52 months

Summer, summer, summertime crept up on us, the first half of the year flew by (we had a lot going on) and it's like we blinked and it was June! The plan for the summer was to hang out and relax, I didn't bother signing them up for any camps and figured camp mom (and Nana) would be more fun. The days we didn't have to get up early for an outing and got to stay in PJs till noon were great! While the girls liked going out for activities they were just as happy staying home and playing in the pools (ours and the community one). Their little imaginations run wild when they are in the pool, they even make playing with rocks seem like fun! Swimming with friends is always more fun, unless it is an odd number and someone gets left out, so we had lots of play dates at the "big pool". They also enjoyed the Kona Ice truck coming into the neighborhood on Tuesday nights and getting their treat, they have a hard time remembering what day it is (me too) but always seem to know when it is Tuesday (another excuse to go to the pool)!

Swimming lessons at the YMCA were short lived. After a hot mess of a first lesson, and not giving C the opportunity to show them what she could do I pulled them and "Swim School Mom" was back open for the summer. I was really hoping for someone else to teach the girls but surprisingly enough when it is "lesson" time they actually listen and do as I say, C is better at listening than J, she takes it quite seriously. After a little refresher the mermaid in this one was back! She learned her "freestyle" arms all in one day and got them out of the water almost from the start. I love to watch her swim and use her arms, you can totally tell she concentrates on what she does and tries to make each stroke as perfect as she can. With the help of her sister (and the zero entry at the community pool) she taught herself to dive and get the rings, at first she was having trouble getting down and had to do a lot of kicking, she slowly got better and was able to go a little deeper about mid-pool. She isn't a fan of floating on her back but it trying her best to float, she says the water tickles in her ears. If she can learn to float and roll to her back while swimming this summer I will be a happy mama! She loves the water and always wants to swim, maybe she really is a mermaid?

Cousin B came and spent a week with us this month! While he was here we had a full week of fun which included lots and lots of swimming in ours and the community pools (and movies when it rained). We went to circus day at the mall where the kids got popcorn, balloon animals, learned how to juggle and spin frisbees and watched the summer kids circus troop perform a few acts, it was just enough fun for one morning for these kids, followed by lunch at Chick-fil-A. We had a fun week despite B wanting to play more with J than C which led to many meltdowns from C, thank goodness her BFF was still here for her to play with and divert her tantrums (yes we are still dealing with those and her grouchiness)!

When we weren't out of town or busy with cousins we spent lots of time with C's bestie (and her mom and sister) before they moved to Virginia. They were two peas in a pod this last school year and spent a lot of time together outside of school, it was easier to have the girls together than apart on non-school days, they would play for hours and not fight, amazing! Their friendship at three and four years old seemed like a lifetime of friendship and it broke my heart knowing their time together was coming to an end. We soaked up all we could in the weeks leading up to their move, we swam (a lot), had Chick-fil-A and ice cream dates, went to the mall for Moana day, played  and dressed up at home and the girls even had their first sleepover, and they actually slept! The day we had to say goodbye I cried, not sure the girls knew exactly what was going to happen, play dates will now have to be via Facetime, maybe a trip to Virginia will be in our future (well until we can get them back to Florida!).

World Cup started this month and the girls got into cheering Brasil on, C mainly played during the games and occasionally shouted at the TV. For the life of her she would not wear her Brasil shirt and her navy blue pineapple dress became her game day attire since it was the right colors, she basically lived in this dress for a month (and I'm surprised she didn't make me find something for her Cabbage Patch to wear)! She only got into the game when Brasil won and we were at G&G's house and she got to play with the vuvuzela's and drive mom crazy! We are going to try soccer again this fall, well as long as daddy coaches she said! We spent Father's Day at home watching Brasil's first World Cup game, the girls got him a new Brasil shirt, and then spend the rest of the afternoon BBQing and hanging out in the pool. We checked out the South Florida Museum one day when they had their free day, the girls enjoyed seeing the manatees and learning about them and the show in the planetarium, it was something fun to do but not a place I would go back to and pay the admission they charge, we'll go again on free day next year! Not sure what was into C and her interest in the dinosaur, I think she just wanted a silly picture!

Here are the pictures from the month.