a few things we did this long labor day weekend

We...

...ate pears while standing next to a giant pear, wearing pear green.

...made lots and lots of cute baby shower invitations. Lots of them. And...

...watched a gusher of a thunderstorm dump inches of rain and even dime-sized hail.

copycat post

I'm following La Vida Dulce's lead, and composing a random post today.

• I love how the girls find a toy and just play and play and play with it. Right now it's the cash register. They've been playing store for an hour now. I love how amazingly polite they are to each other while playing this game. "How may I help you today?" "Thank you!" "Have a nice day" over and over again, yet some days, it is all I can do to beg them to be civil to one another.
• Ingrid and Ilsa finished their first swimming lesson session on Thursday; the session concluded with "safety day" -- how to safely attempt to help a friend in the pool who has gotten themselves in trouble, what to do when you are wearing a life jacket, how to get help quickly. Ingrid was the only "little" girl (under the age about 8) to volunteer to be capsized in a mini boat. She did very well! The pinnacle was the chance to take trips down the big curly-q slide and jump off of the diving board. Both girls went down the slide with gusto, and Ingrid had no fear of the diving board. Ilsa didn't want to do the diving board, but that's okay, she's only 3 1/2 after all. BUT....there were two other little girls in their class who were indecisive about attempting either. I'm not judging that fear whatsoever, BUT both the teacher and their Mom just let them stand there, hem and haw for at least 5 minutes each time. That's a total of 20 minutes that the other kids couldn't use either. The teacher was sooooo encouraging, but at what point should he have stopped and said, "You know Lulabelle (not her name obviously), why don't you try this another day." Ditto to the Mom. I'm a patient woman, but my patience was wearing thin. This was the only place that the girls could do this. They aren't allowed to go "tandem" at the Base pool, nor are they allowed to be caught at the bottom of the Base slide or diving board. What would you have done?
  
• Anyone out there read the Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker (individually known as Black, Red and White)? Weird -- VERY weird. But strangely, I can't put the book down. I'm reading for book club, and I just can't think of anything "meaningful" or "smart-sounding" to say about the book...purely entertainment. I guess that's okay!
  

star wars trilogy abridged to 2 1/2 minutes

This is so funny...this girl has never seen Star Wars and thinks she can explain the Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in 2 1/2 minutes.



Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.