Violet SWIMS!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I proudly present, Violet the SWIMMER!!!!!

That's right, our little one who refused to leave the step a month ago, now can swim across our pool.

She had six private half-hour lessons with a swim teacher named Nicole, and by about half-way through was swimming on her own.

At the beginning, Violet said "no" or screamed about everything Nicole asked, but Violet would then give it a try. Nicole was great with her - encouraging and friendly, but firm as well.

We are all so proud of Violet, who calls herself the "purple fishy," because her name means purple. When we go to the pool now, she wants to practice swimming all the time.

Here are a couple of videos from her final lesson on Thursday - even in the deep end!

 In other news this week, I came home from a weekend morning walk to this stunning pancake breakfast, complete with a strawberry cut into a flower, and mint leaves.

On Wednesday, we met up with Colleen, Lucas and Liana at Newhall Park. Miss Diane was teaching summer camp there, so we got to catch up with her, too.

 As it quickly got too hot to play outside, we headed over to McDonalds for lunch, so the children could use the play area.

Then, I encouraged Colleen to leave her kids with me for a couple of hours so she could get some shopping done. Meanwhile, I could do housework and blogging while the children played happily.

We also had a couple of swimming playdates this week, including one with Cami here, and another at Emily, Charlie and Tommy's house.

This was our last open week of summer break, hence the rush to fit in as many playdates as we could. Next week, the girls will be in camp in the afternoons.