, the Pickerington Girl Scouts have run of the local park and it is transformed into a day camp. We have fun filled days with crafts, camp songs, games, cooking, creeking, hiking, and so much fun. The days are long, we leave at 8:15 and don't get home until 3:45 , and the days are hot and very humid. But any other way would not be camp!

This year was Erin's first year. She is not an official Girl Scout since she doesn't start Daisies until this fall but we were able to bump her up to the first unit so she can have full participation. To say she was excited would be an understatement. The picture above is her backpack, hat, and shoes waiting by the door. After the first day when she went to bed she said she could hardly wait to go back. What an awesome way to spend your summer when you are five. She feels so grown up!

Lindy and Paige are in my unit along with some of the girls from our troop. They were excited to see many of the girls they met last year who returned along with our helpers. Our theme this year is the Olympics, Silver and Gold Games, each day at the end of camp we have the entire camp of girls compete in a fun game. Yesterday was a spoon/egg race and today was a sponge contest to see which team could fill a sponge with water and squeeze the most water into a bucket. For an added treat today the Fire Department stopped by with their hose and soaked all the girls. Erin and Paige were drenched and Lindy was a bit more timid. Erin came and pulled her into the water and got her soaked as well.

We are tired when we get home but what a great summer, they are making so many memories! Tomorrow is cooking day which is always a high light of the week. More fun pictures to follow....