Pre Swim Team

Madelyn was on the pre swim team at our pool this summer. The goal of the pre swim team is to teach the kids freestyle and backstroke so that they can swim the length of the pool without being disqualified.  Madelyn LOVED being on the team and adored all of the coaches.  Along with becoming a stronger swimmer, the pre swim team was good socially as well. She met a bunch of kids that are going to be starting Kindergarten at Short Pump this Fall and met several girls who are going to be in her Daisy Girl Scout Troop.  By the end of the season, she accomplished her goal and can now swim the length of the pool in freestyle and is all set to be on the swim team next year.  We are so proud of you Madelyn!

Our little swimmer!

Working on her freestyle with Coach Kasey!

Getting donuts with some of the pre swim team to celebrate the last day of practice!

Busytown

Nana took the girls to see "Busytown" today at Theatre IV.  She has made it a tradition to take all the grandkids (those old enough) to see most of the plays at the children's theatre and has been getting front row seats which makes it even better!  The girls love going to plays and have started quite the collection of playbills over the last several years.  They love this special time with their Nana!

 

Water Country USA

Yesterday, Bill took the day off from work and we drove to Water Country USA for the day with Aunt Amy, Cora and our neighbors.  This year the Busch Gardens Preschool pass included Water Country  so we figured it is the perfect year to check out the park.  The girls absolutely loved Water Country but it is definitely a lot more exhausting then Busch Gardens and would be hard to do most of the rides without extra adults  Everyone loved the water slides, wave pool, and my favorite was Hubba Hubba Highway.   Ellie wanted nothing to do with the small slides but loved all the big rides. She is our daredevil.   Madelyn's went on all the rides and liked them but her favorite is the wave pool.   It was a long day (we stayed for almost 8 hours) but a ton of fun and we hope to go again sometime.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to take many pictures at Water County because we did not carry our phones around. However, we were able to take a couple cute pics of all the kids at the beginning of the day:

Happy Birthday Nana!

Last Saturday, we celebrated Nana's birthday at the Nolan's house.  It was a beautiful night for a cookout and homemade ice cream.  The kids had a great time playing together and the food was delicious.   It was also Uncle Harold's birthday so they came by at the end for some cake and ice cream!  Here are some photos from our evening:

The kids LOVE Pop's homemade ice cream!

Vacation Bible School

Last week we were busy with Vacation Bible School at our church.  This year was a country western theme so we sang country songs and talked about cowboys, the wild west and of course Jesus. This is the second year that the girls have attended and I volunteered for the entire week.  It's one of the busiest but most fun weeks of our summer.  This year, I volunteered to help teach the preschool class with Ellie and Cora and Madelyn moved up to the big kid Kindergarten class.  Ellie and Cora enjoyed being with me every day with songs, arts and crafts, play time, stores and games.  Madelyn LOVED VBS and got so much out of it this year.  She came home taking non-stop about her day and what she learned and was very eager to go back the next day.  She especially loved her teen helper and thought that Sarah was the coolest 11-year old in the world!  Here are some pics from our fun week of VBS:

Cora and Ellie in their classroom

Ellie ready for Madelyn's End of Bible School show!

Ellie and Cora singing for the parents at their end of VBS show!

Best buds!

Kensey, Kelsey and Madelyn at their show!

What a fun week at VBS!

Fourth of July Weekend

We had a fun filled Fourth of July weekend.  The fun started on Wednesday evening at the Genworth Fireworks with lots of friends and family.  After inches of rain during the afternoon, the skies surprisingly cleared up and we were able to enjoy the band and fireworks.  The girls had a great time jumping in the bounce house, eating ice cream and hanging out with friends.  Despite getting a little muddy and wet, we had an awesome time!  On Thursday, we went to the pool for the annual July 4th Celebration.  It was crowded but a lot of fun.  The kids swam for almost 6 hours so they were exhausted when we got home! The rest of the day was low key with some fun little fireworks with our next door neighbors after dinner.  The weekend ended with a visit from the Richter family on their way to South Carolina to live. We really enjoyed their visit and are so excited they are going to be a little bit closer to visit and we can now travel south more than north on 95. Now we just need to work on Grandpa and Vera to move South!  Here are some photos from our weekend:

Ellie and her little boyfriend Bobby!

Nothing better than ice cream on Fourth of July!

My Patriotic Girls

Love Cora's headband!

Ready for the fun to begin!

Nana and Pop also came to watch the fireworks!

Madelyn and Kelsey

Kayla, Madelyn and Kelsey

Uncle Sam's lap is always a popular spot!

Joshua loved watching his first fireworks!

Watching the fireworks!

Love my little Ellie!

Madelyn in the middle of one of the pool games on July 4th!

She was so happy she found a fish during one of the games!

Very tired girls after spending almost the entire day at the pool on July 4th!

So much fun spending time with the Richter family!

Our Second Home

Here are some photos I took this past weekend and today. It's kind of embarrassing because every picture was taken at our pool.  We obviously spend a lot of time swimming during the summer.  It's our home away from home and it's a big social outlet for us during the day so that's where we end up most of the time!


I usually keep Friday afternoons and evening open during the summer.  During June, we have Friday Grill Night sponsored by the swim team and we always meet up with friends for dinner.  We love our Friday nights at the pool!

Some of our Friday night pool friends!

Fun with the Moore boys.  This was the start of a REALLY fun and late Saturday night...we are still recovering from this evening!

Ring Around The Rosy with friends!

So fun to spend the day with my JMU friend Kate and her kids who were visiting from NH.  Everyone had a great day together!  It's hard to tell but it is pouring down rain in the background.  Ellie was freaking out about the rain so she would not get in the photo.