>Bee and Frankie are wrapping up Level 1 swimming this week. They both can swim now! Its more like an underwater doggy paddle, but they can go a few meters, and have much more confidence in the water. Actually you have to keep your eye on Frankie because she will just paddle out to the deep end before she realizes what she has done! Their swimming teacher gave the kids a choice of going down the slide into the deep end without life jackets and both girls ran straight up to the slide. Here they are sliding down. Bee swims back to the side by herself with her teacher next to her. Frankie gets a little help. Its on to level 2!

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the girls were playing with chalk in the driveway, and i saw that this picture. it looks like a segment in the periodic table of the elements, but it also spelled “I hope”. Anyhow, I thought that was kind of cool. When I asked them about it Bee said it said it was part of her hopscotch maze and it really said “I hop.” Still i like it.

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Here is our raspberry bush. We better get out and pick the raspberries before the critters (aka cho) get them!

>We visited the Capitol Building today. Here you can see the future Speakers of the House, and of course the expert testifying at the Supreme Court! I dont think you can see this, but we saw a full rainbow over the capitol building this morning, which is what led to our impromptu visit. As soon as we walked into the rotunda Bee says, “wow, this place is so clean! Does the governor clean it herself or does she get some help?” ha ha.

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I had a group of kids at a bike awareness talk today… and they showed this video. It fooled me. You see what you look for i guess!

>We had dentists appointments followed by swimming lessons yesterday afternoon. Anyhow, when we were waiting for Frankie’s turn to finish up at the dentist, Bee asked me if i ever took swimming lessons as a kid so I said yes! Then she asked me what level i got to and I told her that i got through all the levels and became a lifeguard at the pool when i was in college. She then asked me if i was also a dentist in college. ha ha. In case you are wondering, no cavities! Here are the girls at swimming!

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Bee and i did a taste test this morning. We closed our eyes and tried berries from the garden and from the store. Here is what Bee reported: “Strawberry A is jucier and yummier” and “strawberry B tastes OK but not as good.” And now, the answer….

Strawberry A: our garden
Strawberry B: store

YAH!!!!!!!

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It’s the Beech St Unicorns versus the Bull Creek Koompas! The Unicorns won by a score of 4 – 3. It was a nail biter. The Bull Creek Koompa’s kept getting called on charges because Cho Cho kept eating the ball.

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So 3 years ago we planted strawberries. The first year we had abut 2 or 3 strawberries. Last year we dont really know how many made it to the juicy red stage because we were in scotland. this year we have probably over 100 that are good or getting reading for the picking. Still, we have more that have been eaten by birds, critters or dogs, and so we’re not sure it’s worth the garden space. But for now we are enjoying those we have picked for the family. We still have a ton more to ripen… and they look like they will be ready in the next few days! Here are some we are enjoying today!